For six seniors, it was the end of an era. For head coach Bob Starkell, it was a tough goodbye to his first-ever recruiting class at Illinois. For the entire women’s gymnastics team, it was the last meet – in a regional in which they were simply overmatched.

The team finished sixth out of six teams in the South Central regional on Saturday, but did not go home empty handed, as Starkell received the South Central Regional Coach of the Year Award. Assistant coach Kim Mazza also picked up the South Central Assistant Coach of the Year Award.

“It was an extreme surprise,” Starkell said. “The award is given to one person, but a lot has to do with my coaching staff, my support staff and definitely my athletes. I would never be put in this position without my athletes, so rather than a coach award, it goes to the whole team.”

The team, however, could not bring in any awards as it placed sixth with a score of 193.825. Big Ten Tournament champ Michigan advanced to nationals with a first place score of 196.600. Host Nebraska finished second with a score of 196.300, followed by Missouri (195.100), Arizona (194.700) and Arizona State (193.825).

“I felt pretty happy with our performance because we had a couple of rough spots and could have easily shut down shop after the first event,” Starkell said. “We knew that we had a tough task at hand in this regional. We had some mistakes on each event, but they rebounded and came back pretty strong after the mistakes.”

Sophomore Cara Pomeroy fell just short of her second-straight trip to nationals on bars, when her score of 9.900 was overtaken by two Michigan gymnasts on the last rotation of the day.

“She had a great routine where I couldn’t really find any deductions,” Starkell said. “Cara couldn’t really do anything more. Bars was our second-to-last event, so we thought it would stand, but Michigan has a great bar team. She got beat by an Olympian and a three-time Big Ten bar champion.”

The team started out on floor after a bye, and some uncharacteristic mistakes placed them with the sixth-best team score of 48.550. Red shirt senior co-captain Kara Kapernekas led the Illini on the event with a score of 9.800.

“We warmed up really well, and they might have been too hyped up,” Starkell said. “We had two girls go out of bounds, which we haven’t had that all year. As a coach you don’t feel too bad, though, because they were being aggressive and doing everything in their power to do well.”

The team recovered on vault, finishing with the fourth-best score of 48.275. Sophomore Danye Botterman led the team with a score of 9.775.

“I was impressed with vault the most, because the first person on vault fell,” Starkell said. “That girl goes first because she hits all the time, and it could have had a snowball effect on the team. But the rest of the ladies hit all their vaults.”

After another bye, the team struggled on bars even with Pomeroy’s stellar routine finishing with the sixth-best score of 48.500.

“We could have done a better job on bars,” Starkell said. “They might have tried to do too much and ended up being a little bit more conservative and tighter than they should have been.”

Beam rounded out the competition for the Illini and finished strong with the fourth-best score of 48.550. Pomeroy finished fourth overall on the event with a score of 9.800.

“Beam, I consider our highlight,” Starkell said. “It was our last event, and there was a lot of pressure for the individuals to stay on. Our last competitor fell on something that I haven’t seen from her all year long, so it was probably just due to putting too much pressure on themselves.”

While the finish wasn’t that unexpected for the Illini, it was the uncharacteristic mistakes that were surprising.

“As a six-seed, you have an understanding that you’re an underdog, you come in with a lot of pressure realizing it probably is your last meet.” Starkell said. “All in all, it really was a good weekend. Could we have done better? Sure, but we could have done a whole lot worse considering the environment.”

Overall, this was still the first time in five years that the team had been to regionals in back-to-back years. Also, the season garnered national attention for the program with Starkell being recognized as the Big Ten and the South Central Coach of the Year.

“The quality of what these athletes have done from where they started to what they’ve done now has been incredible,” Starkell said. “This group is really the first group that I recruited when I became head coach, so it’s a neat feeling. But I feel emotional for this group because they were that first class that went with me. They basically said that even though you’re a new coach, we can see good things happening in the future.”