Illinois women celebrate Senior Day

After three weeks of competing on the road, the Illini return to Huff Hall on Saturday for their final home meet of the season. No. 24 Illinois (6-4, 1-1) will face Big Ten rival No. 26 Michigan State (11-5, 1-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday will serve as Senior Day for Emily Earle and co-captain Katie Wild.

The Illini are coming off of a 193.375-192.875 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes last weekend, while the Spartans are coming off a season-high score as they defeated Northern Illinois 196.250-194.800.

“We had a little bit of a dip last weekend,” head coach Bob Starkell said. “We’d like to try to get back to the form we had the weekend before.”

Starkell said he is adjusting the lineup because sophomores Michelle McGrady and Krystal Melcarek are being rested due to injuries. However, Starkell said Melcarek may be inserted into the rotation in a limited fashion this weekend.

“We’re going to need another two meets under our belt to figure out what our ultimate lineup is going to be,” Starkell said.

Starkell said he is not looking to the Big Ten Championships right now because he is still focused on fixing the lineup. But Wild said the Championships, which are two weeks away, are always in the back of her mind.

“I’ve been (at the Championships) and I know the intensity and the pressure,” Wild said. “I know what to expect – it’ll be my fourth one.”

Earle said she is excited for Big Tens because the team has a chance to be on the podium for the first time she has been in the program. While both seniors are looking toward the future, they realize they need to focus on the meet at hand.

“I’m hoping that everything will come together with a Big Ten school coming (to the meet),” Wild said. “We know that we need to hit – I want to end on a good note at Huff.”

Wild said she cannot believe that she has been competing at Huff Hall for four years. She said she will try not to get too emotional about the final meet on Saturday, but at the same time she needs to accept it.

Starkell said the two seniors have different personalities that have complemented each other well during the past four years. He said Wild’s finesse and her quiet personality balances Earle’s energetic and outspoken attitude.

“It’s been a good four years and I want to go out with a bang,” Earle said. “I’m really going to miss competing at Huff, the crowd and hearing people yell for us.”

Earle’s final goal for her last meet at home is to set a new high score for herself on bars, above a 9.750. Wild said she cannot put into words what she thinks she will feel on Saturday. She said she will only be able to feel what it will be like when she is in the atmosphere at Huff Hall.

“As far as this weekend goes I want to hit my routines especially since I’m home,” Wild said. “That’s the ultimate memory I want to have here – to continue performing consistently.”

With the alumni coming back, Starkell said it is a special weekend with a positive energy that will be an emotional time for the team because they know it signifies the end of the season.

“We won’t have to worry about the energy level or motivate the team beyond what we normally do,” Starkell said. “They’ll bring it in themselves.”

en hope to leave Huff Hall with win

The No.4-ranked Illinois men’s gymnastics team is peaking at just the right time. Illinois comes off last weekend’s meet against Iowa having posted the NCAA’s season-high team score of 217.600, putting to rest thoughts that it would not be able to put up the top performance that was expected of them.

The Illini will honor their senior class of Justin Spring, Adam Pummer, Ted Brown and Anthony Russo when they take on No. 12 Army at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Huff Hall.

“The four seniors competing for the last time at Huff Hall, it should be a celebration,” head coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. “But at the same time, it’s kind of sad because they won’t be back competing for us. But we’ll make it like a celebration.”

While senior Justin Spring said the actual matchup between Illinois (10-2, 7-2) and Army (7-3) is not a “big meet,” he said it will be his last time competing in the arena that he has grown to love.

“You kind of get a bond with Huff Hall, I love that place,” Spring said. “You get the crowd in there, it’s your home. I’m going to miss competing in that arena, that small setting.”

On Saturday, the Illini will be looking to take last weekend’s performance and repeat its scores from Iowa City, a feat Spring said is a big deal.

“We could totally do the same thing this weekend, maybe we will,” Spring said. “We’ve really gotten on a roll in the gym as well as in meets now. We get in there we know what we have to do, and we’re used to doing it.”

Against Iowa, Illinois had season-high scores on floor exercise (37.350), pommel horse (34.35) and high bar (37.500), along with three event title winners. The biggest thing to come from the scores was confidence.

“I feel like we’ve set a standard, and I’m pretty sure this will be our minimum,” sophomore Michael Boyer said.

The Illini’s new standard comes at a time when the team has regained its health, aside from a few nagging injuries. Hayasaki said that with the regular season nearly over, the team’s health, skills and routines are being put together at the right time.

Even the Illini’s Achilles’ heel all season, pommel horse, is starting to see a drastic change. Brown captured his second event title of the season as he won pommel horse with a season-high 9.200. Boyer, though, feels like there is still room for improvement. With only four routines hit, the Illini counted a score that could have been much higher, he said.

The parallel bar and high bar teams both benefited from Spring’s return to the Illinois lineup after sitting out the meet on Feb. 25 with shoulder pain. His two event titles led to his being named Big Ten Co-Gymnast of the Week on Wednesday. Sophomore Ross Bradley finished in second place on high bar with a career-high 9.600, while Pummer finished with a second-place 9.400 on parallel bars.

Being a consistent top gymnastics program, Pummer said other teams were waiting for the Illini to put up the type of score they did at Iowa, all season long.

“I think now that they see we’ve been putting up a full lineup, they were expecting it,” Pummer said. “They just didn’t see it coming, until it actually happened.”