It might be a loss, but head coach Bob Starkell has other things on his mind after No. 19 Illinois dropped its season-opening meet to the No. 17-ranked Ohio State.

“I don’t even know if losing is the biggest issue right now,” Starkell said. “We’ve got a couple of individuals that just had a rough day and it affected the team score at the end. I guess we’re just trying to figure out where to go this week, so next week it doesn’t happen to us again.”

Heading into the final rotation of the meet, the Illini were ahead of the Buckeyes 144.975-144.825. Ohio State’s 48.625-point performance in the last rotation on the balance beam, coupled with Illinois’ 48.150 score in the floor exercise, secured the Buckeye victory.

The Illini had trouble with the beam last week at Alabama and did so again this week, posting their lowest event score of 48.100 on the apparatus.

“Our goal each weekend is obviously not to count a major mistake that takes points off of our team score,” Starkell said. “Having (a mistake) on balance beam and one on floor, a big event, that definitely took us out. Ohio State didn’t have to count a major mistake, that is kind of where we lost the race. We probably could have pulled it out there if we would have had one less (mistake).”

Freshman Allison Buckley showed off her ability early and often, winning the vault and floor events and taking the all-around competition title. It was an emotional day for Buckley in her first home meet, having performed well as an individual but suffering a team loss.

“I was very happy with my day and myself,” Buckley said. “I would have rather had a team win, but we just couldn’t hit our last event.”

The Illini beat Ohio State last year in Champaign, but weren’t able to repeat the performance Saturday. Sophomore Nicole Cowart was upset that the Illini dropped the meet and understands what this could mean in the future for the team.

“It hurts a lot, it’s like a slap in the face,” Cowart said. “They came into our domain and beat us at a home meet. It’s not so much about beating them, but more so about team score. We really want to go up in the standings so that we are a top 18 team, which means we would be seeded going into Regionals and have a much higher chance of making Nationals.”

Standout freshman Allison Buckley took home the top honors for the Illini in the all-around competition, despite the team loss to the Buckeyes.

Place Gymnast Team Score

1 Allison Buckley University of Illinois 39.075

2 Kaylan Clevinger Ohio State 38.825

3 Nicole Cowart University of Illinois 38.800