This weekend Allison Buckley showed all Illinois women’s gymnastics fans there will be a reason to cheer for the next three years. Winning individual titles on the vault, uneven bars and floor exercise, the freshman led the Illini to a season-high score of 194.975 Saturday night. But Buckley’s efforts were not enough to edge out No. 13 Denver.

“Overall as a team we’re really excited,” Buckley said. “That’s our season-high score. We really needed to put up a high score to move up in the rankings and get ourselves back on top of things.”

The Schaumburg, Ill., native was well on her way to posting Illinois’ top all-around score ever, but an “uncharacteristic” fall on the balance beam helped Denver’s Jessica Lopez (39.325) and Sasha Sullivan (39.150) take the top two spots and the title. Even with the slip-up, Buckley was right behind the pack with a 38.875 on the night.

“I’m really happy about my meet, except for beam,” said Buckley. “I mean, things like that happen, but overall I’m really excited.”

Except for the all-around title, Illinois gymnasts won every individual event. Junior Julie Crall captured the balance beam title by tying her career-high score of 9.900. In front of a crowd of 1,407, the Illini set or tied 11 career-high scores and 17 season highs.

With Buckley’s beam mistake and Nicole Cowart’s fall on floor, the Illini are still searching for their perfect meet.

“We counted a fall on beam and then counted a fall on floor,” Crall said. “It shows we still have room to improve with our score, which is good, but we have to hit 24-of-24 (routines).”

The No. 25 Illini were shorthanded for the meet with all-around competitor Sarah Schmidt sidelined after she suffered a sprained ankle in Thursday’s practice. In her absence, freshman Lashlee Morris was forced out of her exhibition spot into the official lineup for the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.

“The hardest part was we had a young lady hurt her ankle on Thursday,” head coach Bob Starkell said about Schmidt. “She is kind of a vital part on every event. It gave (Morris) the opportunity … she was the one who had the biggest change in trying to compete in the college environment because she gets really nervous really easily. She started to get the hang of it and actually tried to enjoy it a little bit.”

Starkell was pleased with his team’s efforts, but will work on the mental part of the sport in practice this week. Though they must fix the major falls on the beam and floor, his players are eager about the upcoming Illinois Gymnastics Invitational on Friday at Chicago’s Navy Pier. One of the world’s largest invitationals, the “Chicago Style” meet will feature powerhouses from across the country.

“Next weekend is probably our biggest meet of the season,” Crall said. “We’re going against UCLA, Stanford and Washington. UCLA and Stanford are top eight, I’d say, in the country. So that will be good to be able to match up with them.”