Saturday morning was a good day for the Illinois women’s gymnastics coaches.

At the NCAA Championships banquet in Lincoln, Neb., head coach Bob Starkell was named National Coach of the Year and assistants Kim Landrus and Amy Kruse were named co-Assistant Coaches of the Year. The awards are voted on by coaches around the country.

The coaching staff led Illinois to its first ever appearance at the NCAA Championships this year and produced the school’s first first-team All-American in Melissa Fernandez.

This season has been the Illini’s best season in school history. They have broken team records in every event and took second place in the Big Ten Championships.

Starkell is in his 16th season at Illinois and his 10th as head coach. Earlier this year, he was named Co-Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Landrus has been on the Illinois staff for seven years. She is the recruiting coordinator and works mainly with the balance beam. Landrus led the beam squad to a school record of 49.200 at the NCAA West Regional.

She has coached beam All-Americans in back-to-back years – Allison Buckley in 2008 (second team) and Fernandez this year (first team) – and also coached Buckley to the NCAA West Regional beam title with a school record score of 9.950.

Kruse is in her third season as vault and floor exercise coach. Kruse led the Illini to the school records on both exercises this season. She also helped two Illini claim individual Big Ten titles – Kelsey Joannides on vault and Sarah Schmidt on floor.

The honor is another first this season for the gymnastics program. Saturday night, Fernandez will compete for the NCAA balance beam title in the individual event finals.