Illinois men’s, women’s gymnastics open 2022 conference campaigns with dual meets at Penn State
Photo courtesy of Lydia Asplin/NU Communications/Illini Athletics
Illinois men’s gymnastic head coach, Justin Spring, watches an event during the 2021 Big Ten Championship on April 3, 2021. The men’s and women’s team both will be competing at Penn State on Saturday.
January 29, 2022
The Illini gymnastics teams will be traveling to University Park, Pennsylvania, for their first dual meets of the season against Penn State.
The meet is scheduled for Saturday and will use a new dual meet format thanks to a new rule approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel.
After a couple of rescheduled meets, this matchup against Penn State marks the first time the women’s gymnastics team will be competing since their victory over Central Michigan on Jan. 9.
The men’s team previously placed third at their last meet, the Windy City Invitational, in Chicago on Jan. 15. Sophomores Logan Myers and Sebastian Ingersoll shined at the Illini’s first competition of the season, with Myers scoring a career-high 14.2 and Ingersoll notching a 13.7 on vault.
Penn State, a Big Ten foe, is a familiar face for these Illini teams, which recently faced off against them as recent as last year.
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The women’s team is currently on a two-meet winning streak against Penn State after most recently defeating the Nittany Lions, 196.3-195.275, on Feb. 13. The men’s team lost their last matchup against Penn State, 399.3-399.150, on Jan. 31, 2021.
Justin Spring, head coach of the men’s team, shared how much adversity his athletes have been going through the last six months thanks to range of different sicknesses and COVID-19.
He shared how a stomach bug hit the team during winter break, which really slowed down their progression coming into the 2022 spring season.
“We weren’t healthy sickness wise, but physically we were pretty good,” Spring said. “It was sickness for the last three to four months, so we hadn’t had consistent training for a ton of our guys.”
Spring mentioned that it’s been a struggle getting his team back into competition form since their progression has slowed thanks to sickness, but he’s hoping his team’s next matchup against Penn State will help them get back on track.
“The last two weeks has been us trying to increase consistency,” Spring said. “If we’re not at 80% or higher this weekend, I am going to be pretty upset.”
The Illini’s dual meet against Penn State is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. and will be streamed live on B1G+.
@ArtofRenato
