Illinois women’s gymnastics records several career-highs in quad meet at Kentucky, loss to No. 5 Minnesota
Gymnast Arayah Simmons practices before her vault event during the competition against Minnesota on Sunday. Simmons scored a new personal high for her vault event with a 9.850.
February 7, 2022
The first of the Illini’s two meets in three days took place in Lexington, Kentucky, for a quad meet including Georgia, Central Michigan and Kentucky. The women’s squad finished third out of the four teams with a score of 195.650 on Friday.
On the uneven bars, the Illini scored a 49.400, which tied for the fifth-best score in program history. The historic finish was garnered by juniors Olivia O’Donnell and Mia Takekawa, along with the help of sophomore Kaitlyn Ewald, who all managed to score 9.90s.
Graduate student Rachel Borden also scored a career high of 9.875 on the uneven bars.
This meet also marked the return of junior Arayah Simons, who missed a good portion of the end of last season with an injury.
Simons managed to score 9.700 and 9.100 on the vault and beam, respectively.
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Following the Illini’s dual meet in Kentucky, the team headed back to Champaign to host their first meet of the season against Minnesota on Sunday.
The meet was hosted in Huff Hall and streamed on BTN+, but the Illini couldn’t secure the victory on their home turf. The squad lost 197.125-195.725.
This loss marked the second straight loss in head-to-head meets on the season. Their overall season record currently stands at 2-2.
Regardless of the loss, the matchup against No. 5 Minnesota included some career highs performances from several Illini gymnasts, including freshman Ruthuja Nataraj, who scored a 9.875 on the vault.
O’Donnell also earned a career high on the vault with a score of 9.825, which helped the Illini score their highest team score (49.225) on the event for the season.
This meet marked the second meet of the season for Simons, who recently returned to the lineup from injury. She also went on to score a career high (9.850) on the vault.
Sophomore Amelia Knight earned the event title on the uneven bars with a score of 9.875. She also went on to earn a three-way tie for first on the bars with a score of 9.875.
Takekawa also contributed some big points for the Illini after earning a career best in the all-around with a score of 39.400.
Following their showdown at Huff Hall, Illinois will travel to East Lansing, Michigan, to face off against Michigan State on Feb. 13.
The last time these two faced off, the Spartans narrowly got the victory over the Illini, 196.150-195.775, nearly two years ago on Feb. 16, 2020.
This Big Ten battle will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network and is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
@ArtofRenato
