Illinois women’s gymnastics prepares to travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to compete against No. 9 Alabama, No. 17 Minnesota and Talladega College. The Illini are coming off of a double meet weekend where they finished in second place at the All-Ohio Meet on Friday and scored 196.125 in a win over Bowling Green on Sunday. No. 15 Ohio State (196.825) was the only squad ahead of Illinois at the All-Ohio Meet (196.325), beating both Bowling Green (194.275) and Kent State (196.125).
One of the meet’s outstanding performers was sophomore Arielle Ward, who won the all-around competition on Sunday with a score of 39.275 and tied for career-high in the vault and floor. Ward spoke about how these recent wins for her and the team are serving its benefits.
“It definitely boosts our morale and our unity overall,” Ward said. “We’ve talked a lot this season about peaking at the right time. We’ve been on the come-up, and we’ve been the underdog at times. This is the perfect time for us to be stepping it up.”
Illinois is set up for a tough battle this week. The Illini previously competed against the Gophers at home in mid-February. Despite losing a tight battle with the Gophers (196.950-196.850), the Illini scored their season-high. Illinois has competed against two SEC schools this season — No. 6 Florida (197.925) and No. 14 Missouri (197.350) — and lost to both. Talladega is 6-10 on the year and has competed against SEC programs such as Florida and Auburn but lost both times.
Alabama competes in the Coleman Coliseum, which seats upwards of 15,000 people. It is considerably bigger than Illinois’ Huff Hall, which seats about 4,000 people, and Ward mentioned that the team is using a plethora of tactics to prepare for the bigger environment.
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“We’ve been practicing with loud noises and loud cheering,” Ward said. “We don’t think any team can step in our way and stop us. It’s really beneficial in the regular season, which prepares us for the postseason. It’s all about practicing for what will happen in the postseason.”
The final lineup can change meet by meet despite being late into the season. Ward said that the team still has a lot of healthy competition for its spots and that level of depth is a definite strength.
“We are very competitive people, but it’s definitely healthy competition,” Ward said. “We have a lot of depth within our routines and within our events.”
No. 24 Illinois women’s gymnastics competes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Friday at 7 p.m.
