With a win and three event titles Saturday, No. 24 Illinois (7-7, 3-3) heads to the Old Line State for a taste of Big Ten competition.
New year, new system
Instead of two meets with five conference schools, a trio of quad meets will take place over the weekend in College Park, Maryland, Coralville, Iowa and Columbus, Ohio. These meets allow Big Ten teams to get a sense of what the overall conference championship will be like.
It is also an opportunity for teams to earn more wins and increase their rankings. This helps them earn a better session come conference championship weekend.
“The way our conference tournament works is that your win-loss record seeds you into the different sessions of Big Ten,” said head coach Nadalie Walsh. “I think the importance of Big Four for us is just to go in and try to pick up one to three more wins and do the best that we can.”
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Out of habit preparation
Going on the road again always comes with new equipment, new environments and different groups of fans cheering for or against you. These conditions are part of the coach’s preparation. As for Walsh, she said her methods stem from making her athletes uncomfortable.
“Maybe start your floor routine in a different corner or do your beam routine in a different direction,” Walsh said. “Just doing some things to make it not in their normal is the best way that we can adjust for being on the road.”
Small changes Walsh instilled in her athletes can mean the difference between sticking a landing or stumbling on the floor.
3 M’s ahead
Illinois will compete at the 2025 Big Four meet against No. 13 Minnesota (7-1, 5-1), No. 15 Michigan (8-3, 4-2) and Maryland (7-5, 3-3). Saturday poses a challenge for the Illini as they enter the third best ranked team out of the group.
Even for its two best ranked events, floor and vault, Michigan and Minnesota rank even higher. The six athletes per rotation will have to leave it all out on the floor. Maryland, on the other hand, ranks lower than the other competitors.
Counting on the best
Illinois has been improving as it progresses on its season. Walsh highlighted this as not a lack of talent but a lack of experience at the collegiate level.
“Our team is very different now than we were in January,” Walsh said. “It wasn’t that they weren’t talented. It was that they were inexperienced. Now I feel really proud of my staff and I for being able to get them to perform well and perform so confidently.”
Part of the team’s success has stemmed from a few notable freshmen: Chloe Cho, Marly Esteves and Eden King. These three leading ladies have all made new career highs these past few meets.
“You really never know what you’re going to get,” Walsh said. “They’ve never been away from home this long. Most of them have only trained with certain coaches. To see these freshmen, the ones that are out there competing week in and week out, I’m really proud of them.”
The dynamic trio’s efforts alongside other freshmen like Kennedy Brown and Mya Gordon have also consistently made the lineups strong week after week for their respective events.
This weekend, expect to see Cho as the Illini’s all-around performer. Despite their youth, the freshmen fight and perform like seasoned professionals. Fans can also count on the fifth-year Amelia Knight to deliver her iconic mount on her beam. Then, sophomore Olivia Coppola will likely open up the vault rotation and execute a sophisticated beam routine.
The Big Four Meet will be on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT at XFINITY Center in College Park, Maryland. Fans can keep up with the meet on the Big Ten Network.
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