Over the weekend, Illinois (4-11, 1-8) competed at one of three Big Ten quad meets to help establish seeding for the Big Ten Championship. Its quad meet was hosted by No. 13 Minnesota (9-3, 7-2) and also included No. 11 Michigan State (8-5, 6-3) and Rutgers (6-7, 2-7).
Home team Minnesota came out with the victory with a season-best 197.700, over Michigan State with a 196.625, Rutgers with a 195.750 and Illinois with a 195.650.
Due to taking losses from all three teams, Illinois will be placed in the first of three sessions for the Big Ten Championships, which will take place at State Farm Center on March 20-21.
The Illini’s session will take place on Friday evening, and sessions two and three will take place throughout Saturday. Last year, UCLA won the championship in the final session, and all individual event champions except for one came from teams in the final session.
Four perfect 10s were also given in the third session, compared to zero in the other two. Based on this, there’s a pattern that can be seen where judges give higher scores as the meet goes on, rather than in the first session.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
If this is another indicator of how the Illini shape up against conference foes, they’ll need to improve quickly in a short period of time. Currently, Illinois and Rutgers are the only unranked Big Ten teams, standing outside the postseason picture.
Head coach Josh Nilson is in his first year leading the team and feels that they’re in a transition period where they may not be winning now, but their current struggles will ultimately lead to greater successes.
“Every incredible team makes a decision to climb out of the trenches,” Nilson said to Fighting Illini Athletics. “We are in the trenches, and future teams will benefit from this season.”
There were many positives throughout the meet, with sophomore Chloe Cho shining once again against top-ranked competitors: Michigan State senior Nikki Smith and Minnesota freshman Arianna Ostrum. She finished second in the all-around with a score of 39.575, a new career high.
She earned event titles on the bars and beam, tied with Golden Gophers junior Jordyn Lyden on beam and Ostrum on bars, with joint scores of 9.950. The beam 9.950 was another career high for Cho.
“Chloe broke her own all-around record and won beam and bars,” Nilson said. “Summer got her career-high on beam. Piper had the most complete meet she has had so far. Eden is becoming more comfortable with her 1 1/2 on vault. A lot of great things happened tonight, and there’s a lot to build on.”
A breakout performance mentioned by Nilson came from freshman Summer Clancy in the third rotation, where she scored a career-high 9.900. She has a very slow, controlled rhythm and really absorbs the beam on her soft acrobatic and dance landings. Combined with a stuck 1 ½ twist dismount, she set up Cho perfectly.
Because of her consistent performances this season, she’s in position to go to NCAA Regionals as an individual on the balance beam if Illinois doesn’t qualify as a team.
Cho and junior Lyden Saltness are the other two individual representatives currently, for the all-around and uneven bars, respectively. They’re mathematically locked to compete and will have a chance to compete for individual spots at nationals.
The Illini were consistent the whole day, scoring between 48.700 and 49.000 for all four rotations and scoring matching 48.975’s on the bars and floor. The score of 196.000 has still been elusive for the Illini, but like Nilson said, they’re making improvements.
“We are so proud of our girls,” Nilson said. “They stuck together and fought the whole way through.”
Sophomore Eden King competed her Yurchenko 1 ½ again with much better success, scoring a clutch 9.725. Earlier in the rotation, Clancy slipped, missed her hands on the board and only completed an on-the-fly form-ridden Yurchenko Full instead of her planned Yurchenko 1 ½.
Freshman Piper Gow also had a consistent meet, scoring 9.775 on bars and 9.800 on floor.
For the Illini, performances like this are absolutely considered building blocks and should be used for momentum into the end of the season.
Nilson believes that regardless of what happens, this season is a learning experience for the Illini and that they just need to keep fighting.
“All teams want to win, but few pay the price,” Nilson said.
Up next:
The Illini return home to Huff Hall to host an SEC giant in the No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide (7-4, 3-3) for Senior Day on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.
@BoddySofia
