Ready. Prepared. Excited. Any way they look at it, the Fighting Illini women gymnasts are looking forward to this weekend’s Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Coming off big wins the last two Saturdays, the team is optimistic about facing its conference foes.

“This is actually the most exciting part of the year,” senior Krystal Melcarek said.

“At last year’s Big Tens we did really great. I think we actually hit 24-of-24 (routines), everybody hit everything, so that just gets our hopes up really high.”

Melcarek, a specialist on the uneven bars, has been a vocal leader on the team throughout the season.

Training for her fourth and final Big Ten competition, she believes this group is the best she has competed with during her gymnastics career at Illinois.

Along with fellow senior Michelle McGrady, Melcarek has been the go-to person when the younger teammates have had questions and concerns about the championship meet.

“They just want to know how everything went and what it’s like and what the practice day’s like,” Melcarek explained.

On Friday, each team will be able to practice on the equipment prior to Saturday’s competition.

Getting a feel for the different apparatuses beforehand will hopefully calm everyone’s “meet jitters.”

Head coach Bob Starkell’s thoughts mirror his senior leader’s.

“For me, I’ve been doing it now for a few years now. I do almost find it to be one of the most important competitions that we have during the year,” said the nine-year coach.

“I think philosophy-wise, I feel like all the work we put in during preseason, all the competitions during the regular season time, the purpose is to do really well and win a Big Ten Championship.”

As a group, this season’s team has more depth. The freshmen foursome of Allison Buckley, Melissa Fernandez, Lashlee Morris and Samantha Perino has stepped up for the Illini.

Only graduating two senior routines in 2007, this season has spotlighted the younger Illinois gymnasts.

The competition will showcase the seven Big Ten schools that offer women’s gymnastics as a varsity sport: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Penn State and Ohio State.

However, Starkell is only concerned with his Illini.

“The most exciting team I’m looking at is our team,” he said.

“I’m excited to see what this team can potentially do. If we do hit, we are going to be awfully difficult for the other folks.”