The No. 24 Illinois women’s gymnastics team flipped for the last time this season on Saturday night, finishing third at the South Central Regional competition in Norman, Okla. Falling to No. 4 Alabama (197.300) and No. 10 Oklahoma (195.875), the team failed to earn a bid to the NCAA Championships.

Even scoring a 195.425 for third place – the best regional finish for an Illini women’s gymnastics team in program history – was not enough to prolong “Championship Time” for the entire squad.

“The last six weeks of practice have gone very well,” said head coach Bob Starkell. “They’ve had more confidence, and it carried into this meet.”

After coming off a strong showing at the Big Ten Championships two weeks ago, Starkell and company were expecting great things at the Regional competition.

Both Allison Buckley and Nicole Cowart were individually rewarded for their third place finishes in the all-around competition by getting their National tickets punched. Wishing the whole team could have qualified, the freshman and sophomore had successful meets to garner the honors.

“Both (Allison and Nicole) are a little different in their own ways,” Starkell said. “Allison really wanted the team to go to Nationals, and her teammates knew the intensity that she would bring to this meet. We knew she was going to be good and help the team get as far as they could.”

While Buckley had a positive freshman campaign, Cowart was not as sure of herself before the meet. Starkell said he and Cowart spoke before Regionals and decided this meet was the time for her to shine. Having several mistakes throughout competitions all year, Starkell knew the sophomore would turn it on when it counted most.

“Nicole at some point would hit four events all at one time,” the nine-year head coach said. “(I said) ‘this meet you are going to hit all four.’ She is a very hard worker, and she’ll put in more numbers in practice than everybody else to make sure it’s a good weekend.”

Both Buckley’s and Cowart’s extra practice time will continue for the next two weeks as they prepare for Nationals in Athens, Ga., from April 24-26. The two will compete in the all-around competition.

Though Starkell was very pleased with the National qualifiers, he also was excited with the rest of the group.

“(Regionals) was quite similar to Big Tens, and we didn’t really have a weak event,” he said. “We didn’t have to count a fall.

“We started on floor, and I thought our floor was pretty good, good event for us. We did well on vault. Our bars were probably a little better at Big Tens. And beam, they knew what was in store, didn’t have a big ‘make or break’ moment.”

Now that the season has come to an end, Starkell is already looking forward to next year. This has been his most successful group, and he hopes to ride into the upcoming season with the same steam.

“Where we initially thought we were going to be, we kind of came together at the end of they year,” Starkell said. “I’m really proud of this team, their effort; they are going to be extremely hungry to improve for next year.”