The first gymnast runs down the runway setting up for a difficult tumble in the air, looking for a stuck dismount but steps out.

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s the vault is the event that the Illinois women’s gymnastics team have had least success with this season.

Preparing for its back-to-back meets, the team has been putting in extra hours to enhance its score.

“Last weekend was extremely exciting but it’s a new weekend,” head coach Kim Landrus said. “They even got the day off but after it was time to reset and focus. We’re going against some great competition, and I think they need to live in the present. By the end of this weekend, they should feel super exhausted but also proud.”

The team will be competing at Kentucky and Denver this weekend after a welcomed victory at Huff Hall.

“Our main focus has been trying to improve vault,” Landrus said. “It has had a slightly lower scoring, and our team has the potential to do very well. We did team vault in practice, and that went very well. They just need to transfer what they’re doing in the gym to the competition floor.”

But the Illini’s scores won’t increase without fixing the only event that didn’t receive a season-high against Michigan State.

Junior Bridget Hodan said that vault is worked on the most in practice.

“The sport is all about perfection and landing for us is what will get us closer to that goal,” Hodan said.“Whenever we have a double meet, it’s exciting,” Hodan said. “There is lots of energy going into it. I’m hoping we go out there strong and generate good away scores.”

The Illini have yet to hit a 49 on vault — a score they have reached on beam, bars and floor.

The highest the team has finished in this event this season is 48.900 – at Iowa.

While focusing on their vault landings, Illinois is still look to build on the other events.

“You have to stay consistent in your message (the other events),” Landrus said. “We train with consistency and everything is the same. I think that having that repetitiveness and that same message all of the time, makes them more comfortable in the auto-pilot zone.”

The Illini concluded their Michigan State meet with a season-high 196.550, and want to boost their season-high streaks at the meets this weekend.

If the team keeps up the momentum that they’ve had in their last seven meets, they will be able to obtain that short-term goal- perfecting their scores before the end of the regular season.

“As a team vault landing is something that we need to tweak just a little,” Rae Balthazor said. “Once we figure out those, everything will be fine. Of course, we need to focus on the other events, little details and beam and bar are small problems that can be fixed too. But it’s the little things on vault that will boost our overall score.”

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