The Illinois women’s gymnastics team seemed frazzled as it made the transition from floor to beam, the final event of the day. After a strong start on bars and vault, the Illini had stumbled a bit on floor with two falls in the event. At this moment, head coach Kim Landrus noticed the team’s nerves and pulled them together for a pep talk that boosted their spirits and propelled them to an extremely strong finish and a school record on the day.

“I really think they took what I said to heart,” Landrus said. “I told them that I needed them to move on and go out and attack the beam, be really aggressive and own it, and they did. The girls were on a mission, they wanted to walk out of Crisler Center knowing they finished the meet off really strong, and they did that. All of the girls that went up really did their job and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Illinois finished with the third-highest beam total in school history. Illinois scored 49.250 as a team on the beam, outscoring Michigan by .025 to win the event. The Illini lost overall to the Wolverines on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich., by a score of 197.350 to 195.100, but they view this meet as a major improvement from the week before.

“I think we took another step in the right direction,” Landrus said.

Illinois started its day with bars where the team was led by dual 9.825’s from sophomore Sunny Kato and senior Alina Weinstein, who tied for fifth in the event. The Illini scored 48.950 to the Wolverine’s 49.325.

“Sunny Kato really pulled through,” Landrus said. “She has always been excellent on bars and beam and we knew that she had the potential to do what she did (Saturday), so it was fun to watch and it was great to see her go out and hit two solid routines.”

During its second rotation, Illinois scored a 48.600 on vault, as freshman Giana O’Connor and Heather Foley had career-highs. O’Connor and Weinstein led the team in the event, each scoring 9.775.

After vault, the Illini moved to floor, where both of their first two gymnasts fell. Illinois was able to regain its consistency, as three of its next four gymnasts finished the event with career-highs. Weinstein led the way for the Orange and Blue, posting a career-high of 9.925.

“This weekend we made a mistake on floor,” Weinstein said. “Last weekend it was a different event, so we just need to keep working on putting all of our events together. We obviously demonstrated that we’re capable of scoring big and doing well, but we need to stay mentally focused for the entire meet.”

After the pep talk, the team did what Landrus wanted of them and “owned” the beam. Illinois had five of the top eight scores and Kato led the team in a second event on the day, posting a 9.875, which won her the individual beam title on the day.

“I think that our performance was really great,” Weinstein said. “It was definitely a big improvement from last weekend, we took a giant step in the right direction this weekend and it was just nice to see us put it all together for the most part.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.