An emotional Saturday afternoon crowd at Huff Hall got to see the Illinois women’s gymnastics team beat Michigan State outright for the third time in four years.

The pink-clad Illini honored those affected by breast cancer in the annual pink meet in front of a nearly full, almost entirely pink-wearing crowd. Illinois defeated Michigan State 196.125-193.350, bringing the Victory Plank back to Champaign.

“I think we did awesome,” junior Amber See said. “We took a large step forward in our score getting the 196, and we just kinda put all the events together.”

After the meet, Illinois head coach Kim Landrus honored Jan Joannides — the mother of former Illini gymnast and two-time Big Ten champion Kelsey Joannides — with a speech commemorating her impact to everyone around her.

“You know, Kelsey is one of my best friends and she was one of the best teammates I’ve ever had,” senior Alina Weinstein said. “And both Jan and Kelsey were such a great part of this program that we just wanted to do so well just for them, and it’s awesome to be able to say that we did well for them.”

The Illini kicked off the meet with an impressive performance on vault. Weinstein and freshman Giana O’Connor, who both scored 9.825s, led Illinois. Those were two of 10 scores of 9.825 or higher for the Illini.

“Alina’s a gamer,” Landrus said. “She loves to compete and she does well in practice, so when she comes out to compete, she knows exactly what she’s doing, and so this is what I expect. This is what I know she’s capable of.”

The Illini moved to bars on the second rotation, where they had another strong showing. Weinstein racked her second straight 9.825, which was good enough for an individual event win, and contributed to a 48.875 team score.

“I think it’s really rewarding when you come out here and do what you’re capable of doing,” Landrus said. “When we came off our vault performance, the energy level was high. They went to bars and they just carried that momentum onto beam and floor.”

After a short break, the action resumed with beam. All six Illinois gymnasts scored higher than 9.70, and three — Weinstein, O’Connor and junior Sarah Fiedler — hit at least 9.825.

In the final event of the day, four Illinois gymnasts scored 9.825 or higher on the floor, including See, who recorded a season-high of 9.875 on the event.

“Floor went well,” See said. “Alina went before me and got a 9.9 with an awesome routine, but I kinda had to play off my routine because in the middle of one of my passes, I didn’t do a full pass so the difficulty went down a little bit. But I was still happy with my score, and overall I had a really great day.”

Both O’Connor and Weinstein recorded season-high all-around scores on the day, with 39.250 and 39.350, respectively.

“We’re so competitive that it’s awesome to have the Victory Plank back at home where it belongs,” Weinstein said. “It’s nice to have that kind of incentive to do well.” 

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