Results
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – No. 21-ranked Illinois women's gymnastics defeated West Virginia, Western Michigan, UW-Oshkosh by scoring a 196.500 at Huff Hall Saturday afternoon.
Western Michigan scored a 196.000, West Virginia scored a 195.050 and UW-Oshkosh scored a 192.475.
Illinois started the meet on vault with Mia Takekawa and Ruthuja Nataraj not only taking the highest team score, but the highest scores of the meet.
Moving onto bars, Kaitlyn Ewald took the highest score of the afternoon, breaking her career high with 9.950. Freshman Destiny Denning also broke her career high with a 9.90.
"I'm so proud of Destiny and Kaitlyn," head coach Nadalie Walsh said. "Destiny rocked it for the second week in a row and is absolutely stoic as a competitor and we're super happy to have her as a stand-out freshman. For Kailtyn to come out today not feeling well and get a career high just goes to show what you do when you train can manifest when you stay on track and I'm just so proud of her."
Takekawa and Amelia Knight took first place on beam, both scoring 9.90s. Nataraj was close behind with a 9.850 and Mia Townes earned a 9.825.
The Illini kept up the constituency on floor, with Abby Mueller, Knight, Alea Byrne, Arielle Ward and Kadyn Fitzgibbon all scoring a 9.875.
"It was great to have four teams in Huff Hall," Walsh said. "It was also great to have our team handle all the energy. We had a couple of falls, but that shows the door of opportunity is very wide open. I just want the team to stay hungry and work extremely hard and be diligent and believe in themselves so that we can have an even bigger showing next weekend."
The Illini will be back in action against No. 16 Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb. at 6:30 p.m. CT to open Big Ten competition.
