The Eastern Michigan University Gymnastics team traveled to Dekalb, Illinois and tied for fifth place with Bowling Green for the 2012 MAC championship. The team’s rival, Central Michigan, took first place overall on the day.
The team finishes the year 10-9, doubling their win total from last year with a young team led by standout freshman Anna Willette.
“We finished fifth, which is one spot better than last year,” Coach Steve Wilce said. “We were really looking to come into today and come out with a top three finish, but we struggled a little bit on the night.”
Central Michigan finished the day as champions of the MAC, repeating as champs from last year with a first-place score of 195.675. Kent State came in second with 195.225, Western Michigan in third with 195 and Northern Illinois, who hosted the event, came in fourth with 194.525. Eastern posted a team score of 193.150, tying with Bowling Green and finishing ahead of
Ball State University with 192.950.
Willette continued her success in her freshman season, putting up the best numbers for the team on the night. Willette came in sixth overall on the uneven parallel bars with a score of 9.775 and tenth on the vault with a score of 9.825. Senior Stacie Wood also had a good showing in her final performance for the team, with a 9.8 on the floor routine and 9.725 on the bars.
Despite not coming out on top at the event, Wilce has been happy with the team’s overall improvement this year.
“We’ve got a lot of things for us to look forward to as we keep improving year after year,” he said.
“We’ve got a really young core with a ton of talent and a lot of incoming recruits who we think will really boost up our squad,” Wilce said. “You always get your sophomores on the team who always take a big step up in the offseason and become the leaders of the team and next year’s group will take a big step up. We improved from last year and we are going to keep improving.
