Andrew Mascharka
Multimedia Editor
The Eastern Michigan gymnastics team fell short in their final regular season meet against Northern Illinois, 195.800-195.525. The Eagles finish the season with a 13-5 (3-3 MAC) record.
“I’m really proud of the team’s performance today,” EMU coach Jay Santos said to EMUEagles.com after the meet. “It wasn’t completely smooth sailing as we had a couple mistakes, one on floor and one on beam. But as this team has done many times this year they showed they can handle adversity with the rest of the line-up hitting and not having to count those mistakes.”
For the Eagles, it was their second-highest score of the season right behind their 195.575 score on Feb. 20 against Western Michigan, which was also oddly a loss.
The Eagles started the meet off on the uneven bars and were led by freshman Kendall Valentin who scored a career high 9.875. They also got a strong score from redshirt freshman Lacey Rubin with a 9.800.
On vault, the Eagles were led once again by Valentine who scored a 9.800 along with seniors Carrina Lo Bello and Anna Willette who both scored 9.775.
Next the Eagles competed on the floor where they had strong showings by freshman Rachel Slocum and redshirt senior Chantelle Loehner who both scored 9.800.
The Huskies were able to one up the Eagles on the floor though by with Amanda Stepp scoring a 9.900, Kelly Nortz scoring a 9.850 and Shelby Davis, Courtney Dowdell and Brittany Wenzel all scoring 9.825 which gave them a 49.225 on floor.
The Eagles finished the afternoon on the beam where sophomore Natalie Gervais took home first with a 9.875, which was a career high.
“I still don’t feel we have reached our full potential and I think we can still perform a little stronger,” said Santos. “We will work hard on the details this week in practice so we can put it all together at MACs this weekend.”
Now with the regular season a wrap, the Eagles will look towards the MAC Championship on Sat. March 21 in Kent, Ohio. The meet is scheduled to start at 2pm.
EMU Results (* signifies career-best) per EMUEagle.com
Bars
1. Valentin, Kendall 9.875 *
2. Rubin, Lacey 9.800
4. Lo Bello, Carrina, 9.775
4. Conrad, Catie 9.775
8. Willette, Anna 9.750
9. Paterson, Nikki 9.725
Vault
2. Valentin, Kendall 9.800
4. Lo Bello, Carrina 9.775
4. Willette, Anna 9.775
7. Miller, Paulina 9.725
7. Schwartz, Julia 9.725
12. McEachern, Sydney 9.675
Floor
6. Slocum, Rachel 9.800
6. Loehner, Chantelle 9.800
8. Young, Taylor 9.750
8. McEachern, Sydney 9.750
11. Willette, Anna 9.700
12. Lo Bello, Carrina 9.075
Beam
1.Gervais, Natalie 9.875 *
4. Lo Bello, Carrina 9.800
4. Rubin, Lacey 9.800
6. Willette, Anna 9.775
9. Conrad, Catie 9.700
12. Ebeyer, Kimberly 8.950
All-Around
1. Willette, Anna 39.00
2. Lo Bello, Carrina 38.425
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