The Eastern Michigan women’s gymnastics team competed in their first home meet Saturday afternoon and were able to defeat the Northern Illinois University Huskies, 194.775-193.950 in a Mid-American Conference meet.
Despite the win, the Eagles (7-1, 2-0 MAC) saw their lowest score of the season but also saw their highest total on the floor exercise with a 48.750.
“When we started out on vault, they seemed to get really tight and the energy kind of dropped,” EMU coach Jay Santos said. “Then we went to bars and we hit and we started to build it back up. Then we went to beam and everything felt better. Then we got to floor and we finally had a better floor rotation. We finally finished out a meet.”
Eastern Michigan senior Kimberly Ebeyer scored a career high on the floor with a 9.85.
“It’s exciting to see,” Santos said. “The other events are hitting pretty well so if floor can come up to that level, we’ll be pretty good.”
Just like Ebeyer, sophomore Rachel Slocum notched a 9.85 on the floor. Sophomores Catie Conrad and Kendall Valentin and redshirt sophomore Lacey Rubin all contributed scores over 9.8 on the uneven bars with a 9.85, 9.8 and a 9.825.
Sophomore Kirsten Gendron struggled this afternoon with falls on both the bars and floor but Santos contributed that with a nagging injury.
“Her back has been bugging her a bit,” Santos said. “Certainly wasn't her best day but she’ll get back on track.”
For Northern Illinois, junior Jamyra Carter, who is from Ypsilanti, scored a 9.85 on the uneven bars. She tied for the highest score for NIU on the afternoon.
Looking Forward:
The Eagles will remain at home as Central Michigan University comes to town Friday night. The meet is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.
Eagles Results per EMUEagles.com (*denotes career high)
Vault 48.450
Kendall Valentin 9.750
Rachel Slocum 9.725
Catie Conrad 9.675
Kimberly Ebeyer 9.675
Sydney McEachern 9.625
Julia Schwartz 9.625
Bars 48.900
Catie Conrad 9.85
Lacey Rubin 9.825
Kendall Valentin 9.80
Sydney McEachern 9.725
Natalie Gervais 9.70
Kirsten Gendron 9.05
Beam 48.675
Lacey Rubin 9.825
Kendall Valentin 9.75
Catie Conrad 9.725
Megan Hultgren 9.70
Natalie Gervais 9.675
Kimberly Ebeyer 9.625
Floor 48.750
Rachel Slocum 9.85
Kimberly Ebeyer 9.85*
Sydney McEachern 9.775
Kendall Valentin 9.575
Megan Marino 9.70
Kirsten Gendron 9.150
All-Around
Kendall Valentin 38.875