The Eastern Michigan gymnastics team placed third at the Mid-American Championships on Saturday in DeKalb, Illinois. The team finished with a 195.350 score, behind Northern Illinois (195.975) and Central Michigan (195.575). The Eagles fell 0.625 points short of winning their fourth conference championship.
The Eagles (6-10, 3-3) started the meet on bars with Sydney Audet, Megan Hultgren, Carly Clark, Jada Rondeau, and Courtney Bezold. Jada Rondeau led the Eagles with a score of 9.750 on bars in the first rotation.
Emili Dobronics scored a 9.700, and Cortney Bezold, who made first team All-MAC, added to the Eagles score with a 9.675. The team then moved to the next exercise which was the vault.
Rondeau was first up on vault. She hit a score of 9.700. Cali Harden then scored 9.725. Ciara Gresham set a new season-high with a score of 9.850. Gresham and Allison Smith led the Eagles on vaults. Smith scored the highest for the team with a 9.875. In overall vault results, Smith finished in second place behind Denelle Pedrick of Central Michigan, who scored a 9.900. Gresham was tied for third place with Marissa Nychyk of Ball State.
For EMU, Caitlin Satler and Dobronics had a team-high 9.850 score in the balance beam exercise. Rondeau scored a 9.800, while Brianna Price and Shannon Gregory each had a 9.775 score for the Eagles. Hultgren had a 9.750. The high score on the balance beam was shared by two players, Mia Lord of Northern Illinois and Jovannah East of Bowling Green. They scored a 9.900.
Dobronics had a team-high score of 9.900 in the floor exercise. She shared the top score in the exercise with Anna Martucci of Northern Illinois, Jade Brown and Abby Fletcher of Kent State. It was Dobronics’ third time of the season that she tied her career-high of 9.900 in the exercise. Her last 9.900 score on floor was at the George Washington University Quad event on February 22.
Rondeau and Ciara Gresham each had scores of 9.850 on the floor exercise for EMU. Satler had a score of 9.800, Allison Smith had a 9.750, and Gregory scored a 9.250. Rondeau and Dobronics competed in all exercises for the all-around scores. They finished in fourth (39.100) and fifth (39.025), respectively. Pedrick had the leading all-around score for the competition with a 39.35.
