Gymnastics wins Michigan-Illinois Classic, falls to EMU individually
Central Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University won the Michigan-Illinois Classic, yet individually CMU fell behind EMU.
Head Coach Jerry Reighard expressed his frustration to lose to the Eagles after beating them by more than a whole point two weeks prior.
“We were controlling our own state on the last rotation on bars and we came up short,” Reighard said. “To me that’s not acceptable.”
A quad meet puts the gymnasts in a position that they have not yet seen this season. The rotation started on beam and ended on bars, both events hindered the Chippewas scores.
CMU fell under EMU with a final score of 194.65-194 with both Illinois State and the University of Illinois Chicago failing to break 190. Reighard’s squad had to do something they haven’t had to do in many years: watch another Mid-American Conference team grab a title from them.
“I made them suffer through the award ceremony, they needed to see another team stand up and accept first place,” said Reighard.
Despite losing, the Chippewas scored a season high on vault with a 49 and once again broke the 49 mark on floor with a 49.05.
“We have really worked hard on landings and improving out vaults,” Senior Halle Moraw said. “Our vault is more clean and consistent.”
CMU is finding a hard time getting in rhythm on the beam after losing senior leader and No. 1 on beam in the MAC Taylor Noonan. Even though she did not fair well on beam, sophomore Caroline Fitzpatrick scored a 9.875.
With four 9.875’s in their defeat, the women failed for the first meet since their loss to Illinois 20 days prior to hit one 9.9 on at least one event.
“(This is) definitely not where we want to be,” sophomore Caroline Fitzpatrick said. “We had some highlights, but it’s about staying as a unit and hitting the routines we know we can hit in practice.”
Admitting defeat to a MAC opponent is not easy, yet the Chippewas had an individual gymnast win every single event and another in the top three. Placing in first was Moraw on floor, Fitzpatrick on beam, senior Kylie Fagan on bars and Moraw once more on vault.
“It’s frustrating, it’s not easy to lose to Eastern. We just weren’t there and had a lot of mistakes that counted against us and cost us the win,” said Moraw.
CMU returns home to face MAC opponent Northern Illinois University at 7 p.m. on Friday in McGuirk Arena.
