The Illinois gymnastics team barely edged out the Missouri squad Friday at the Hearnes Center, as the Tigers hosted the seventh annual Pink Out to support breast cancer awareness and research.
Several breast cancer survivors were introduced to a standing ovation from the Hearnes Center crowd before the Tiger gymnastics team squared off against the Illinois Fighting Illini.
A few hours later, it would be each team’s gymnasts at the center of attention, being lauded with a standing ovation of their own for their strong performances.
The Tigers, coming off their best performance of the season last week, had their second-best performances of the year Friday against the Illini, but dropped the meet decision by a score of 195.400 to 195.000.
Coach Rob Drass wasn’t overly thrilled with the team’s performance, but still took positives away from the meet.
“We’re heading in the right direction, the team is maturing, there are still just a lot of little things we had go wrong,” Drass said. “We’re still learning to be great. We got the bigger things right, but we messed up on a lot of the little things.”
The majority of the things the Tigers excelled in were the first two rotations, as the team had its most success of the night on vault and the un-even bars.
Sophomore Sandra Ostad paved the way for the Tigers on the vault with a career-high score of 9.875. Fellow sophomore Lauren Swankoski, coming off the best performance of her collegiate career, picked up where she left off last week, recording a 9.850 on the vault.
The sophomore class may have led the Tigers on vault, but it was a junior who stood out on the uneven-bars for Missouri. Allie Heizelman recorded a team high 9.850 for Missouri.
Tiger freshmen Taylor Medrea and Katelyn Trevino also stepped up during the second rotation, as each recorded career-highs, 9.775 and 9.800, respectively.
After two rotations, the Tigers held a slim lead of 97.900 to 97.800 over the Fighting Illini.
It was during the third rotation on the beam when the Tigers hit a rough patch, thus falling behind Illinois. After jumping in front, the Fighting Illini never looked back.
It marked the second straight week the Tigers were faced with adversity during the middle of the meet, and for the second straight week, the team gave a lot of credit to the crowd for offering a helping-hand.
“The crowd was great. Every Pink Out we get a good crowd, and they do a great job of supporting us and keeping the energy level up,” junior Mary Burke said.
Burke, the reigning Big 12 Gymnast of the Week, was the lone bright spot on the beam for the Tigers, recording a score of 9.750.
Joining Burke in the spotlight Friday was senior Alex Gold, who matched her career-high with an all-around score of 38.875.
Gold echoed the upbeat sentiments of her coach after the meet.
“I can only see this team going up from here,” Gold said. “We’re quietly putting together a nice season, and as long we build up to Regionals we’ll be fine.”
