EMU Gymnastics Earns Top Spot at Quad Meet

Complete Results

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University gymnastics team claimed its second first-place finish in a quad meet this season, winning the Lindenwood Quad Meet Saturday, Feb. 28. The Eagles soared past their competition, scoring a meet-best 195.125, while Illinois State came in second with a 194.125, Lindenwood placed third with a 194.000 and Illinois-Chicago rounded out the meet with a 191.300.

The Green and White outscored all three of its competitors on both the vault and the floor with scores of 48.925 and 49.125, respectively, while it tied with Lindenwood on the bars with a score of 48.650 and came in third on the beam with a 48.425. The win marks the third time this season EMU has defeated UIC and the second time it has come away the victors against the Redbirds. Furthermore, the trio of victories improves the Eagles to 12-2 overall on the season.

"This team continues to show its mental toughness," noted Head Coach Jay Santos. "We started off on bars with what I feel was our best performance on the season as a whole group. We were a little shaky on beam; got behind and dug ourselves a little hole. From there the team responded as it has many times this year by finishing with two great events. Floor did an awesome job and really got us back on track and then we capped off the night with great vaults. It's great to see this group's resiliency and be able to bounce back from mistakes. I'm really proud of how the team finished!"

Senior Anna Willette was the lone all-around competitor for the Eagles, placing second overall with a 38.975 behind Lindenwood's Valeri Ingui, who just barely edged out Willette with a 39.000.

Starting the meet on the uneven bars, the Green and White tied for a meet-best 48.650 with two fifth-place finishes as Lacey Rubin and Kendall Valentin earned identical 9.750s on the apparatus. EMU also saw Catie Conrad and Willette tie for seventh overall with matching 9.725s, while Carrina Lo Bello and Nikki Paterson rounded out the scoring for Eastern with 9.700s, which were good for 11^th overall. The Eagles tied with Lindenwood, whose very own Courtney Heise tied for the title with a score of 9.825.

Eastern Michigan moved to the balance beam to start the second rotation, where Illinois State notched the top-three spots, followed by a fourth-place finish from Lindenwood's Rachel Zabawa. Lo Bello was the top scorer for the Green and White with a 9.775, while Conrad followed close behind to tie for eighth with a 9.750. In what proved to be EMU's lowest scoring event of the night, Kimberly Ebeyer placed 12^th overall, earning a 9.675, while Rubin came in 13^th overall, earning a 9.625 on the balance beam.

The Eagles did not let the showing on the beam set them back as redshirt-senior Chantelle Loehner put together a career-tying 9.900 performance on the floor to capture her fifth title of the 2015 season. Freshman Rachel Slocum followed Loehner with a second-place finish, tying her career-best 9.875 that was set just two meets ago against Western Michigan. In a competitive event at the quad meet, Willette placed seventh overall with a 9.800, which tied a career-high and both Taylor Young and Sydney McEachern tied for ninth with matching 9.775s, which tied a career-best for Young.

In its final event of the meet for Eastern, the Green and White had a strong showing grabbing the 2-3-4-5 finishes on the apparatus to capture the quad meet title. Willette led the strong vault rotation with a season-best score of 9.850 to place second, while Lo Bello was close behind with a third-place finish after nabbing a 9.800 from the judges, which tied a career-high. Placing fourth overall with a 9.775 was Valentin and tying for fifth with identical 9.750s were McEachern, Paulina Miller and Julia Schwartz, tying a career-high for Miller. Lindenwood's Kiersten Sokolowski notched the vault title with a 9.900 to help the Lions place second overall on the apparatus.

The Eastern Michigan University gymnastics team will head to East Lansing, Mich. for a tri meet against the University of Arizona and Michigan State University Friday, Mar. 6. Meet time is slated for 6 p.m. from Jenison Field House.

Team Results
1. Eastern MIchigan 195.125
2. Illinois State 194.125
3. Lindenwood 194.000
4. Illinois-Chicago 191.300

Individual Results (* indicates career-high)

Bars
5. Rubin, Lacey 9.750
5. Valentin, Kendall 9.750
7 Conrad, Catie 9.725
7. Willette, Anna 9.725
11. Lo Bello, Carrina 9.700
11. Paterson, Nikki 9.700

Beam
5. Lo Bello, Carrina 9.775
8. Conrad, Catie 9.750
12. Ebeyer, Kimberly 9.675
13. Rubin, Lacey 9.625
14. Willette, Anna 9.600
20. Gervais, Natalie 9.175

Floor
1. Loehner, Chantelle 9.900 *
2. Slocum, Rachel 9.875 *
7. Willette, Anna 9.800
9. Young, Taylor 9.775 *
9. McEachern, Sydney 9.775
18. Miller, Paulina 9.500

Vault
2. Willette, Anna 9.850
3. Lo Bello, Carrina 9.800
4. Valentin, Kendall 9.775
5. Miller, Paulina 9.750 *
5. McEachern, Sydney 9.750
5. Schwartz, Julia 9.750

All-Around
2. Willette, Anna 38.975

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Catie Conrad

Kimberly Ebeyer

Carrina Lo Bello

Chantelle Loehner

Sydney McEachern

Paulina Miller

Nikki Paterson

Lacey Rubin

Jules Schwartz

Rachel Slocum

Kendall Valentin

Anna Willette

Taylor Young

Eastern Michigan Athletics