After falling to Minnesota in their last meet, the Spartans had two weeks off to dissect their performance and tweak the necessary details to ensure they earn every possible point.

In addition to performing, MSU also has been building its team bonding and working to do well for the betterment of the team.

“We are focusing on staying together as a team and fighting for every handstand on bars and fighting for every landing that we do,” senior gymnast Nicole Argiros said.

“In general, cleaning up everything.”

From team meetings to group competitions in practice, the Spartans have taken advantage of their two practice weeks to remind each other how they compete — win or lose — as a team.

The team has discussed everyone’s personal and team goals and where it wants to go for the rest of the season with seven meets remaining before the Big Ten Championships. With so much room and time for improvement left, the Spartans are wasting no time on getting ready to perform the way they should, senior gymnast Kelsey Morley said.

“Having those discussions has really helped us … and everyone is on the same page now,” she said. “So I really think that we’re going to kick it; we’re going to do amazing.”

Knowing Western Michigan will be ready to take a second win away from MSU, the Spartans have been building up their endurance to maintain their intensity throughout each meet — an issue the team faced in its loss to Minnesota.

As the away team against the Broncos, MSU will have the more challenging order of events, ending with the balance beam.

Klages said she has changed up her practices and tailored them to boost the gymnasts’ endurance.
She separates the team into groups so everyone is competing as if it were a meet. Klages said she conditions the Spartans very hard with a floor assignment, for example, and then moves to a beam assignment, which is the order for those events at an away competition.

“We reversed it, so now they’re very good and very tired,” Klages said. “They’re going to their last event, and now they have to do this team thing and get a certain score in order to be finished on that event.”

The hope for Klages is if the team can compete on the beam successfully in practice after a grueling workout, then it will be able to perform a beam routine well when everyone is tired at the end of a meet.

With that, the coaching staff is hoping to show the gymnasts they are in control of their bodies, and they have to perform on cue perfectly.

The Spartans said these intense team assignments have improved their confidence and their routines, which hopefully will lead them to victory over Western Michigan.

“There is a rivalry now because we want our title back,” Morley said. “We want our stance back, so we’re going to go, and we are a better team, we just need to show it on the floor.”