After weeks of waiting, preparing and hoping, it looks like the MSU gymnastics team’s performance at the Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis on Saturday was strong enough to qualify it for the NCAA regionals.
Despite placing seventh out of seven, the Spartans finished with a score of 194.425, which seems high enough to propel them from 38th place into the top 36 in the nation — the cutoff for the regional meet.
Based on their score and Arizona State and Southeast Missouri’s weekend performances — the two teams ranked ahead of MSU — the Spartans seem to be mathematically in the top 36 but are waiting to be notified officially, head coach Kathie Klages said.
“It was a very gutsy performance,” she said. “We had the regional qualification on the line, so as much as we tried to tell them it was nothing to lose and everything to gain, they all wanted to go to regionals very badly.”
Rather than dwelling on finishing last in the conference meet, the Spartans said they had some of their strongest performances, which were perfected to get them to regionals. If they did not record a high score Saturday, their season would have ended there.
“We knew that we went out there and did what we had to do,” senior gymnast Nicole Argiros said “So it was just waiting to see how the other schools performed and seeing where we got placed to finish.”
Leading the way for MSU, junior gymnast Jackie Berg placed third on the uneven parallel bars with a score of 9.850 in a 10-way tie. Also on bars, Argiros, junior gymnast Selina Rodriguez and freshman Dani Levy were part of a four-way tie for 30th with 9.700 scores.
“My bars were right on target with what I wanted to do,” Berg said. “I’ve been working on my handstands and sticking my landings, so I did all of those things, and I was really happy with my performance.”
In a four-way tie for 10th, sophomore Shanthi Teike had a team-high score of 9.875 for her floor exercise routine, and Levy finished 14th at 9.850.
Sharing part of a seven-way tie for 19th on the vault, Levy and sophomore gymnast Taira Neal led MSU with 9.775 scores.
On the balance beam, senior Kelsey Morley had the Spartans’ team-high at 9.775, putting her in a three-way tie for 11th place. Following behind her, freshman gymnast Alex Pace was in a three-way tie for 14th place with her 9.750 score.
“We hit six for six (on beam),” Klages said. “Our scoring was a little tough, but we were really excited about our performances there. Everybody — the entire beam team — did a phenomenal job.”
Klages said MSU will know if its season officially will continue through regionals within the next few days, but mathematically, the team made the cut.
“We did overall a very good job,” Argiros said. “We focused on ourselves, and we had fun, and we pretty much got the score that we needed to get to regionals. We went in and did what we had to do.”
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