The women’s gymnastics team earned some much needed rest after competing in four meets in a span of just 10 days. The girls went 2-2 over this stretch but interestingly enough stayed pretty consistent throughout the period.
“First thing I can say is I’m thankful (this stretch) is over, because it was a really tough thing to do,” head coach Kathie Klages said. “I will never schedule that way again, it was really tough, four meets in 10 days is a lot so I’m glad it’s over.”
In two of the four meets the Spartans earned a score of 194.850—not quite what the team expects of themselves but by all means a solid score. In the third meet the team fell short to No. 13 Illinois but earned a season-high score of 196.325.
“(Against Illinois) we had are highest score of the season and I think that should have built some great confidence into the team.”
The team is just on the cusp of competing for a top-25 spot in the rankings, the No. 25 team Kentucky has a Regional Qualifying Score, which determines national rankings, of 195.275, the Spartans recent stretch has brought them to No. 26 with a 195.265.
The team has begun to get healthy and senior Alina Cartwright, one of the best competitors on the team, has finally started to get healthy. Cartwright won the bars competition, earning a career high of 9.900 in the teams win over Illinois-Chicago on Sunday.
"(Alina Cartwright) is an incredible addition to our squad, she had a superb Fall training (and) we kept telling her to rely on that training you had all fall,” Klages said. “She was ready to go and you could see that in her bar routine, the first time she performed she matched her career high and then she beat it and then she beat it again.”
Cartwright is excited about how she has performed thus far in her return. She is still hoping to compete on vault, where she feels her team needs her most.
“I’m very happy with my performance on bars because it used to be my weakest event, getting the 9.900 gave me a lot of confidence,” Cartwright said. “I’m hoping to come back on vault because I know that’s where my team needs me the most.”
The team will rest up this week after this tough stretch of competition, the girls next meet is a quad meet against Towson, Rutgers and Yale.
“Today is our first practice in the gym and we’re going to keep things light and really focus on quality over quantity, so they have very few repetitions in gym this week and we’re just going to really try to get them focus in,” Klages said.
There will be a familiar face in the gym on No. 40 Towson’s side as MSU alum Becky Schaller is an assistant coach for the Tigers.
“We haven’t competed at Towson in years and we have an alum that’s the assistant coach there so I’m very excited about getting out to see Becky and see her team, they seem to have made a lot of improvement this year so that’s exciting for me,” Klages said.
