The Spartans are introduced to start out their meet against University of Michigan on Feb. 10, 2017 at Jenison Field House. The Spartan gymnasts were defeated by the Wolverines, 196.025-195.625.
On Feb. 11 a rivalry continued at Jenison Field House with MSU gymnastics hosting No. 7 University of Michigan. In their fifth Big Ten meet of the season the Spartans started off strong on the vault exercise gaining an early lead. In the following rotations U-M closed the gap and surpassed MSU to win the meet, 196.025-195.625. Even though MSU didn’t carry out the win, the Spartans got their highest score of the season.
“I know nobody likes a loss, but I tell you to get our season high today against the University of Michigan was incredible,” head coach Kathie Klages said. "The team has finally put it together, like we knew they were capable of doing all along. So we feel like this is just the start of what’s to come.”
The Spartans got the ball rolling pretty early with consistent performances from the team. Sophomore Roya Shirley made her first appearance this season on the vault scoring a 9.700 for the team. Following Shirley was freshman Alexandra Hoyer, beating her career best of 9.625 with a new high of 9.725. Anchoring the first rotation for the Spartans was senior Nicola Deans, who scored the highest for her team and placed second overall with a 9.850.
In the next rotation, U-M was on the vault exercise while the Spartans took on the uneven bars. There seemed to be an even higher sense of competition as each team went back to back sticking their respective routines. In the No. 3 spot for the Spartans was sophomore Molly Hoerner-O’Malley with a new career best of 9.725. Junior Lindsey Lemke led the Spartans with her score of 9.825, which gave her fourth place overall in the bars competition.
“We want to really focus in on hitting all our handstands on bars, really working on our landings," Klages said. "Our landings in vaulting is where I think we’re really weak and we need to really improve upon that. I think you see a more confident team each week as we get out on the competition floor. So, hopefully this will really help that confidence.”
MSU moved to the balance beam for the second-to-last exercise of the meet. Leading off for the Spartans was junior Victoria Huehn with a solid opening score of 9.775. Senior Kira Frederick found herself back in the lineup for beam this weekend after being out at Penn State. Frederick landed a tie for her season best with a solid 9.800 performance. In the No. 5 spot for the Spartans, freshman Gabriella Douglas also had a season-best routine of 9.850, which led the Spartans on beam.
Anchoring the Spartans on beam was Deans, who fell off the beam during her landing for a score of 8.35.
To finish the competition, MSU wrapped up the meet with its best exercise, floor. The Spartans had an overall event score of 49.075, tying the Wolverines. Deans and Frederick both led the team with high finishing scores of 9.875. Even though they finished off strong, the slight differences between scores during the other rotations gave U-M the finishing advantage.
Showing her dominance throughout the night for the all-around title was U-M senior Nicole Artz. Artz took first place in three out of four rotations against the Spartans. In vault she scored a 9.875, just pushing Deans out of the top position. In the uneven parallel bars, Artz won the rotation with a near perfect score of 9.900. On the floor, Artz again outscored the competition with a near perfect score 9.925. Finally, on the beam Artz took second place to her teammate, Olivia Karas, who scored 9.90 to her 9.875.
Deans got third place in the all-around competition, being the only Spartan on the podium this weekend.
“They all did such a great job, it’s hard to say," Klages said. "Nic has been hitting all four for four in all the meet up until today and she had a little mistake on balance beam. But, we’re just really proud of them all stepping up. We had two injuries this week where we had to pull kids out of the lineup and add new kids in. And so, I’m as proud as can be.”
MSU gymnastics is currently 0-5 in the Big Ten with its new season high of 195.625. The Spartans will be heading to the University of Illinois on Feb. 17 and will be hosting the University of Arkansas on Feb. 25 at Jenison. ch
