“We’ll focus on cleaning the formations in the events, keeping our legs together during the pirouettes on bars, getting no deductions on leap sequences on floor and having no balance check on beam,” Klages said. “Vault and floor need to get better altogether.”

Although there is a lot to work on, freshman Mackenzie Smith — who got her career-high score on bars with a 9.750 on Satruday — said she went in confident and knowing that she had her routine.

“Going to Minnesota was bittersweet,” Smith said. “I committed to go there (originally), but then I tore my ACL, so they let me go.”

Getting her highest bars score showed Minnesota what it was missing, she said. Now Smith will continue to focus on sticking dismounts and getting no deductions.

For junior Alina Cartwright, the Spartans had confidence at the beginning of the meet, but the feeling changed heading into competition.

“People were getting nervous, adjusting to the events,” Cartwright said. “We started getting anxiety.”

Bringing consistency to the team, as Klages said, Cartwright was the only Spartan who placed on Saturday — second on vault and third on all-around.

“Alina got a 9.9 on vault and did an awesome job, which is our expectation now. Other athletes performed below expectation,” Klages said.

Senior Dani Levy said she usually finds a way to block everything from her mind — even if a teammate performs poorly — so she can do her best.

“I know I can hit my routine and do what I do at practice,” Levy said. “I want to do better for the team and also for myself.”

Cartwright said she is hoping to compete with confidence this weekend and use every meet as a learning experience, preparing her for the Big Ten and NCAA Regional championships. During away meets, Cartwright said her and the team focus only on gymnastics.

“We got a couple of away meets out of our system,” she said. “We don’t worry about the other team or about their score.”

The team is not so used to taking bus trips, Klages said, so competing at Western Michigan this weekend will be a unique twist, she said.

“The team that was easily beaten in December will be more of a competition for us now. It’s exciting,” she said. “We were pretty disappointed after the competition, we had a meeting in the bus and we said we need to change something in the events. But we’re optimistic going into this weekend.”

Being a senior, Levy said she has to lead the team to knowing it can perform better, and this meet should be a good opportunity to do so.

“I hope to get back on track where we’re supposed to be,” she said. “I know we can beat them and that we’re better. It should be a confidence booster.”

The Spartans meet against Western Michigan will be at 7 p.m. on Friday in Kalamazoo, Mich.