As the MSU women’s gymnastics team concluded the first session of the Big Ten Championships in Piscataway, N.J. on Saturday, a marquee performance by the Spartans resulted in the setting of numerous records.
The Spartans finished tied for sixth overall, notching a team score of 195.200 on Saturday, which was the school’s best team finish since 2010.
On the floor routine, MSU managed to tie the best team score in university history and registered the best score of the meet with a 49.475 with assistance by seniors and Big Ten Champions Elena Lagoski, Kira Frederick and Nicola Deans, who all tied for first with a score of 9.925.
MSU’s overall team score on the floor is the fifth time in school history that the Spartans have recorded a 49.475 on the event and marks the first time since Mar. 7, 2004.
“We are ecstatic and so proud of this team,” interim head coach Mike Rowe said. “It wasn’t doing all of this on one event. It took what we were doing on each event leading up to that to build momentum and get confidence. We went into floor with our eye on getting someone on the podium, because that was our goal from the very beginning, and we walk away with three Big Ten Champions.”
Lagoski, Frederick and Deans are the first conference champions from MSU since Chayla Hill in 2006 and first floor champions since Michelle Ingalls in 1998.
“The stars aligned and the great thing about having three Big Ten Champions was that they were all seniors,” Rowe said. “It was thrilling to watch them today and we knew our score was a program-best but we weren’t sure where the scores would stack up after the second session. After nervously watching 36 different individuals go and wonder what would happen, just one matched our scores but nobody topped it, so it was so amazing.”
Apace with being conference champions, the three seniors were also named to the Big Ten All-Championship team. Junior Hailee Westney joined the trio as the fourth Spartan to be selected to the All-Championship team, tying Michigan for the most representatives from any school.
Junior Lindsey Lemke finished sixth in the floor in the opening season and 12th in the meet, recording a career-high 9.875. Freshman Alexandra Hoyer logged a career-high score of 9.825 as the Grayslake, Ill. native finished tied for tenth in the session and 24th overall.
Alongside the program’s four All-Championship team representatives, sophomore Molly Hoerner-O’Malley joined nine other conference gymnasts as she was named a Sportsmanship Award Honoree.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
