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Injured women's gymnastics finish fifth at Big Five Meet

March 19, 2018
Junior Molly Hoerner O'Malley performs her beam routine during the Big Five meet on March 17, 2018, at Jenison Fieldhouse. The Spartans finished fifth out of the five schools at the meet.
Junior Molly Hoerner O'Malley performs her beam routine during the Big Five meet on March 17, 2018, at Jenison Fieldhouse. The Spartans finished fifth out of the five schools at the meet. —
Photo by Matt Schmucker | The State News

Despite strong efforts, the women's gymnastics team came in fifth place Saturday at the Big Five Meet.

Hosted at Jenison Field House, the meet was the final return home for the Spartans before the Big Ten championship held in Champaign, Illinois. The Spartans hosted Nebraska, Maryland, Illinois and Ohio State University. 

Senior Hailee Westney was the only Spartan to place during the meet, tying with Illinois freshman Rae Balthazor for first place in the uneven bars with 9.925. Her score landed her the fourth-best bars score in MSU history.

“Overall, I’m very happy. I feel like I took what I’ve been working hard on in practice into the meet," Westney said. "I really wanted to focus on detail, so I demonstrated that here today and I couldn’t be happier with what I did."

Reflecting on her individual and team performance, Westney said she was happy with the results but improvements could be made. 

“I think we need to just focus on consistency, details, work on our confidence and trust each other a little more," Westney said. 

Freshman Lea Mitchell achieved the highest points for MSU during her floor routine, netting in a final score of 9.800. In regards to to her floor, bars and beam routines, she said she was pleased, but noted room for improvement. 

“I felt the first three events I did very well, except for beams. I was a little disappointed, but I know it happens — it’s gymnastics," Mitchell said. "It’s part of the sport. I was mostly disappointed that I let the team down, but I’ll get back at it at the (Big Ten Championships).” 

Because of injuries on the team, many key players, such as sophomore Gabriella Douglas, had to be substituted. In the case of the floor routine, some players had to be removed all together. Despite these challenges, head coach Mike Rowe stayed positive throughout the meet. 

“The score might not be an indication of what we’re doing with this program right now," Rowe said. "Obviously we had some injuries towards the end of this season and we had to put some kids in their place that haven’t been trained as much or prepared to do this. Safety was a concern, so we would only put them in if they were safe.”

With the Big Ten Championships looming ahead, some of the athletes might not be healthy enough to compete.

“It doesn’t look like anybody is gonna be healthy enough to come back in at that point," Rowe said. "Losing Michelina Lupinetti with her high ankle sprain, it took her out of beam and vault where she is very strong, 9.8 plus, so we’re probably going to be where we are now as far as who is competing, but we can always work on the details and cleaning it up. ... I think Hailee and Lea have the potential to qualify for regionals, and possibly even nationals.” 

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