The Spartans came in first overall with a final score of 196.225 followed by Illinois State with 192.625 and BGSU at 192.400.

"We’re ecstatic," MSU Head Coach Mike Rowe said. "It’s not like we didn’t know that we can do it. When the time comes and the green flag goes up, just wait and see what's going to happen."

MSU started the night off on vault where they scored a total of 48.925 as a team, ranking them first for the category. Freshman Gabrielle Stephen scored the nights highest in the category at 9.850. 

There was a three-way tie for second place of 9.800 between MSU sophomore Baleigh Garcia and two ladies from BGSU.

They then moved onto the uneven parallel bars where the girls scored 48.975 overall. 

The Spartans ranked within the top four places for this event. MSU junior Jori Jackard and sophomore Delanie Harkness tied for first with a score of 9.850 and Stephen and freshman Skyla Schulte for third scoring 9.775.

Schulte is flying high after she was awarded Big Ten freshman of the week earlier this week. 

“It feels really good to be Big Ten freshman of the week,” Schulte said. “It only goes up from here for us. ... This award was not just a reflection of me but a reflection of the entire team, my support system, coaches, friends, everyone."

There's still always room to improve though as Rowe pointed out after the meet.

"Me being the bar coach, we could do a lot better but the beam picked up and we had some greatest scores on floor with more 99’s than we’ve had in a while, which is really exciting for us,'' Rowe said.

For third rotation, the Spartans went to the balance beam where they scored a total of 49.300, resulting in their leading category of the night and fourth-best in MSU’s history.

Garcia earned her career-best score of 9.925 and Stephen and senior Lea Mitchell tied for second with 9.900 and also her career best. 

MSU wrapped up the night on the floor where senior Ashley Hofelich earned the event title with her score of 9.925. Stephen placed second scoring 9.900 and the Spartans totaled 49.025.

To top it all off, Stephen came in first all around with a total score of 39.425 and Harkness placed second all around at 39.100

“They’re starting to believe in themselves more ... and their confidence is rising which is nice, especially going into next weekend against Iowa for the Big Ten regular season,” Rowe said. “This little bit of momentum is going to help us.”

The ladies plan to use their results from this tri-meet into next weeks match as they prepare and improve.

“Beam is doing great ... but we need to work on some handstand work, little form details and definitely stick to those landings,” Rowe said.

MSU will host Iowa on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. to kick start the Big Ten season.