On Saturday, March 9, Michigan State's women's gymnastics defeated Greenville University, Central Michigan University and Fisk University in the MSU Quad Meet at Jenison Fieldhouse on Senior Celebrations Night. These three victories moved the Spartans, ranked No. 8 in the country according to Road to Nationals, up to a 16-3 overall record and extended their win streak to 13 matches.
Michigan State's first rotation against CMU was on the vault. The six-person lineup tallied up a high score of 49.450 with the help of freshman MaKayla Tucker and sophomore Olivia Zsarmani, who both finished their vaults with a high score of 9.925. Both Tucker and Zsarmani stuck their landings and had great height, which caused the home crowd to break out into a frenzy.
The duo ultimately won first place in the vault event. As for the other schools, no other gymnast scored above 9.900. The Spartans had a very dominating performance in the vault, and it would only get better moving on the other rotations.
The uneven bars were the Spartans' second rotation. Three different Michigan State gymnasts scored at least 9.900 or higher: fifth-year senior Jori Jackard scored a 9.900, junior Gabrielle Stephen scored a 9.925 and senior Delanie Harkness scored a 9.950. Besides the three standouts, the rest of the Michigan State lineup scored over 9.800; the Spartans recorded a total score of 49.475 and a running score of 98.925.
Michigan State kicked off its third rotation on the balance beam. Every person for the Spartans earned a score over 9.900. Junior Skyla Schulte had an incredible beam performance and won first place with a high score of 9.950, giving the Spartans a running score of 148.525.
The final rotation for the Spartans started on the floor. Schulte was just as impressive on the floor as she was on the beam, also earning the highest score with 9.975. She was able to hype up the crowd with her confidence and precision. The remaining Spartans had great performances on the floor, and all scored above 9.850.
Michigan State – which finished in first in every single category – won with an overall score of 198.150, Central Michigan University finished in second with an overall score of 196.425, Fisk came in third with a score of 192.925 and Greenville in last with 198.750 points.
Looking ahead, Michigan State's next matches will be on March 17, when they will travel to Denton, Texas in the Texas Women's University (TWU) Quad Meet to take on Rutgers, TWU and Centenary University.