Ball State University
Central Michigan
Season Best Score Fails To Lift Gymnastics Past CMU
January 24, 2015 | Gymnastics
MUNCIE, Ind. - - The Ball State gymnastics team opened the Mid-American Conference portion of its 2015 slate with a 196.175 to 193.775 loss to Central Michigan Friday in Irving Gym of the Jo Ann Gora Student Recreation and Wellness Center.
"Overall we are happy with the progress the team has made so far this season," Ball State head coach Joanna Saleem said. "We have been focusing on consistency and improving our routines a little each week. We did really well on three events. We are really pleased with the ladies who entered the lineup for the first time this season and those that upgraded their routines for this meet. We had to make adjustments to the lineups due to some injuries, and these young ladies did an excellent job performing for the first time this season."
Overall, the Cardinals' score of 193.775 was a season-best performance, as were the team's event scores on vault (48.825), bars (48.975) and floor exercise (49.025).
Ball State' s top individual performance came from the meet's final competitor, as junior Denasiha Christian thrilled the crowd with a strong performance on floor exercise, trying for first place with a season-best effort of 9.900.
Christian was also Ball State's top performer on vault, placing second overall with a score of 9.825.
On uneven bars, senior Brooklyn Schumacher led the Cardinals by tying her career-best score of 9.850 to place third. Overall, all six of Ball State's performers on the uneven bars at least tied their career-best score Friday, with four posting new personal-best marks.
"Angela Durkac had a career high competing for the first time in over a year," Saleem said. "Juliana Booth also performed well in her first ever lineup spot. The team was really excited after our bar rotation. We had a lot of momentum going into beam and we didn't adjust well. We have to do a better job of transitioning into the focus needed to perform well on balance beam. We have some work to do this week in the gym. We have to be able to compete on beam as a group better."
Freshman Baylee Bell led the Cardinals on balance beam, placing second overall with a career-best score of 9.800.
"We are really happy with the fact that after such a poor team performance on beam, the team rallied on floor and finished strong with the top floor score of the season," Saleem said. "We had another really nice performance from Erin Patchey this week and Denasiha upgraded the difficulty in her routine and scored a 9.9 to tie for first place."
The Ball State gymnastics team returns to action Monday, Feb. 2, when it travels to Southern Utah for a 7 p.m. (MT) non-conference contest.
Players Mentioned
