Ball State University
Mid-American Conference Championship
Gymnastics Competes at MAC Championships
March 21, 2015 | Gymnastics
Ball State's gymnastics team tied for sixth at the Mid-American Conference Championships in Kent, Ohio.
Kent State won the meet with a 196.375, while Ball State tied for sixth with Northern Illinois with a 193.200 mark.
"I have some mixed emotions about todays performance," Ball State head coach Joanna Saleem said. "Starting off the meet on bars the way we did put us at a major disadvantage for the rest of the meet. It is incredibly difficult to start off a championship meet with that many errors. Plain and simple, we did not do our job on this event today. This is the meet where every team out there is striving to perform the best gymnastics of the season, unfortunately this was one of the worst bar performances for this team. We did better on beam, but still had a couple of costly errors. The positive side of the meet is the fight I saw in this team after the first two rotations. They didn't give up, they found focus and a competitive determination to finished out the meet with really solid performances on floor and vault."
Denasiha Christian and Jessica Leko were each named to the 2015 MAC All-Tournament Team.
Leko tied for the balance beam individual championship with Taylor Noonan of Central Michigan. The pair tallied 9.900 marks on the beam, which was a career high for Leko and tied the Ball State school record.
Christian tied for first on the floor with a 9.900 and was the team's top finisher on the vault with a tie for eighth with a 9.825 mark.
"I am really pleased Denasiha Christian ended the meet as co-champ on floor," Saleem said. "This is the second year in a row she has stood in first place on this event at the end of the MAC Championships. It was also really exciting to see senior Jessica Leko earn co-champ on beam. She had a beautiful routine on balance beam and we were all very excited to see her rewarded with a career high 9.9."
Erin Patchey tied for seventh on the floor with a 9.850, while Kayla Beckler was sixth in the all-around with a 38.425 mark.
"While this wasn't the performance any of us wanted to end the season with, we have had a lot of growth on this team," Saleem said. "They have worked hard all year to be competitive and consistent. This is a season we can be proud of and build upon for next year. We have broken school records, and countless personal records this year. This team has learned how to handle adversity and we have developed some real leadership that will be invaluable next year. We have all but two routines returning for the 2016 season when you add 22 experienced routines to the talented freshmen coming in, we are going to be very competitive. I am really excited about the future of Ball State gymnastics."
Gymnast Of The Year: Halle Moraw, Central Michigan
Specialist Of The Year: Rachel Stypinski, Kent State
Senior Gymnast Of The Year: Halle Moraw, Central Michigan
Freshman Of The Year: Rachel Stypinski, Kent State & Kelsey Hood, Western Michigan
Coach Of The Year: Jay Santos, Eastern Michigan
2015 All-Tournament Team
Denasiha Christian, Ball State
Jessica Leko, Ball State
Taylor Bolender, Central Michigan
Kylie Fagan, Central Michigan
Halle Moraw, Central Michigan
Taylor Noonan, Central Michigan
Lauren Feeley, Bowling Green
Skyelee Lamano, Kent State
Rebecca Osmer, Kent State
Rachel Stypinski, Kent State
Anna Corbett, Western Michigan
Kayla Weber, Western Michigan
Players Mentioned
