Central Michigan University
Eastern Michigan
Chippewas Fall to Eastern Michigan
1/20/2017 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Jerry Reighard gathered his gymnasts before their final rotation, the meet all but over.
Reighard's Central Michigan gymnast delivered an outstanding performance in that final event, the floor exercise, but the hole was simply too deep, the result of subpar performances leading up to the finale.
Eastern Michigan handed the Chippewas a 195.925-194.650 loss in a Mid-American Conference dual Friday at McGuirk Arena.
"The message was that we had to stop the bleeding and they all know what that means," Reighard said. "You can't do Division I sports and look like you forgot how to do your sport, and that's what I saw up until floor."
The loss, their first of the season, dropped the Chippewas to 3-1, 1-1 MAC. Eastern, the defending MAC champion, improved to 3-2, 1-0.
CMU's loss came on the heels of a victory last weekend at Western Michigan, when the Chippewas performed consistently.
That was not the case on Friday.
"Not to take anything away, but we are pretty young, we're still trying to train people how to compete," Reighard said. "Last week everybody showed up, we had a great meet and we hit 24 straight routines. You have to hit 24 straight routines and that's what Eastern Michigan did. You have to hand it to them. That's what gymnastics is all about."
CMU's Katy Clements and Macey Hilliker tied for first on floor exercise, both posting a 9.925. It was a career-best on floor for Hilliker, and it tied Clements' career-best.
The Chippewas won the floor exercise with a season-best 49.250, but the Eagles won the other three events. The Chippewas scored a 48.025 on balance beam, nine-10ths below the total they posted against Western last week.
"I thought we had a really good last event," Reighard said. "The fourth quarter was exceptional and this was an opportunity that CMU could have won, should have won, in my estimation. I think we had the people to do that, but we had difficulties on three events, and you just can't win at this level on one event.
"You can't fall off an event and expect to win. Doesn't matter which event it is. You can't do that."
CMU's Denelle Pedrick won the vault with a 9.850 and teammate Gianna Plaksa captured the all-around with a 39.000.
Eastern's Lacey Rubin was first on balance beam, and Kenall Valtenin led a dominant performance with a win on bars. Bryttany Kaplan was the lone Chippewa to crack the top six - she placed third - in the event.
After the first rotation - Eastern on bars, CMU on vault - the Eagles had opened up a 49.225-48.675 lead.
Eastern bumped its lead in the second rotation, scoring a 48.775 on vault while CMU came at 48.650 on bars. Reighard said he fully expected for his team to be behind after two rotations, but nearly as far as it was.
And the hopes he had of making up ground in the third rotation, balance beam, were dashed when the Chippewas posted a 48.075.
"To be seven or eight 10ths behind is enormous, because then you're relying on your opponent to give you the victory and there's nothing you're going to do," he said. "I fully expected that we could do that 49.2 on floor, and that's what I was relying on, but not a 48 on beam."
The Chippewas are scheduled to partake next weekend in the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. Their next MAC meet is Feb. 12 at Ball State.
"If I can't motivate them with this it's probably not going to happen," Reighard said. "If you hit 24 routines and you do what you're capable of doing and what we see in practice and you lose by a 10th, it's a whole different talk.
"I'm just not pleased with what I saw today because I know what's available to me."
Players Mentioned
