Chippewas Show Improvement In Rolling To Dual Win

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – An improvement in consistency, an improvement in numbers, and a confident team going forward.

Gianna Plaksa won the parallel bars, shared first place with teammate Nora Fettinger on the floor exercise, and won the all-around on Friday as the Central Michigan gymnastics team posted a solid 195.275 team score in rolling past Illinois State in a nonconference gymnastics dual at McGuirk Arena.

The win lifted the Chippewas to 4-0.

CMU also got a first-place finish from Skyler Memmel on the balance beam in an across-the-board dominant performance.

Meredith LaRoche of Illinois State won the vault, but the Chippewas swept the next five spots; CMU took the top five spots on both bars and floor, and swept the top three spots on beam.

Illinois State finished with a 190.050 team score.

The Chippewas, picked to finish third in the Mid-American Conference preseason poll, made an even stronger statement in their second meet of the season.

"I know there were a lot of teams in our own conference that didn't have much faith in us," longtime CMU coach Jerry Reighard said. "And I guess I would like to go on record and say it's not that we're back, we've always been here. We're here."

MARKED IMPROVEMENT
The Chippewas, who entered the season ranked 30^th nationally, opened the season on Sunday by topping No. 22 Illinois and No. 33 Arizona in a quad at McGuirk Arena. They posted a 194.875 in that meet, and their score on Friday was a significant leap.

"In the (practice) gym we worked on that one-half 10^th (of a point) that we talked about last week and it showed up and we improved to that 195," CMU junior Denelle Pedrick said. "Next meet it'll be the same thing, a half-10^th better, a half-10^th better, and pretty soon we'll be in the 196, 197 range."

The Chippewas' biggest improvement from the opener to Friday's meet came on the beam. They posted a 48.800 in the event on Friday after a 48.475 in the quad.

Memmel led the way with a 9.800 after scoring a 9.725 in the quad.

"I'm very happy with my performance tonight," she said. "Last week I was a little bit anxious, so I got in the gym, worked hard, just felt a lot better about myself. Just calming down, doing my gymnastics."

The improvement on beam ran throughout the entire squad, which was a very satisfying result, Reighard said.

"It's purely the talent of the athletes," he said. "That's exactly what it is. The athletes that are on our balance beam squad are excellent athletes and I think they were a little upset with the number they produced last week.

"They took it into the (practice) gym and they did what great athletes do, they worked to get better. The number is the number that we can't control. Performance is what we can control and I thought the performances were actually better than the numbers that we saw. I'm really pleased."

PLAKSA SHINES
Plaksa, a senior, posted a 9.850 that was matched by Fettinger on the floor exercise. She scored a 9.800 in winning the bars. Her all-around score was a solid 39.050.

"Great day for her," Reighard said. "I think it's one of those things that she needed to do to gain her confidence."

GOING FORWARD
Friday's meet marked the last at home for the Chippewas until Feb. 15. They are scheduled to compete in a nonconference quad at Denver on Jan. 19, and then go to Western Michigan for their MAC opener on Jan. 27.

"I'm really confident that we can do what we did here when we're on the road and we should be in good shape in a month when we get back," Reighard said. "My worst fear is that this team doesn't know how good they can be, that they don't imagine it.

"I said the other day 'You're not going to bump into success. It's not going to come up and tap you on the shoulder and say, you're ready.' Success happens when you prove it in a competitive situation. We've grown a lot from last week. This (performance) is going to help us to grow."

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nora Fettinger

Skyler Memmel

Denelle Pedrick

Gianna Plaksa