Gymnasts Head To Ohio State For Non-League Tri-Meet

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan gymnastics team will take on a pair of Big Ten foes, Ohio State and Maryland, on Saturday (4 p.m.) in a nonconference tri-meet the Buckeyes' Covelli Center.

The Chippewas
CMU is 3-0 and ranked 23^rd nationally with an average of 195.388. The Chippewas downed Eastern Michigan on Sunday in their Mid-American Conference-opening dual.

The Chippewas placed first in all four events. Denelle Pedrick won the floor exercise and the uneven parallel bars; Morgan Tong was first on the balance beam; Hannah Demers won the vault. Pedrick also captured the all-around.

CMU is the highest-rank MAC team in the nation. Eastern (33^rd) is second. The Chippewas are ranked 12^th nationally on vault, 15^th on beam, 30^th on bars and 33^rd on floor.

Honors
Chippewa sophomore Morgan Tong earned the MAC Specialist of the Week Award on Wednesday for her performance in the win at Eastern Michigan. Tong posted a career-best 9.900 in winning the balance beam during the meet.

Scouting
Maryland is ranked 11^th with a 196.138 average, while Ohio State (194.675) is third. The Terrapins are 3-0; Ohio State is 1-1.

CMU coach Christine MacDonald
"Our focus this week has been on improving each individual's best. We want to continue to keep our focus on our performance and collectively work to improve our overall team score. Competing outside our conference gives us another chance to travel to non-familiar arenas and work outside our comfort zone. This weekend's meet format also allows us to practice for post season play with block style format which also is different from most of our dual meet competitions leading up to championships."

Next
The Chippewas return to MAC competition on Sunday, Feb. 2 (2 p.m.) with a dual meet at Northern Illinois.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Denelle Pedrick

Morgan Tong