Another Quad, Another Sensational Score

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – It took a week for the Central Michigan gymnastics team to duplicate something it had previously taken three years to accomplish.

The Chippewas posted a 196.425 team score on Saturday to win their CMU Quad at McGuirk Arena. That score matched the Chippewas' season best, which they posted last weekend in winning a quad at Illinois State.

Prior to last week, the Chippewas had not recorded a score as high as 196.425 since 2018.

And it could not have come at a better time. CMU goes to the Mid-American Conference Championships on Saturday, March 20, in Kalamazoo.

"You work hard all week long and you put everything out there and you hope the training comes through at the end of the week," CMU coach Christine MacDonald said. "We're following our process, staying with the plan, and it's the time of year where things really start to gel. It just takes time to get everybody blending and finding that right balance of individual parts. I feel like we definitely found that flow."

A Chippewa won three of the four events on Saturday as CMU finished ahead of three teams it will encounter next weekend at the league championships. Eastern Michigan (196.100) was second, followed by Western Michigan (194.500) and Ball State (194.425).

CMU's Hannah DeMers set career highs in winning the floor exercise (9.950) and all-around (39.525) and she tied for first on uneven parallel bars (9.900). The Chippewas' Amber Mueller and Morgan Tong tied with two Eastern Michigan gymnasts for first on balance beam. The winning score (9.900) was Mueller's career high and it tied Tong's career high.

The Chippewas scored 48.850 on the beam, tying for their second-best score in the event this season.

"We keep working the details in the gym," MacDonald said. "Every week we go back in and we watch film, evaluate; we drill, we train, we do pressure sets – everything that it takes to get better week in and week out.

"Amber's a very hard worker and she puts the time in. She, and everyone, really did a really good job of doing their gymnastics. When you can keep it simple, one routine at a time, it plays out well. I think she and (Tong) found their flow today and were very patient in their gymnastics. It's definitely the product of hard work."

Four of the top five gymnasts on vault were Chippewas – CMU's Elizabeth Cesarone was second (9.875) – and five of the top six on floor exercise wore maroon and gold.

"We leave everything on the floor," said senior Sydney Williams, who matched her career best with a 9.900 in placing third on floor exercise. "We're not going to leave the arena or step off of our events with regrets. I think you can see that in our performances; we give it our all and we fight.

"The best part is, we still haven't reached our best. We keep getting better and staying consistent; when we put all four pieces together, it's going to be an undeniable performance … we're going to reach our peak at the best time, which is MACs and regionals."

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Players Mentioned

Elizabeth Cesarone

Hannah DeMers

Amber Mueller

Morgan Tong

Sydney Williams