Women’s gymnastics hits season-high marks

Catherine Dion scored high marks over the weekend. Photo: Steve Woltmann

The women’s gymnastics team concluded competition at the annual State of Illinois versus State of Michigan meet at the McGuirk Arena Saturday and collected a season-high score of 192.650 for third place.

The Flames took a conference win over Illinois State, while Michigan outscored Illinois by a 391.400-384.450 final.

“After a slow start on floor, we picked up the pace and were solid,” co-head coach Peter Jansson said. “It was good to get one more conference win and we are very excited to not count a fall on beam for the first time this season.”

Senior Catherine Dion finished with the Flames’ best score on the floor with 9.750 to tie for 10th place.

She set a career high in the all-around with a score of 39.150 to take first place and took UIC’s top score on bars with a 9.800 to tie for seventh. On the last event of the day,  she tied for second with a season-high 9.850 on beam.

Sophomore Alexandra Vedenin and Dion recorded team-best scores on vault with a 9.750 to tie for seventh, as redshirt-junior Kimberly Randall followed closely behind with a 9.725.

The Flames are back in action at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Chicago Style Meet against Bowling Green, Boise State and North Carolina at Navy Pier.

Birt was 3-of-4 from the outside, including two threes late in the second half, giving UIC the lead on both occasions.  He finished with 11 points and five rebounds.

That’s when Oakland started to apply full-court pressure and forced UIC to commit 13 second-half turnovers.  The Grizzles capitalized and scored 24 points off of Flames’ miscues in the second period alone.  Oakland outscored UIC in that category by a margin of 31-11.