CHICAGO – The UIC women's gymnastics team will make the trip south to Normal, Ill. on Sunday to battle Illinois State in its first Midwest Independent Conference meet of the season. Competition begins at 6 p.m. in the Horton Field House.
The Flames are coming off their best performance of the season this past Friday at the Utah Quad. UIC recorded a season-high 193.250 team score, highlighted by
Mikailla Northern's season-high 38.900 all-around total.
Riley Cholod had a strong performance on bars, earning a 9.800 as the top score of the night for the Flames.
UIC is ranked third in the MIC for the second-straight week with an average team total of 191.858, trailing behind Sunday's host Illinois State (192.550) and last season's MIC Champion Lindenwood (192.167). The Flames sit second as a team in the Conference on bars with an average of 49.167, while also ranking third on both beam (47.725) and floor (48.125).
Northern was named MIC Gymnast of the week on Tuesday following her season-best all-around performance, and currently leads the Conference in the category. The sophomore owns an average all-around total of 38.808 and also ranks second in the Conference on beam (9.742).
Jenna Squillo has also claimed a spot on the MIC leaderboards, ranking seventh on bars with an average of 9.683, followed closely by teammate
Serena Baker in ninth averaging 9.662.
Illinois State took a 193.925-192.550 loss to Bowling Green on Saturday, and will be facing the Flames on Sunday in its first home meet of the season. Gabrielle Cooke led for the Redbirds, earning a 38.800 in the all-around category to take the crown.
Illinois State owns the top spot in the MIC rankings, and also leads the Conference in vault (48.250) and bars (48.350). Individually, Meredith LaRoche sits behind Northern in the all-around, averaging 38.637. LaRoche is at the top of the MIC on beam (9.750), and is also second in the Conference in vault (9.763) and bars (9.725).
Last season UIC saw competition against the Redbirds on three separate occasions, most recently at the 2016 MIC Championships, where ISU finished with a 192.825 team total to the Flames' 191.625.
