EAST LANSING – The No. 8 ranked Michigan State gymnastics team is traveling to Illinois State on Saturday, Mar. 16 for a tri-meet against Illinois State and Lindenwood. It will be the Spartans’ last regular season meet before the Big Ten championships.
The team, led by head coach Mike Rowe, is coming off of a dominant weekend after recording a season high score of 198.150 in a quad-meet against Central Michigan, Fisk, and Greenville. MSU’s score was second best overall in program history. The Spartans are 9-0 in Big Ten play and recently earned their second consecutive Big Ten regular season title.
Junior Skyla Schulte is having a stellar year for MSU with six all-around title wins. Schulte was named Big Ten’s Gymnast of the Week for the third time this season. At the last meet, Schulte earned the highest all-around score in the conference for that week with a 39.575. She scored a 9.950 on the beam and tied a career-high 9.975 on the floor to take both event titles. Schulte is a powerhouse for the Spartans, and is definitely a gymnast to look out for.
Two other MSU gymnasts also received Big Ten awards this past week. Freshman MaKayla Tucker won Freshman of the Week and senior Delanie Harkness earned Event Specialist of the Week.
Tucker has had an extremely successful rookie season with the Spartans, and only continues to get stronger as the season progresses. In the past two meets, she earned her season high scores of 9.925 on vault and floor. Tucker currently ranks first amongst Big Ten freshmen on both events.
Harkness has been a leader for the Spartans on bars all year, and at the last meet she won the bars title while tying her career high score of 9.950 on the event. She also dominated on the floor and beam, scoring 9.900 and 9.925 respectively.
The team took titles for every event last weekend, but it was evident that the Spartans’ most successful performance was on the beam.
The team tied the overall program high score of 49.600 for the second time this season, and all six gymnasts scored at least a 9.900. Along with Schulte – who won the event – seniors Baleigh Garcia and Giana Kalefe both earned a 9.925 to lead MSU to victory.
Looking into Saturday, the Spartans are in search of another two wins to add to their 13 meet win-streak before heading into post-season play.
Illinois State is currently 14-10 overall and 3-2 in its conference. MSU will look to hand the Redbirds their first home loss of the season.
Lindenwood is 8-3 overall and is coming off of a third place finish at the Nebraska Masters Classic last weekend.
After Saturday, the Spartans will head back home to host the Big Ten Championships on Saturday, Mar. 23 at Jenison Field House.
