Julia Abel Director of Gymnastics Operations | University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics Website
Julia Abel Director of Gymnastics Operations | University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics Website
The University of Illinois gymnastics team secured a third-place finish at the Zou to the Lou Quad meet held in St. Louis, Missouri. The competition took place on February 14 and featured No. 9 Missouri, No. 14 Alabama, and Iowa. Illinois was bested by the two ranked teams but managed to outperform Iowa.
Chloe Cho led the Illini's efforts by tying her career-high score of 9.925 on the beam, securing an event win. Teammates Ruthuja Nataraj and Olivia Coppola each scored 9.800 in this rotation, which left Illinois in third place with a score of 49.050 after their first event.
On floor exercise, Emmalise Nock achieved a season-high score of 9.900, followed by Cho's contribution of 9.850, allowing Illinois to climb into second place after two rotations.
The vault proved challenging for the Illini as Arielle Ward posted a leading score of 9.875 with Cho close behind at 9.825; however, these performances were not enough to maintain their position, resulting in a slip back to third place before concluding rotations.
In the final event on uneven bars, Cho set a new personal best with a score of 9.950 and shared the event title while Ward matched her career high as well.
"Chloe was an absolute rock star tonight," said head coach Nadalie Walsh about Cho's performance despite recent illness affecting her training schedule earlier that week: "She was ill and unable to train very much this week but today she felt better and crushed her routines."
Walsh further noted that although there were areas for improvement across events during this away meet overall it had been successful for achieving their goal—hitting all twenty-four routines: "Each event had moments where we could've been a little sharper but overall it was great day."
Looking ahead toward future challenges awaits Fighting Illini who will face off against Hawkeyes again soon when they meet again Sunday February sixteenth Xtream Arena Iowa City scheduled start time two p.m Central Time
Team results from Zou To The Lou Quad are as follows:
- No nine Missouri scored one hundred ninety-seven point one five zero
- No fourteen Alabama earned one hundred ninety-six point six seven five
- Illinois achieved total score one hundred ninety-six point two zero zero
- Iowa finished with one hundred ninety-five points
Event winners included Chloe Cho both uneven bars balance beam achieving respective scores nine point nine five zero nine point nine two five setting new personal records along way
Cho also reached new all-around career high thirty-nine fifty-five while teammate Arielle Ward equaled previous mark uneven bars posting result eight five###
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