Feb. 13, 2006
Being from Illinois, this weekend was pretty exciting for me. I'm not sure about Amanda, but I know this was my first time competing in my home state as a collegiate gymnast. It was great getting to go back to Illinois and being able to see the U of I campus and some familiar faces. The coaches at Illinois are really nice and the team is made up of a great group of girls. My teammates and I have met a lot of them through club gymnastics, recruiting visits and just being a part of the collegiate athletics world, so it was good to see them.
The meet was set up a lot like that of a club gymnastics meet. There were the men's and women's Illinois gymnastics teams, the Temple men's gymnastics team and then our team competing Saturday night. Instead of alternating with another team for competition, we went straight through the lineup until we were done with every event. The meet seemed to go by pretty quick with this setup which was nice.
Overall we ended up winning the women's competition with a 195.5, which helped us drop one of our low away scores in the RQS scoring system. Our vault team had one of their best performances of the year, and the floor team looked they were having a good time and looked really polished. The bar team did a great job picking the team back up after a major deduction at the beginning of the rotation, and the beam team put up a great fight to stay on top of things during the last event. We also didn't have to count a fall the whole meet which is always good news.
After talking with friends, family and old teammates after the meet, we all piled on to the bus and went out to eat. On the way we got to enjoy some amazing chocolate covered strawberries provided by Jan and Jerry, so I just wanted to say thank you guys for that! When we got to T.G.I. Friday's the staff was overwhelmed with our group of almost 50 people because they were only expecting about 25 people. Despite the chaos, they did a great job accommodating us. A lot of the girls and coaches' families came to watch the meet which explains why we had such a big group. The U of I campus is at a great central location, which probably made it easier for people to drive up, considering that everyone from the team is from around the Midwest or east coast areas.
We left Champaign the next morning after our fabulous continental breakfast and enjoyed some fine quality entertainment on the bus ride back. We watched the Parent Trap (which has actually always been one of my favorites) for the young viewers on the bus and then the senior video that A and Hatch put together for their club "family" in high school. Let me just say it was quite an experience and I had no idea that we had some fellow thespians on board.
Well I hope you all enjoyed reading my journal as much as I enjoyed my weekend and I will see you at Hearnes 7pm this Friday, as we take on the Oklahoma Sooners! It should be a great meet so come out and support your Missouri lady tigers!