Illini Ink Blog

Hi Illini fans!!

It's still winter break here at U of I but despite being some of the only students on campus our team still had an incredible week! Our white Christmas finally came as Champaign is now covered in beautiful snow!! We all started out the week on Monday watching the premiere of the Bachelor. I think it's safe to say we all might have a little crush on this season's bachelor, Chris. Throughout the week, we were able to attend tons of Illini sporting events! On Wednesday, we watched proudly as our Men's basketball team breezed right past their opponent Maryland for a big win!! Thursday, we had a similar night but this time we were backing our incredible woman's basketball team as they crushed the highly ranked Iowa Hawkeyes!!! The game was so intense many of us even lost our voices from cheering on our fellow student-athletes. Watching other sports have such great success gives me chills and such pride to be a Fighting Illini! Friday was the official start of the NCAA gymnastics season and being the biggest gymnastics nerds there are, our team live streamed six NCAA meets at once so we could watch some talented gymnasts and other teams we might face this season. Of course we closed our gymnastic filled Friday night by watching our Men's gymnastics team beat the University of Illinois-Chicago, starting off their season strong.

It was a crazy and fun week but we all knew what was waiting for us ahead; Sunday was meet day! The team trained so hard all week in preparation for our season opener against Central Michigan. We headed out to CMU in style thanks to our incredible seniors who decorated the bus with ribbons, motivational quotes, historical feats and records that Illini gymnasts have set. After a long bus ride, we arrived at the venue and before we knew it our first competition of 2015 was in the past. First meets are never perfect but we all believe this team showed what we are capable of. We held together as a team and everyone did their jobs. Giana O'Connor won vault and the all-around title, I was able to secure a bar victory with a 9.85, while Erin and MJ completed their first all-around competitions as Illini. We are all so motivated to get back in the gym to keep working and polishing our routines. I am so incredibly proud of this team and you better watch out Illini fans because it's about to be a season for the history books!!

Don't forget to head over to Huff Hall on Saturday and cheer us on as we host the first every B1G meet against new conference opponents Rutgers! Thanks so much for tuning in Illini fans!

Much love, Sarah