TOLEDO, Ohio - The Illini finished the annual Big Five meet with a 196.375 finishing third behind Michigan and Ohio State. Amelia Knight, Olivia O'Donnell and Lexi Powe each hit career-highs.
"The team is getting better on beam and I'm really excited to get them to their best," said head coach Nadalie Walsh. "Ending on bars that way says a lot about this team. It shows how resilient these athletes are."
Illinois' strongest event of the night was their final event, bars. They finished the meet with an exclamation point, scoring a 49.300. Seniors Rachel Borden, sophomore Kaitlyn Ewald and Mallory Mizuki each scores 9.80. Olivia O'Donnell started the second-half of the lineup, scoring a season-high 9.875. Amelia Knight also hit a season-high 9.90, her second of the night.
Amelia is really coming into her own and building her own identity as a beautiful and powerful gymnast," said Walsh. "She has grown tremendously and is learning to live in and enjoy the moment and the scores are reflecting that."
Illinois started the night on beam with routines from Amelia Knight and Mia Takekawa highlighting the event. Knight scored a 9.80 and Takekawa anchored with a 9.875. Illinois would build as the meet continued. After being on break during the second rotation the Illini would score a 49.200 on floor. Abby Muller leadoff the event with a 9.80 followed by Olivia O'Donnell who scored a career-high 9.825.
"Olivia is an unsung hero sometimes but she is very dependable and you can trust her to go out there and hit her routines, the judges love her and as she increases her difficulty we are going to see her name in lights a lot more," said Walsh.
The second half of the floor rotation would average a 9.850 on the event with Amelia Knight tying her career-high 9.0 on the event. On vault, Mueller lead off her third event of the night with a 9.8 and was followed by another 9.8 from O'Donnell. Lexi Powe, who has specialized in vault for Illinois hit a new career-high 9.9 on the event and Arayah Simons scored a 9.90 for a second weekend.
UP NEXT
Illinois returns to Huff Hall on Friday, Feb. 25 at 7 pm to face Big Ten opponent Rutgers.
