PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The No. 23 Illinois women's gymnastics team will open Big Ten competition with Rutgers on Jan. 21 at 12 p.m. at Jersey Mike's Arena.
HISTORY
The Illini have defeated Rutgers in the last eight meetings since 2014, including last year's meet when the Scarlet Knights were ranked No. 23.
LAST TIME OUT
The Illini are coming off a second place finish in the Arizona Quad meet against Arizona, Bowling Green and Texas Women's.
Illinois scored a 195.725 and got two wins over Bowling Green and Texas Women's and one loss to Arizona.
Arielle Ward was the highest Orange and Blue performer on vault – scoring a 9.825. Abby Mueller, Julia Waight and Ruthuja Nataraj all secured a 9.800 in the event as well.
Olivia O'Donnell had a stellar bar performance, scoring a 9.750, while Mia Takekawa led the way for the Illini with av9.825.
Takekawa once again was the best Illini on beam, scoring a 9.850. Mia Townes was .25 behind her with a 9.825.
Townes shined on floor 9.825, with Takekawa, Tali Joelson and Mueller all scoring a 9.800
SCOUTING REPORT
Rutgers is coming off a hot start where they set a program record for a home opener team score last week with a 195.550 against Georgia. The week before the Scarlet Knights recorded a 194.700 team score at the Super 16 Collegiate Challenge in Las Vegas, setting a program record for a season-opening road score and recording its best overall season-opening score since the 2014 season.
Hannah Joyner took the all-around with a season-best 39.175 against Georgia, while Emily Leese claimed floor with a 9.875 and Gianna Ortiz and Elia Aird shared the beam title with a 9.850.
