The gymnastics team will play host to the 22nd annual Mid-American Conference Gymnastics Championship Saturday. The event will be held at 2 p.m. in Worthen Arena.
All seven league teams will be featured - Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan.
Kent State is the defending champion and the winner of eight titles overall. Bowling Green, however, earned the top seed after posting a perfect 6-0 regular season record against MAC teams.
The season has been one of ups and downs for the Cardinals. They bring a 13-12 overall record and 3-3 league mark heading into the championship.
Ball State will be seeking its first MAC crown on its own floor.
"It is great to have the honor of hosting the MAC Championship," head coach Mary Roth said. "It was exciting the last time we hosted in 1995, and since then, our program has grown. There is added pressure in hosting a meet of this magnitude, but it's also an advantage to be at home. We welcome the pressure and are excited for Saturday."
The Cards' five seniors - Jenny Gantt, Jamie Irwin, Renee Planck, Jaime Swisher and Miesha Williams - were members of the 1999 team, which turned in a runner-up finish at the MAC Championship and earned the program's first-ever team appearance in NCAA Regional competition.
Roth said experience is key.
"I think experience means everything and we have plenty of it with five seniors and four juniors being part of our regular lineup," she said. "All of these athletes have been a part of very good teams here at Ball State, and they all have the goal of winning our first MAC Championship."
Coming off of two straight defeats does not play into the Cardinals' mindset, Roth said.
"We're going in planning to win," she said. "We have a banner hanging in our practice facility that says, 'I'm here to win the MAC at my house, how about you?'
We will do everything we possibly can to accomplish that. If the chips fall our way, then we will achieve our goal."
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