Looking to end its recent streak of losses, the Ball State gymnastics team heads to Kentucky on Friday to face the Wildcats. The Cardinals' season is winding down, as they have two dual matches left before the Mid-American Conference Championships -- Kentucky and California.
"We feel good going into Kentucky," head coach Mary Roth said.
Ball State (4-7, 1-5 MAC) has been slowed this year due to injuries, but will have one member of the team returning against Kentucky. Junior Kelli Davis has been out for the past month since shattering her knuckle. Davis has missed the Cardinals' past five meets, but will compete on beam and possibly other events, depending on how she is feeling during the meet. She will likely return to a full routine the following week at California.
In Ball State's last meet against Eastern Michigan, a number of the gymnasts recorded season- and career-best scores. A pair of freshmen both recorded career-bests. Kaitlyn Wills scored a career-high 9.650 on vault, while Kelly Watson set a personal best of 9.625 on bars. Junior Jessica Surridge tied a season-high score of 9.675 on vault.
The Cardinals have been working hard on improving during their recent struggles. Due to injuries, the gymnasts stepping in have had to focus on increasing the difficulty in their routines.
"We have spent a lot of time upgrading routines, so we have high start values," assistant coach Tom Housley said.
According to Roth, the team now has a 10.0 start value on the entire bar routines, which is important so that the gymnasts have a chance to receive higher scores.
As injuries occurred to some of the team's upperclassmen, all of the freshmen got the chance to compete, which they were prepared to do.
"The freshmen have been incredible," Roth said.
Looking back, Roth knows things have not gone the way she had planned this season.
"We keep emphasizing that you deal with tough years the best you can," she said.
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