Gymnasts sweep to title
CHAMPAIGN – Sarah Schmidt won the all-around for the second time in her career and No. 13 Illinois swept the individual titles to bury Ohio State in women's gymnastics Saturday at Huff Hall.
Illinois won 196.300-194.700.
"We had really good performances on all four events," Illinois coach Bob Starkell said. "One of our goals is to not count a major break, and we didn't have any today, so we accomplished that goal. I feel pretty good about the stretch we have had as we continue to get ready for Big Tens."
Schmidt won the floor exercise and tied for first with Melissa Fernandez and Kelsey Joannides on beam. Allison Buckley won the vault title. Fernandez was victorious on parallel bars with a 9.925.
The Illini scored season highs on bars (49.225) and beam (49.175).
"We kept the energy level high on bars by remaining focused, staying composed and sticking the dismounts," Starkell said. "Beam is just a mentally tough event, but our group is looking pretty confident and strong. Even though they did really well today, I still believe they can do even better."
In the all-around, Schmidt's 39.375 tied the sixth-best mark in school history. Fernandez was second at 39.275, followed by Buckley (39.250).
In women's track & field:
Robinson, relay shine. Tamika Robinson matched a career best in winning the 60-meter hurdles and the Illinois 1,600 relay placed fifth in the Iowa State NCAA Qualifier in Ames, Iowa.
Robinson was timed in 8.25 seconds.
The relay squad of Ryisha Boyd, Ashley Kelly, Marissa Golliday and Melissa Bates ran a season-best time of 3:37.0.
"Tamika should be solid for next week's championships after running well and tying her personal best," coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said. "We were hoping the 4x400 relay would run a little bit faster, but it was still a season best, so we have to be happy with that."
Robinson entered the weekend ranked 14th with a provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA Indoor Championships and remained in position to get a bid, which will be announced Monday. The relay was ranked 20th entering the weekend but is now 26th after being passed by several squads.
In men's track & field:
Riley breaks record. Andrew Riley broke his own school record in the 60 hurdles to win the event at the Iowa State NCAA Qualifier.
His automatic qualifying time for the NCAA Indoor Championships was 7.65, tied for third fastest in the nation this season.
"Andrew really had a breakthrough race today," interim coach Mike Turk said. "He is just starting to put it together and figure it out with the speed that he has. He still has room for improvement, but I know Andrew was very pleased with his race."
After running a 7.85 in the prelims, Riley easily won the final.
"He will be in the thick of it next weekend," Turk said. "He is really capable of doing anything if he runs a clean race."
Greg Shroka, who went into the weekend tied for 19th in the country in the high jump at 7-1 3/4, cleared 6-11 but was unable to improve his personal best, putting him on the bubble for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
In baseball:
Offense falters. Mike Giller homered but inconsistent hitting cost the Illini in a 4-2 defeat to Western Carolina in Greenville, N.C.
"We pitched well enough to win today," Illinois coach Dan Hartleb said. "But we had some opportunities to score runs and we didn't execute well."








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