Illinois’s Orange & Blue Exhibition: Like No Other

As you may or may not know, I am currently a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a gymnastics enthusiast, I am obviously very, very excited about the Illini gymnastics team, especially after the success they’ve had during the past few years.

Like many other schools, Illinois had their exhibition during the weekend of December 8. Unlike many other schools, Illinois’s exhibition was a competition combining their men’s and women’s teams. The competition format was a head-to-head competition on each event (excluding vault for the men). Think of it as the Pro Gymnastics Challenge without the extra rules and without the requirement of performing the same skill.

Another thing that makes this exhibition meet/intrasquad different from most others is that it was not traditionally scored with the 10.0 or execution/difficulty scoring. In fact, it wasn’t scored at all. Instead, student-athletes from the university volunteered to be judges. They judged a certain event and chose which athlete from which team did better, blue or orange. Each apparatus had two judges, so they could both choose the same color or one could choose orange while the other chose blue. In case of a tie, the audience chose the winner by cheering for the routine they liked most. The team/gymnast who got louder cheers won. This definitely added excitement to the meet, though I do admit that I would’ve liked to see what scores the routines would’ve gotten. (Though one of the people on the men’s coaching staff did legitimately score the men’s routines as a benchmark of progress.) 

Both the men’s and women’s teams performed well and did great for their first time competing in front of a crowd this season.

Watch highlights from the men's and women's exhibition below! 

Highlights, Standouts, and Tidbits:

•         Women’s Floor Exercise: Illinois’s floor routines are all fabulous. I love them all! They have great tumbling and excellent choreography that allows the gymnast to interact with the audience. There are routines with sassy, salsa music and others with darker, electronic vibes. My favorite routine would be senior Sarah Fiedler’s. She has a routine with sassy, salsa music and is a great performer. Her choreography fits very well with the music and her routine is a hit with the crowd and her teammates.

•        All-Around: With the loss of superstar Alina Weinstein, the top all-around spot is up for grabs. Based on the exhibition and last season, I’d say that spot will either go to sophomore Giana O’Connor or senior Amber See. O’Connor competed all-around in every meet last season while See competed all-around a few times last year. Neither of them competed all-around in the exhibition, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. (Of course, it is definitely possible and probable for both of them to compete all-around.)

•       Erin Buchanan: This freshman who hails from Capital Gymnastics in Virginia did wonderful for her first college meet experience. She competed on vault, beam, and floor, and hit all three which in turn led to her winning all of her events. She stuck her yurchenko full, had great tumbling on floor (with the exception of her spotted dismount which I’m guessing needs work on), and was a bit shaky on beam; managed to stay on. After her solid performances and as one of the only freshmen who competed in the exhibition, she’s definitely one to keep your eye on.

•        Mary Jane Horth: This decorated freshman is a three-time JO National Qualifier, a Regional champion, an Ohio state champion, and a Nastia Cup competitor. Unfortunately, an injury from her last JO season prevented her from competing as she is still recovering. I spoke to her briefly, and she said her recovery is going well. She looked pretty good during warm-ups as she practiced some turns and other skills for beam, so hopefully we’ll be able to see her on the competition floor sometime this season.

•        Sunny Kato: The junior bars and beam specialist hit her two events as per usual. Her bar routine includes a pak salto, a piked jaeger, and a double layout dismount. Expect to see her as a solid competitor in the lineup throughout the season.

•      Emily Lennon: The freshman Canadian elite only competed on beam, which didn’t surprise me as it is her best event. Her routine went pretty well with the exception of a fall on an acro skill. Though she suffered a fall, she kept her composure for the entire routine and finished off strong. She has great presence on beam and has choreography that reminds me of McKayla Maroney. In fact, when I first saw Lennon, (just her as a person, not her gymnastics) she instantly reminded me of Maroney. It’s still the beginning of the season, (technically the season hasn’t even started yet) so I’m not worried about her. She has great potential on beam, and I hope to see her in the beam lineup throughout the season.

•         Amber See: See competed on vault and bars. Her vault was a handspring front tuck half out where she only had a small step on the landing. None of the other Illini women competed a handspring vault, so that was definitely unique for the competition. Her bars routine is also unique as it has two back-to-back in-bar straddled jaegers. That was a sight to see and wowed me for sure.

•       Men’s High Bar: The men looked fantastic on high bar. There were even a few one-armed giants and Gaylords (or in WAG, Mo Saltos) which were crowd pleasers for sure.

•       Chandler Eggleston: The freshman 2013 Junior National Team Member showed a great performance on floor and high bar. The only problem he seemed to have during the competition was endurance on floor. Before his dismount, two of his teammates (including fellow Junior National Team Member Matt Foster) gave him a drink and fanned him with a towel. It was a rather humorous moment. To watch that moment, click here.

•      Tom Gibbs: The freshman from London only saw competition time on one event during the first rotation. While flipping on still rings, he slipped off the rings and landed on his head. Thankfully, he is okay and only has a mild concussion and a sprained neck. He has to wear a neck brace, but he can find some positivity in this and says it’s perfect for a loop scarf! (http://instagram.com/p/hv5s6yxOHc/)

This update was posted on the Illinois gymnastics page the day after the competition; 

"For everyone wondering about Tom Gibbs after his fall at yesterday's Orange and Blue Exhibition, Coach Spring reports that he's doing great. He was joking about the situation shortly afterwards and only suffered a slightly sprained neck and mild concussion. Thanks to everyone keeping him in your thoughts and prayers!"

•          Andrew Margolis: Another funny moment of the competition was when senior Andrew Margolis came out on the floor wearing an Illini cape before going up on rings and pretended to be Superman. After loss with Mike Wilner, he was a little upset.

•         Jordan Valdez: Valdez competed on parallel bars and high bars and was phenomenal on both. Apparently his routines would have gotten some pretty high scores that would have won NCAAs last year according to this interview with Justin Spring.

Overall, the Orange & Blue Exhibition was a great experience and was so much fun to watch. There were a lot of funny moments as well as a lot of astonishing moments, like when a gymnast stuck a landing. When there was a stuck landing, the announcer would say, “That’s another Illinois” and the audience would respond with, “Stuck landing!”

Illinois Gymnastics may not bring the largest crowd to Huff Hall, but it is still an experience like no other. NCAA gymnastics has such a fun and energetic environment, and Illinois definitely provides that.

For complete results from the Orange & Blue Exhibition, click here!

And here’s a screenshot of my sister and I at the meet that I took from the highlight video in case anyone wanted to see. I’m the one on the left who isn’t taking pictures.
 

Credit for all photos to my awesome twin sister Ashley, so please do not use photos without my permission or take off the credit, because they are not mine.

Written by: Amanda