No. 10 Michigan State Ends the Regular Season with a Win over Northern Illinois

EAST LANSING, Mich. - For the seventh time this season, the No. 10 Michigan State gymnastics team surpassed the 197.000 mark to defeat Northern Illinois, 197.800-195.225 Saturday night at Jenison Field House.

Sophomore Gabrielle Stephen set a new career high in the all-around with a 39.725, just shy of freshman Nikki Smith's school record score of 39.775 set last week.

Michigan State came out on top on vault with a score of 49.100, compared to 48.925 by NIU. The Spartans took the top five marks in the event. Freshman Nikki Smith and Stephen tied for first with a scored 9.875. Freshman Sage Kellerman was third with a mark of 9.825.

In their second rotation, the Spartans broke the school record with a score of 49.725, surpassing the mark of 49.550 set in the tri-meet against LIU and Bowling Green on March 5. Five scoring Spartans earned at least a 9.925. Stephen captured the event title with a career-best score of 9.975, which is second-all-time in the MSU record books. It was her first career event title in bars. Kellerman and junior Delanie Harkness tied for second with matching 9.950 scores. Both either set or matched their career highs.

MSU also came out on top on beam 49.250-48.700. Once again, Stephen took home the event title with a score of 9.900. Junior Giana Kalefe tied for second with a score of 9.875.

The Spartans ended the night on floor, tying the school record with a 49.675. MSU last reached that score against Western Michigan on March 5, 2022. Stephen and sophomore Skyla Schulte tied the school record to win the event title with a scores of 9.975. They are just the seventh and eighth MSU gymnasts to reach the score, including Nikki Smith on Feb. 27. Harkness also tied her career high with a mark of 9.950.

With the victory, Michigan State ends the regular season with a 14-2 overall record.

Michigan State will prepare for the Big Ten Championship on Saturday, March 18, hosted by the University of Iowa in Coralville, Iowa.

POST-MEET QUOTES - HEAD COACH MIKE ROWE

On the impact of MSU's senior class…
They have evolved. As this team has evolved over the past three or four years, they have evolved and have been a part of our program's evolution in a positive way. I'm still crossing my fingers really hard that we aren't losing them. There's still some indecision there from a couple of them, we know that we're getting one back, but I'm kind of in denial on the other two. We might have 23 people on the team next year. We will see what happens then.

On the team's mindset following their record-setting bars rotation…
Let's stick a couple more landings than we did last week. We have worked on handstand shapes a lot this week too. They also started putting their landings together, and I remember telling a couple of them something like, 'that wasn't so hard.' I had no idea how high we scored. I don't keep track of the scores, but Nicole told me after we wrapped up and I was really impressed. I love it, and I hope that we can stay on that same track.