Despite sickness, the Ball State University gymnastics team recorded a season-high score, but still lost for the sixth time in its seventh meet of the season. Competing at Eastern Michigan University, the Cardinals lost 189.450 to 191.700 Saturday.
It was the third-straight competition on the road and third-straight loss for Ball State (1-6, 0-4 Mid-American Conference). The Eagles improved to 4-4 and 2-1 in the MAC.
Simonton said a large part of the team was affected by a severe head cold.
"We had about half the team sick," she said. "We had pretty much two performers in every event feeling ill."
Simonton said the type of sickness going around the team really hurt its performance.
"You think about it being a head cold and upper respiratory sickness, that really affects balance," Simonton said.
Many Cardinals overcame the illness and performed well Saturday. Freshman Laura Shockey performed in two events for the first time and scored 9.525 on the vault. Senior Kelly Watson performed in all four events for the fourth-straight meet scoring 38.150 in the all-around competition. Freshman Bibiana Rodriguez scored a career-high 9.700 on the uneven parallel bars.
Also, junior Laura West scored a season and team-high 9.625 on the balance beam. She and Watson were the only two Cardinals to score better than 9.300 on the beam.
The Cardinals scored 47.450 or better in the three other events, but struggled on the beam, scoring 46.650.
"Only two out of six [performances] were hit routines," Simonton said. "Physically it's there. They are capable of doing hit routines, but it's just not there right now. We will have drastic lineup changes in practice this week."
All the losses have not affected the team's attitude, Watson said.
"Of course I don't like losing, but we're not going to dwell on being 1-6," Watson said. "We will take each meet as it comes."
Watson isn't sure the team would have won if they were healthy.
"It's really hard to say," Watson said. "We hit three events well."
The Cardinals will compete this Friday against Northern Illinois University. It will be the Cardinals' first home meet since Jan. 28.
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