KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan gymnastics team welcomes Central Michigan, Illinois and Wilberforce for Senior Day on Saturday at 4 p.m. It is also a podium meet, letting fans and gymnast experience the sport as it is at the highest levels. 

Tickets are on-sale at www.wmubroncos.com. Live scoring is available at www.WMUStats.com and a live stream is available at www.wmubroncos.com/watch.

A SPECIAL KIND OF MEET
"The world's most prestigious gymnastics competitions including the Olympic Games and our NCAA National Championships, are held on an elevated stage called a "podium." This weekend WMU will make history by being the very first women's collegiate program to ever host a regular season meet on podium on a University campus. Invitational neutral-site meets on podium have become very popular in the last couple of years, but we're the first to do it on campus in our own arena."

"At any one time during the meet only the performing gymnasts will be up on the podium competing. Coaches, teams and support personnel will be down lower on the floor. This creates  a unique experience for the gymnasts to compete in a more focused and visible setting. It's great for the fans and it's much more forgiving on the gymnasts' bodies. The trick is that the timing is different when elevated. It takes practice to learn how to compete well this way. That's why the country's best teams are looking for opportunities to compete on podiums during the regular season to better prepare for the post-season. We're thrilled to have three teams here with us for this inaugural meet, and expect to draw more top teams in the future."

- Western Michigan head coach Penny Jernigen 

THANK YOU SENIORS
Prior to the final results of the meet being announced, the Broncos will take time to celebrate their senior class of Halle Faulkner, Molly Freeman, DonnaKathryn Roy, Ally Schaupp, Gigi Singh and Cassie St. Clair. The six gymnasts have been a part of breaking every team event record, as well as the all-time highest meet score in program history, a 197.100 against Northern Illinois on March 4, 2023. 

All seven competed at and helped the Broncos win the 2024 Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship. Faulkner sealed the title with a 9.850 on the final vault of the meet. The helped the program to a MAC Regular Season Championship in 2023 and helped the Broncos qualify for the NCAA Tournament as a team in 2022 and 2023. All seven have also earned Academic All-MAC recognition and WCGA All-American Scholar honors. 

"This senior class has made a significant contribution to our program's success over the past four years," said Jernigen. "Their freshman year we qualified to the NCAA regional championships as a team for the first time since the championship was established in 1982. They repeated this accomplishment again in 2022 and 2023. They were also a part of the teams that won both the MAC regular season in 2023 and the MAC tournament championship in 2024. They've been extraordinary for us, and we are especially proud to be able to provide them with a podium to compete on for their Senior Day on Saturday."

A LOOK AT THE FIELD
The Fighting Illini rank 26th in the nation, according to RoadToNationals.com. The Chippewas are currently 34th and the lone team from the MAC in the Top 36 required to make the NCAA Tournament, while Bulldogs are in their first season in the history of their program. Originally, Wilberforce was going to start its program in 2026, but when Talladega closed its program, the majority of the team transferred to Wilberfoce to jumpstart the program a year early. 

UI's Chloe Cho is one of the top all-arounders in the nation, with an all-around National Qualifying Score of 39.375 and a high of 39.475.

CMU is the top-ranked team in the MAC with a team NQS of 195.555 and has a high score of 196.00. The Chippewas shine on bars and beam, holding the top NQS's in both events. Luciana Alvarado-Reid is the top-ranked all-arounder in the conference, with a 39.220 NQS and a high of 39.725. 

ON THE HORIZON
The Broncos have one more regular season meet left. WMU heads to North Carolina next Friday for a meet against the Tarheels at 6:45 p.m. The meet can be watched live on ACC Network Extra.