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Freshman Buckley Earns First Team All-Big Ten Honors
March 28, 2008
Ann Arbor, Mich. -The 2008 Women's Gymnastics All-Conference teams were announced Friday night at the Big Ten Championships banquet at Michigan's Crisler Arena. Freshman Allison Buckley (Schaumburg, Ill.) was named to the All-Big Ten First Team, marking the second consecutive year that an Illini freshman has garnered first team honors (2007-Nicole Cowart). Buckley becomes just the sixth freshman in Illinois history to receive first team accolades. She has competed all-around in every meet this season and currently sits third (RQS-39.260) in the conference in the all-around and second on floor (9.885) heading into tomorrow's championships. Buckley has captured 19 individual titles this season, which is the third-highest total in school history, and ranks in the national top-50 on four events (FX-18th, AA-24th, VT-37th, BB-47th). "It's exciting to have my peers vote Allison (Buckley) on the All-Big Ten first team," said head coach Bob Starkell. "She has worked extremely hard this year and has seen great success during competition. Hopefully she can continue her momentum from the last couple weekends and have an excellent Big Ten Championship." Along with Buckley's achievements, junior Lindsey Smith (Collinsville, Ill.) was named Illinois' honoree for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. The student-athletes chosen are individuals who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. In addition, the student-athletes must be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. In addition to the awards, the rotation order was drawn for Saturday's Big Ten Championships. The Illini will begin the competition with a bye in rotation 1 then move on to floor in rotation 2 and will rotate in the following order: bye, floor, bye, vault, bars, and another bye before finishing the final rotation on beam. "We are already feeling the excitement of Big Ten's and we haven't started competing yet," said Starkell. "Tomorrow's rotation fits us well as we start on a bye before we compete on floor. Floor exercise has been really strong for us the last two weekends so it should be a good event for us to start on." The 2008 Big Ten Championships will begin at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT on Saturday at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. Individual awards, including Gymnast, Freshman and Coach of the Year, will be released after the conclusion of the competition. Livestats will be available on fightingillini.com and mgoblue.com. The meet will be broadcast nationally on the Big Ten Network. It will air tape-delayed on Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m. CT with Jim Kelly and Mary Lee Tracy calling the action. 2008 All-Big Ten Teams First Team
Second Team Kelsey Knutson, MICH Katie Lieberman, MICH Kari Pearce, MICH Trish Wilson, MICH Rochelle Robinson, MSU Rebecca Best, OSU Kaylan Clevinger, OSU Maalika Moore-Thomas, OSU Alexandra Brockway, PSU Aslynn Satterfield, PSU |
