The Norman regional didn’t go quite the way Illinois State’s contingent had hoped.
Jaye Mack, who qualified to compete on floor, put her hands down on her first pass, and Alana Laster—there to vault—put up a solid Yurchenko one and a half but missed qualifying to nationals.
Sending individual competitors to nationals was once a seemingly unattainable goal for the Redbirds—until Angelica Labat scored a 9.950 on vault at the 2021 Tuscaloosa regional, where she was competing in the all-around. She won the event outright and secured a tiebreak-free berth to Fort Worth. She was joined in Tuscaloosa by Cameron Topp, who competed on floor. They were the first Redbirds to qualify to the NCAA postseason since Gabrielle Cooke on floor in 2017.
Labat made her way to regionals again in 2022, heading to Norman in the all-around with Laster competing vault and Mack floor. This time, Mack’s 9.925 was enough to punch her nationals ticket. The Redbirds had gone from zero national qualifiers in program history to two in back-to-back seasons.
It’s understandable why head coach Bob Conkling was sad for Mack, whose fall was the only one of her career thus far. The sophomore has been an incredibly consistent piece of the Redbirds’ best lineups, vault and floor.
The three-year…
