KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan gymnastics team announced its 2016 schedule with a total of five home meets including three against Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponents, Bowling Green, Kent State and Ball State. Penny Jernigan is now in her third year as head coach of the Broncos after leading the squad to a third place finish at the MAC Championships a year ago.

The Broncos open up the season by hosting Illinois-Chicago on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 4 p.m. in University Arena before hosting a triangular with Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 1 p.m. The outcome against Bowling Green will count in WMU and BGSU's MAC record.

Western Michigan then heads to Morgantown, W. Va. ,to face off with West Virginia on Sunday, Jan. 24 before playing host to defending MAC Champions Kent State on Sunday, Jan. 31 at 1 p.m. and Ball State on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 4 p.m.

To kick off a string of five straight road duals, the Brown & Gold have a MAC matchup with Northern Illinois in DeKalb, Ill., on Sunday, Feb. 14. The Broncos then have two duals in one weekend starting in Ypsilanti, Mich., to facing Eastern Michigan on Friday, Feb. 19 and ending the weekend in Mount Pleasant against defending regular season MAC champions Central Michigan on Sunday, Feb. 21.

The Brown & Gold will stay on the road for two more duals against Illinois State on Sunday, Feb. 28 and end long road stretch with the team that finished tied for No. 23 in the nation by GymInfo in the University of Washington on Saturday, March 5.  The Broncos end the regular season with Southeastern Conference (SEC) opponent Missouri at University Arena on Friday, March 11.

The postseason starts with the MAC Championships on Saturday, March 19 at 2 p.m. in Muncie, Ind. and are being hosted Ball State. Following the MAC Championships, NCAA Regionals is scheduled for Saturday, April 2 while the NCAA Nationals is slated for April 14-16.

Western Michigan is coming off a 2015 season in which it set a new school record for overall score with a with a 196.175, shattering the previous record of 195.575 set in 2004. The team set a total of 24 team and individual school records. WMU also achieved is highest team score ever at a MAC Championships with a 195.525, its highest Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of all time (195.06) and its highest team total average of all-time (194.435).

Individually, Kelsey Hood was named MAC Freshman of the Year and Anna Corbett was the MAC All-Around title, while Kayla Weber finished as runner-up. The Broncos advanced four to the NCAA regionals.