KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan gymnastics team is set to host the 2021 Mid-American Conference Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, March 20. The meet featuring all seven league teams, is slated to begin at 2 p.m. ET and can be seen live on ESPN3.
Head coach
Penny Jernigan's squad is looking to win its sixth MAC title. The Broncos won the conference championship meet in 1986 and 1987 under then-head coach and current WMU athletics director
Kathy Beauregard, before adding two more championships in 2006 and 2013. Last year, Jernigan's Broncos capture the league's regular season title before the postseason meet was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
First-team All-MAC selection
Payton Murphy has paced the Broncos this season. The sophomore owns the highest national qualifying score (NQS) in the league on balance beam at 9.913, as well as the league's No. 2 NQS in all-around (39.306) and No. 4 NQS on the floor 9.894). This season, Murphy broke the WMU school record for all-around with a 39.375, while she tied a 17-year old school record on balance beam with a 9.950.
The Broncos enter the meet with four other top-10 NQS scores in the MAC. Freshman
Sarah Moravansky ranks sixth in both vault (9.819) and all-around (39.075), while sophomore
Charlotte Tishkoff ranks seventh on balance beam (9.856) and sophomore
Ronni Binstock is 10th in all-around (38.775).
As a team, WMU's NQS is 48.938, just behind Central Michigan's 49.163 and Ball State's mark of 48.944. In the national picture, the Chippewas have ascended to 19th in Team NQS, while Ball State ranks 34th and Western Michigan slots 35th.
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* - Denotes School Record
For a complete look at all seven teams in the league, including each team's top scorers on the season, the
virtual meet program is available in PDF format.
