As the final event rang out for the Central Michigan gymnastics team, it needed a push to take first at the Mid-American Conference championship. With six girls taking the floor, the Chippewas came out strong with three girls scoring 9.850 and two scoring 9.900.

That was when junior Luciana Alvarado-Reid took the floor to close out the day for CMU. With nearly a perfect routine, she scored a 9.925, the highest score of the day.

“I knew we had kind of a rough rotation before that,” Alvarado-Reid said. “We knew that we needed to do one of the best rotations…but I think that we didn’t take it as pressure, we took it as let’s go out there and have fun.”

The floor routine concluded the championship for the Chippewas as they finished first, scoring 195.725 overall. Eastern Michigan followed in second, scoring 195.525 overall. Western Michigan and Kent State tied for third, both scoring 195.300 overall.

This marks CMU’s and head coach Christine MacDonald’s third MAC title, after winning in 2022, 2023 and now 2025. The Chippewas have hosted the championships four times since 2004 and have defended its title yet again.

Alvarado-Reid went on to win MAC gymnast of the year.

“I am on top of the world,” Alvarado-Reid said. “I feel like we’ve worked so hard, and we truly deserve this win. I’m so proud of all my teammates and my coaches.”

Ball State finished fourth, scoring 195.075, while Northern Illinois and Bowling Green followed behind, scoring 192.925 and 191.700.

After taking fourth place last year, the Central Michigan gymnastics team takes back MAC Champions for the 19th time since 1990.

“They had put the work in,” MacDonald said. “I know they’ve been pressing the last couple of weeks, but we just talked about going in and enjoying every moment and continue to make memories together.”

During rotation one, CMU sprung out the gate with a 48.950 on vault but was just shy of matching Western Michigan’s 49.175 on floor. After their bye, the Chippewas score a 49.000 on the uneven bars, just behind Ball State’s 49.175 on floor.

Moving into rotation four, CMU headed to the balance beam, scoring an overall 48.350. Sophomore Zoie Pelfrey led the Chippewas on beam, scoring a 9.850.

Going into its second bye, CMU needed to score high on floor to take first. All six girls came out strong with Quinn Skrupa, Avah Bootz and Ava Wellmeier all scoring 9.850. Zoë Zimmerman and Hannah Appleget, who took home overall champion, both scored 9.900 while Alvarado-Reid took the highest score of the day and the win for CMU.

“I didn’t necessarily have the goal of being a MAC champion on anything,” Appleget said. “I just wanted to go out and have a solid day to end my career since I knew this would be my last meet, and today has just succeeded every expectation.”

Additionally, six seniors end their season with a first-place win and the title of MAC champions.

“They worked so hard all year to come together,” MacDonald said. “They’ve poured into this team, whether it’s outside the gym or in the gym. They just really took all of our youngsters and did a great job of mentoring them.”

“I mean these young women represent Central Michigan University, on and off the court,” MacDonald said. “They are tremendous students, they are tremendous in the community, they give back to this community so that was really important for them to have that support today…it was very special.”