The DU Pioneers took control of yet another meet as they won the Burnsley Invitational on Saturday at Hamilton Gymasium.

DU was host to both Michigan State and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Denver’s performance at its home opener, in which it scored 195.400, was nearly matched at Saturday’s performance as DU scored 195.250.

Although just shy of the season-high, it was enough to win. Illinois Chicago came in second with 193.025 and Michigan State third with 192.550 on the night.

DU also won all of the individual events except the all around in which Heather Huffaker took second.

DU came out as hot as the firecrackers that introduced them before the meet. They tackled the vault in the first rotation and tied their season-high of 41.925.

Casey Dobyns recorded her second vault of 9.900 on the season and Huffaker recorded her best vault of the season with a 9.875.

When asked about the vault Huffaker said, “I feel like I am getting to where I need to be. I just need to work on the landing now.”

Dobyns and Huffaker took 1st and 2nd respectively and Michigan State’s Kristen Coleman took third.

DU continued its success on the uneven bars as they once again tied a season best score with a 48.950.

Freshman Jessica LCB3pez recorded her best uneven bars performance of her career scoring 9.875, a full 0.1 better than her previous career-high.

Her career best was also enough for a meet high and she took first place on the uneven bars. Tying for second were Denver’s Courtney Butler and Dobyns who both scored 9.825.

The balance beam found DU off balance, but they were still able to come away with the highest team score for the event.

Lauren Garan took first for DU with 9.875 and Cassidy Willingham and Nikki Brown took third and fourth with 9.775 and 9.750.

Rachael Zelinski took 2nd for Illinois Chicago. Two of Denver’s gymnasts fell off the beam, which was uncharacteristic of the Pioneers.

Coach Kutcher-Rinehart said, “I was really proud of the last three athletes that went up there because we really needed them to hit and they hit under pressure. Normally we are a very strong beam team. I think that is one of our strongest events although we didn’t see that tonight.”

The final three athletes on beam for Denver were Willingham, LCB3pez and Brown. While Denver did not perform at their normal level on the balance beam they still outscored Michigan and Illinois on that particular event.

Denver had a 48.275, Michigan scored a 47.725, and Illinois ended with a 47.625.

The floor exercise was DU’s final event for the evening and it performed well, taking five of the top six scores.

Sasha Sullivan took first with 9.850 and LCB3pez and Huffaker tied for second with 9.800. Zelinski of Illinois took fourth and Dobyns and Katie Andrews tied for fifth with 9.725.

Kutcher-Rinehart said, “I felt like they had a solid performance and there is definitely still room to improve. We had a few mistakes but overall I thought they had good energy and they looked strong.”

Assistant Coach John Figueroa was also pleased.

He said, “The girls on vault, bars, and floor carried a lot of energy and I thought they attacked the equipment and they did a great job.”

The Pioneers will next face Air Force on Feb. 4 at Hamilton Gymnasium.

LCB3pez said, “We are very prepared for the next competition.”

Dobyns added, “We just carry the energy through the weekend.”

DU has the momentum on its side coming off of back to back wins at DU.