Despite not having their whole team cheering them on like they usually do, senior Sarah Schmidt and junior Allison Buckley will still have a familiar cheering section behind them when they head to Gainsville, Fla., for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships on Thursday — their family and friends.

“My mom and dad, as well as my grandparents, are going to be behind me,” Schmidt said. “It’ll be different without the team on the floor while we’re doing our routines, but we still have our support group in the crowd.”

Both Schmidt and Buckley qualified for national bids at the NCAA Central Regional on April 10. Schmidt finished as the top all-arounder on a non-qualifying team with a score of 39.225. Buckley posted a 9.900 on the vault, which was good for a first-place tie, earning her a spot as an event specialist.

The duo became only the eighth and ninth individual qualifiers in UI history. Illinois made its first trip down as a team last season, where then sophomore Melissa Fernandez earned first team All-America honors on the beam event.

“It is a very different when you go as an individual,” Illinois head coach Bob Starkell said. “Most of the season we prepare as a team and then all of a sudden they need to switch mental gears to go and just perform for themselves. But both (Schmidt and Buckley) have experience from before and have a chance to take in another great experience and go against some elite competition.”

Schmidt will be vying for All-America recognition for the second time in her career, earning second team All-America honors on the floor in 2009.

This year, Schmidt will be competing in the all-around, a feat made even more special considering she didn’t start contending in the all-around full time until this year.

“It’s really special to me,” Schmidt said. “As a freshman, I didn’t compete on all of the events outside of a few exhibitions or filling in for an injury. But just with all the hard work and time put in on a couple of my weaker events, it’s a great feeling to be ending my senior year competing in all of the events at such a level.”

Buckley will be returning to nationals for the third time in her career.

A second team All-American on the beam in 2008, Buckley will try earning honors on a different event Thursday on the vault.

“It’s hard to pick one event that I would choose to compete on because I compete in all of them,” Buckley said. “We both took practice the same as we always do and we’ll both try to go into the event the same way. What’s different is how fast it’ll go for me because the vault happens so fast, but hopefully I’ll be able to put together a good one and stick the landing. From there we’ll see what happens.”