A gymnastics class for college age students is now being offered to ISU students.

“Cardinal College Class,” offered by Cardinal Gymnastics Academy, is open to any student between the ages of 18 and 22, who has a valid ISUCard.

Iowa State’s gymnastics coaches and husband and wife, Mary and Jay Ronayne, own Cardinal Gymnastics Academy.

The idea came to Mary over the summer after a number of students had asked her if there was an opportunity for college age people to work on their gymnastics skills.

“I sat down with my husband, we both own the club together, and we talked about it, and I said why don’t we just give it a trial basis and open up a college class for 18- to 22-year-olds, so that’s what we did,” Mary said.

The class they offer is structured is not simply an open gym. Coaches are stationed at different “events” around the gymnasium and students are able to rotate through them as they please, after doing a 15 to 20 minute structured warm-up with the coaches at the beginning of the class.

The class is offered every Wednesday night from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on the second floor gymnasium in Beyer Hall. For students interested in taking the class, there is a $20 registration fee, and an additional fee of $10 per class. Students can register in the Gymnastics Office, 2304 Beyer Hall, which is open Monday through Thursday, 4:30 to 7 p.m.

The class has been offered for two weeks, and approximately 25 students attended the first week.

“We had a variety of girls and guys, it wasn’t half and half, but it was pretty close,” Mary said. “We had no idea how many people would should up, there could have been two, there could have been 100, we just had no idea how many would show up. I thought it was a good success, and we’ll work with whatever numbers come in.”

In order to be able to offer this class, the Ronaynes had to make sure their insurance company would cover students older than 18.

“We worked with our insurance company to make sure we could do it with the age range going all the way up to 22 years old,” Mary said. “Our age range use to be just to 18 and that’s why our club is just 18 months to 18 years old.”

The class is available for any skill level. Mary said students who cannot even do a forward roll can be taught, and her husband Jay is there for anybody that would need a bigger spot.

“I would love to keep this going, its just a great way to give the Iowa State students something new, something fun. It’s good for them, its healthy, it teaches basic skills with agility and strength and flexibility,” Mary said. “Plus I think it’s a cool stress reliever. Somebody might want take a study break and come put and flip a little bit. We would love to continue it if all goes well and we have the numbers, even into next spring.”