Iowa State hopes to be more consistent in meet against Michigan

Junior+Michelle+Shealy+does+a+flip+during+her+performance+on+the+balance+beam+on+Sunday%2C+Feb.+24%2C+2013%2C+against+Minnesota.+The+judges+awarded+Shealy+a+final+score+of+9.850+out+of+10.

Junior Michelle Shealy does a flip during her performance on the balance beam on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, against Minnesota. The judges awarded Shealy a final score of 9.850 out of 10.

Maddy Arnold

For the third time this season and the second time in a week, the ISU gymnastics team will face No. 3 Michigan.

Iowa State (4-10, 0-2 Big 12) will travel to Michigan (16-1, 6-1 Big Ten) for its final regular season meet on March 16, 2013.

“They’re really, really good so you can take that in a whole bunch of ways,” said ISU coach Jay Ronayne. “You can take it as, ‘Oh crap, we’re going to see Michigan again,’ or take it as, ‘Great, we’re going to see Michigan again. Let’s see what we can do. Let’s get better than the last time we saw them.’”

The Cyclones have lost to the Wolverines by more than two points in both meets, but facing them for the third time might be an advantage for them.

“We’ve gone against Michigan twice already, so we know what they do. We just need to do what we can do,” said junior Michelle Shealy. “It’s kind of an advantage because we know how their team is.”

Ronayne said to be competitive with Michigan this time, his team will need to be more consistent with its scores than in the previous two meets.

In their last meet, the Cyclones had the highest event score of the season — 49.175 on the uneven bars — and one of their lowest scores — 48.175 on vault.

Ronayne said more consistency in routines will lead to an overall team score of 196, a goal they have been working toward all season.

“We are still aiming for a 196 team score. That’s a 9.8 average on each event,” Ronayne said. “That’s really what we’re looking for still, and focusing on the details that will create that.”

To be more consistent, Iowa State wants to execute all 24 routines it performs in the meet against Michigan with stuck landings and no falls.

“Just hit routines, that’s all we need to do,” said sophomore Caitlin Brown. “We know we have the numbers in the gym under our belt and we know we can do the routines. All we have to do is hit them in the meet and we’ll be fine.”