Cyclone fans can thank the No. 15 gymnastics team for bringing the Cy-Hawk Trophy back to Iowa State after it took down Iowa 194.475 to 193.825 on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

The Cyclones (5–5) managed to beat Iowa even with their second-lowest score of the season — the lowest was a 193.300 in January against Wisconsin-Stout. Since then, the team has been consistently scoring in the 195–196 range.

“I told the team this week that usually score means everything, except against Iowa,” said coach Jay Ronayne in a news release. “Our goal was to beat Iowa, regardless of what our score was. Coming into the meet, I knew if we won Iowa State would mathematically win the series, so we came here to do that. We accomplished that goal, and we are proud to do that for the Cyclone faithful.”

The ISU lineup at Iowa was different than usual because the team dynamics shifted due to injuries.

Senior Jody McKellar jolted her ankle on the vault two weeks ago at Pittsburgh, and rolled it again in practice this week. She did not compete on Sunday. Instead, several alternates filled in, including freshman Rebecca Ellis who registered a 9.725 on vault.

“[Ellis] did awesome,” said senior Ashley Kent. “Her vaults have been getting so much better in practice and she went out and did exactly what she needed to. She hit a vault and it really helped us so we were really proud of her.”

Senior Megan Barnes, who has been out for the season so far due to a pre-season PCL tear, was able to contribute to the win over Iowa with her season-debut on uneven bars and balance beam.

“Megan was very tentative today,” Ronayne said. “I was able to talk to her about the first step of her comeback being behind her. She can now focus on getting better and getting back to her usual stellar self. She’s still not 100 percent, and she was holding back a little today.”

Barnes placed third overall on bars and sixth overall on beam without performing at her full potential, and Kent said Barnes is definitely a bonus to the team.

“Its just nice to have someone out there who has been competing for three years,” Kent said. “Although she’s not as prepared as she wants to be, she still knows how to hit a routine.”

Even after a successful win with a reordered line up, the Cyclones know they can do better, especially on vault, which was their lowest score this week.

“We had a rough vault for sure today,” Kent said. “But overall just made little mistakes where we gave the judges a chance to take [points] away from us. We just need to clean up the little things, get back on our feet on vault and then I’m sure we’ll be back in the 195s and 196s.”

The Cyclones will continue to work hard in the gym to clean up mistakes, but they are still happy to have the win over Iowa.

“It was a long time coming,” Kent said. “I know a couple times last year we should have gone out and beat them and to have the win this year is just very satisfying.”