Moving on up is the name of the game for the ISU gymnastics team. After splitting against BYU and Michigan last week, the Cyclones (2–3) moved up in the NCAA rankings from No. 14 to No. 13.

Although the team performed well as a whole Friday, some of the gymnasts were a bit off.

Senior Ceilia Maccani struggled in two of her three events, with both her 9.375 on uneven bars and her 9.625 on balance beam being dropped from the total team score. 

“After the meet I was kind of upset,” Maccani said. “I got back into the gym and I’m determined not to let that happen again. I’m just going to go out and show what I do every day in practice.”

The coaching staff put Maccani in more high-pressure situations during practice this week to try and prepare her for the meet Friday. She said this involves mixing up her spot in the line up and having silence during her performance. 

“She’s still making a couple of mistakes,” said coach Jay Ronayne. “Her confidence isn’t as high as it should be. We’re still working on that, so it might take a couple weeks for it to come back, or it could happen this week.”

Sophomore Michelle Browning was on her game last week with a career-high 39.200 in the all-around. For her performance, Browning won the Mari-Rae Sopper Outstanding Performance Award, which goes to the ISU gymnast whose performance most inspires the coaches, fans and teammates. 

Browning was also named the Big 12 Gymnast of the Week on Tuesday and will go into Friday’s meet No. 24 in the country in the all-around. 

“This year my personal goal was to compete in the all-around,” said Browning. “Now that I’ve been competing in the all-around every meet, I want to place in the Big 12. Not necessarily in all-around, but on floor [exercise] — one of my stronger events.”

Ronayne said he has been expecting big things from Browning since he first met her. He said every week she gets a little bit better and he expects her to be All-American. 

Preparing for their meet Friday, the Cyclones are still fine-tuning their routines.

Ronayne said it wasn’t the greatest week of practice but the team is getting better and better.

“We know this week we’re going to be pretty good when we go to Pittsburgh,” said Ronayne. “But how good are we going to be? We want to be great.”

The Cyclones will return to action 8 p.m. Friday in Pittsburgh when they face Pittsburgh (0–4), SUNY-Brockport (5–1) and Rutgers (2–5).