The main theme of the ISU gymnastics team this past season was improvement. The Cyclones ended the season with a 4-15 overall record.

“We definitely could have improved on landings, handstands, the little stuff, the things we can always improve on. It’s better sometimes and sometimes it’s a little worse. We’re really proud of ourselves for this season,” said senior Jasmine Thompson.

The Cyclones focused on taking what they did in practice and applying that to a competition atmosphere this season.

“This season Iowa State gymnastics has matured a lot. This season’s focus was do things like we do in practice. We were a lot calmer as a team this year than the past two years. We really ended on a good note,” said senior Ceilia Maccani.

Junior Megan Barnes was out for four meets this season with a hurt ankle.

“That was a big blow to the team. We couldn’t maximize our team score. It definitely made a difference when she came back and our team score started to creep up again,” said coach Jay Ronayne.

The Cyclones were able to win one home meet this season — the Beauty and the Beast meet against Minnesota.

“We didn’t do anything different. That day it just happened that we were better than Minnesota. During the competition it as a lot more fun because there was a lot of people in the stands,” Ronayne said.

During the Beauty and the Beast meet, Maccani tied the fourth-highest all-time school record on bars with a score of 9.925.

The Cyclones got fourth place in the Big 12 Competition. Iowa State had its season high score with a final showing of 195.775.

Barnes was awarded the silver medal on vault, Maccani received gold on bars and Thompson was earned gold on beam.

The Cyclones are proud they were able to have another appearance at the NCAA Regional Competition which gives them 14 consecutive appearances. Iowa State took third in the competition.

During the regional competition, Maccani hurt an abdominal muscle during her bar routine and was out for the rest of the meet. Luckily Michelle Browning was able to step in for Maccani on beam.

Ronayne continues to hope for improvement for next year’s season.

“I think we can be better than we were this year. Mainly because we had a lot of inconsistency due to the pressure of hitting. That was missing from a few athletes but I think they get it now. Them coming back next year with that skill will be a very very important part of getting better. Goal again for next year is making it to the national championship,” Ronayne said.

Right after the end of this past season Ronayne went on a recruiting trip.

“We have a few girls that will be coming in that will be freshmen next year who are good, we’ll see how good they are,” Ronayne said.

The Cyclones lose Thompson and Jennifer Salfen at the end of this season.

“Jasmine was a huge part of our team scoring this year. Losing her is going to be interesting. To try to replace her I think we need to have the girls that weren’t competing this year or competed very little step up,” Ronayne said.

The gymnasts have a busy summer ahead in order to stay in shape for next season.

“We run open gym [at Iowa State]. Typically, it’s four days a week that we have the gym open for them to do gymnastics stuff and then we have strength and conditioning that we suggest they do. If they go home they are expected to go back to their gym,” Ronayne said.

Ronayne’s parting words for this season and onto next were some words of wisdom to the team dealing with improvement.

“Gymnastics is a year-round sport. You can’t just stop or you’ll never get it back,” Ronayne said.