Iowa State fell short of NCAA nationals with a third place finish at the North Central Regional in Iowa City on Saturday.

The Cyclones met up with UCLA, Denver, Florida, Iowa and Minnesota.

In order to continue on to the NCAA Championships the Cyclones would have had to come in first or second. However, Florida took first place with a score of 196.775, UCLA took second place with a score of 196.625 and Iowa State took third with a 195.650.

“The end result was kind of bittersweet. I was sure that everything was going to fall into place and we were going to take either first or second. That was the mindset that we needed to have,” said coach Jay Ronayne.

For the first event, the Cyclones started on vault. Ceilia Maccani led Iowa State with a 9.850. Also in the first round: UCLA on bars, Iowa on beam and Minnesota on floor. Iowa State finished the first event with a 48.975. UCLA led with a score of 49.125.

“Since it was our first event I really wanted to start the meet well. Being first up I really wanted to set the tone. We all went out and we did a good job,” Maccani said.

The Cyclones sat out during the second event along with Iowa. UCLA moved onto beam, Denver the bars, Florida the floor and Minnesota the vault. After the second events UCLA was still ahead with a 97.775.

For the third rotation Iowa State moved to bars, Florida to vault, Denver to beam and Iowa took the floor. The Cyclones were led by Megan Barnes who scored a 9.800. Following the third event, which was the halfway point in the competition, Florida was in first place with a score of 98.300.

“We focused on sticking landings and hitting handstands. Everybody was really clean. Overall it was a really good rotation,” Maccani said.

However, Maccani said she had a scary moment on the bars. She did a release move and injured an abdominal muscle, forcing her to stop her routine and see medical personnel. The doctors said she could move onto the beam if she could stand the pain, but Maccani chose to sit out and was replaced by Michelle Browning.

“Michelle came through like a champion. She scored a 9.800 on beam. It was awesome,” Ronayne said.

Iowa State moved to beam, UCLA took the floor, Iowa went to vault and Minnesota was on bars during the fourth rotation. The Cyclones were led by Browning with a 9.800. UCLA was back in first place after this rotation with a score of 147.200.

“We’ve been so confident and going into beam we felt that same way. We all went out and we hit our routines as best as we could. It felt good. We had a couple wobbles but we stayed on the equipment,” said Jasmine Thompson.

To finish out the evening Iowa State took the floor, Denver moved to vault, Florida went to beam and Iowa was on bars. Shea Anderson led the Cyclones with a 9.850.

“Floor was amazing! The first three girls had 9.8s. They did an awesome job,” Thompson said.

Thompson took ninth place in the all around competition with a score of 39.100.

Despite the season coming to an end, Thompson said she was still happy with the team’s effort, noting that it over-achieved.

“Coming into this meet we really wanted to prove ourselves. We were ranked sixth but we know we’re better than that. We just wanted to go out and hit our routines and that’s exactly what we did,” Thompson said.