Tightening up landings and handstands in practice paid off for the Cyclones this week in their meet against West Virginia

The Cyclones still lost with a small quarter of a point to put up a final score of 194.925-194.900.

For the second rotation the Cyclones and Mountaineers traded events, putting Iowa State on bars and West Virginia on vault. The Cyclones stuck all six landings on bars. Five of the six gymnasts tied or beat their season high score; Nikki Dilbert (tied, 9.825), Megan Barnes (beat, 9.850), Ashley Kent (beat, 9.875), Jasmine Thompson (beat, 9.875), and Ceilia Maccani (beat, 9.900).

“I definitely think this is the best bars we’ve ever done,” Kent said. “This is what we do in practice so it’s nice to come and just show what we do in practice. Every single person put it all out there. It’s a good feeling.”

The Cyclones won the second event with a 49.325-48.925 but were still behind in totals. At the end of the rotation the score was 97.900-97.775. The Cyclones also beat their season high event score and tied the fifth highest bars score in ISU history.

Iowa State went from having its best event of the night to its worst event of the night.

The third rotation put the Cyclones on beam and the Mountaineers on floor. Katie Sweetin had two falls off beam and Michelle Browning had one.

“We have had a really really solid beam practice the past few weeks,” Sweetin said. “We need to apply that to the meet and just stay calm. I was still pretty nervous and I was trying to get the jitters out.”

After a pep-talk from Thompson, Kent came off of the two wobbly performances to lead Iowa State with a 9.750.

“The one thing [Jasmine] says to me is that nothing else matters,” Kent said. “No matter what the person ahead of you does, you still have a job to do.”

At the end of the third event West Virginia kept its lead with a score of 48.775-47.900 and a total of 146.675-145.675.

To finish out the evening the Cyclones and the Mountaineers traded events again putting Iowa State on floor and West Virginia on beam. Dilbert had her season debut on floor. Sweetin tied her season high score with a 9.850. On her last event of the last regular season Thompson tied her season high score with a 9.900.

“[Floor] was so much fun,” Sweetin said.” It’s exactly what we do. The crowd was awesome and we knew we had to finish on a really high note and we knew we could do that on floor.”

The Cyclones won the last event with a score of 49.225-48.250.

Iowa State started on vault for the first event while West Virginia was on bars. The Cyclones had three solid sticks on landings. Megan Barnes led the team on vault with a 9.775. At the end of the first event the Mountaineers were ahead with a score of 48.975-48.450.

“I think vault went awesome tonight,” said Megan Barnes. “We’re really happy with how each of us preformed. It only sets us up to do great things at Big 12s.”

Kent won the Mari-Rae Sopper Outstanding Performance award.

The Cyclones’ next meet is the Big 12 competition Saturday March 21. Iowa State plans to spend practice on beam this week.

“Tashawn said it best, ‘Beam, beam, beam all day, all night,’ a lot of beam,” said oach Jay Ronayne. “We have to stay on the event. Every fall is a half of a point and in a championship situation that can put you in last place.”