Although Iowa State dropped to 0-2 on the season with a loss to Nebraska on Friday, the Cyclones seemed to feel better about their performance than in their first loss of the season against Missouri.

All week in practice, the Cyclones focused on routine and trying to perform in front of a crowd the same way they do in front of each other in the gym. The result was a 195.550-194.775 loss, but a better score than the season-opener a week ago.

“Everyone felt a lot more confident coming in, last week in practice went really well,” junior Jody McKellar said.

The Cyclones started out on vault, but Nebraska’s routines on bars put them above the Cyclones in points.

“We’re trying to take care of the little mistakes. Vault was better this week but still not good enough. We had four landings that took a big step and that’s .1 from each score that we gave away,” head coach Jay Ronayne said.

For the second rotation the Cyclones and the Cornhuskers traded events. The Cyclones improved immensely on bars from their meet against Missouri.

“We hit routines on bars and that’s really what it comes down to, it was exactly what we’ve been doing in the gym so it was awesome to see it in public when it counts,” Ronayne said.

The Cyclones then moved to beam. Although some gymnasts looked wobbly, the Cyclones were very proud of their routines.

“Beam is awesome, beam is looking great. Beam is such a weird animal, its four inches wide and four feet high it can be really intimidating. For some teams it’s the Achilles heel but for us it’s been nice and steady,” Ronayne said.

The Cyclones finished out the night on floor. Attitude was the main theme in the Cyclone’s routines there, even though some athletes were not as pleased with their performance.

“My floor routine wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to be, so hopefully I can practice and get it together for the next meet,” freshman Michelle Browning said.

Ronayne said he was impressed with how the Cyclones performed this week.

Senior Jasmine Thompson started out the night rocky with a fall on vault, but was able to improve her scores and pull it together by the end of the meet.

“Jasmine Thompson, one of our all-arounders, is starting to get a hold of her emotions. Sometimes her emotions get away from her and her performance suffers because of it and tonight she was a little more in control,” Ronayne said.

At the end of the meet Ronayne was happy with the improvement he has seen from the Cyclones.

“I’m pleased with the way we’re progressing. I want perfection every time right away but I’m a realist, I realize we’re not going to get that all the time, all I can ask is make improvements,” Ronayne said.