Although an 0-3 start is less than auspicious, the Cyclones posted their best score of the season against No. 6 Auburn and retained their No. 18 ranking.

The Cyclones saw three season-high scores in events and two career-high scores from gymnasts in a 196.275-195.225 loss on Friday. Despite the loss, the team’s mood after the meet was positive.

“We had a pretty good showing for it being our first time [on the road]. Last year our highest team score was a 195.2-something and we only hit that twice, and we’ve already hit that score our third meet in,” said senior Jasmine Thompson.

For the first event of the night the Cyclones started out on bars. The Cyclones had a season-high score of 49.000. The leading Cyclone scorer was Ceilia Maccani with a 9.850. At the end of the first event the Cyclones were ahead with their 49.000 to Auburn’s vault score of 48.950.

The second event the Cyclones and Tigers traded events. Iowa State had another season-high on vault with freshman Michelle Browning having her career-high score of 9.825.

“My vault was really exciting for me, it was the first time to compete that vault and it felt right when I did it. Hopefully I can continue doing that at each meet,” Browning said.

Head Coach Jay Ronayne was also happy with Browning’s effort.

“She has only been working on this vault for a week. It’s a vault starting at a 10.0. She ran down and did the biggest vault I’ve ever seen her do. She took a big step on the landing but that was the only thing wrong with it. And the judges thought the same thing. The step took off a .2. It was the best vault I’ve ever seen her do,” head coach Jay Ronayne said.

At the end of the second event the Cyclones scored a 48.750 with the Tigers scoring a 49.075 on bars.

To kick off the third event, the Cyclones took the floor and Auburn moved to beam.

“Floor wasn’t as sharp as it could have been. So that was in a sense disappointing; it wasn’t a complete bust. We can be a lot sharper, I think we gave away like .3 or .4 points,” Ronayne said.

The top scorer for the Cyclones was Thompson with a 9.850. Also, Melanie Tham returned to floor after being out with a hurt ankle. “We were able to get Melanie back on floor and that was encouraging. Just seeing her be able to get out there now is encouraging for the rest of the season. We hope by Big 12s she is top form. She’s someone we’re counting on to be 1, 2, or 3 at Big 12s,” Ronayne said.

Thanks to Auburn gymnast A.J. Mill’s third-highest beam score in Auburn history, the Tigers came out with a 49.125.

The fourth and final rotation sent the Cyclones to the beam and the Tigers to the floor. Iowa State saw its third season-high score for the meet here. Also Thompson posted a new career-high with a 9.900. The Cyclones ended with a 48.875 and the Tigers had a 49.125.

The all-around scorers in the meet did not change for Iowa State. Thompson took third and Megan Barnes took fourth. This was Thompson’s all-around best score for the season thus far.

“I told a small group right after the meet we did well but we left a lot of room for improvement which is an encouraging thing. There is stuff we can easily fix,” Ronayne said.