As the ISU gymnastics team approaches the end of the regular season, finding balance is more important than ever – especially on balance beam and uneven bars.

Recent struggles on each event have given the 13th-ranked Cyclones (10-4) renewed focus in practice to clean up the little mistakes that separate the very good teams from the best.

Iowa State gets its opportunity to correct small errors while pressured by an elite opponent when it competes at eighth-ranked Nebraska (9-3) on Sunday at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.

Competing last weekend against Iowa and Minnesota, the Gophers upset the Cyclones by the slimmest of margins, 195.350-195.325. ISU head gymnastics coach Jay Ronayne knows the 0.25 deficit could have been easily avoided by simply not making little mistakes.

“Last week was a little bit of the ol’ wake up call,” Ronayne said. “It’s focus time, and I feel very strongly that they’re getting focused on what they need to do to be at their best.”

The Cyclones have struggled to put up consistent scores on either event this season.

On beam, scores have ranged from a season-high 49.200 at the season-opening Cancun Classic to two 48.350’s in the last three weeks.

On bars, a season-high 49.375 achieved at Illinois on Feb. 25 was followed up by a 48.675 effort at Iowa last weekend.

“What we’ve been fortunate enough to do in all but two meets is have no falls counting,” Ronayne said regarding beam. “We’ve had two meets where we’ve had that problem – that’s a thing of the past, as far we’re concerned.”

The gymnasts themselves point out they’ve intensely focused on fixing errors in recent practices.

“We’ve definitely changed our workouts a little bit just to emphasize on the things that went wrong at the meet. We’ve really been working hard on fixing those problems,” said senior beam specialist Jade Kvach.

Freshman Nikki Dilbert agrees that her team is putting previous beam struggles behind them.

“We’ve been working really hard on beam this week,” she said.

“[ISU beam coach] TeShawne [Jackson] has been getting us prepared for the next meet by doing a lot of pressure sets and working on our problem areas.”

Ronayne says fixing mishaps on beam isn’t enough to compete against top-10 teams – errors on bars have to be addressed as well if the Cyclones are going to be a top seed at NCAA Regionals in April.

“On bars, we were short on handstands, and at this point of the season and this level of competition, that’s kind of a separator between the very top teams and the next bunch,” Ronayne said.

“On bars, it’s who’s going to hit every handstand, who’s going to have perfect form, and who’s going to land every dismount perfectly.”

At this point of the season, the focus isn’t on winning, even against Big 12 rival Nebraska. Iowa State’s focus is on improving its regional qualifying score.

“We want to make sure that their focus isn’t on winning. Winning and losing is for pride; score is the thing that we are chasing,” Ronayne said. “We want to get out there and score 196, 196.5 or better, because that is going to help our regional qualifying score, which helps us to be either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed at the Regional championship.