IOWA CITY – Two’s a crowd, three’s a party.

Maybe they shouldn’t have invited Minnesota to the party.

Despite soundly defeating No. 24 Iowa and earning two more points for Iowa State in the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk series, the 10th-ranked ISU gymnastics team lost by the slimmest of margins to No. 28 Minnesota. The Golden Gophers won Sunday’s impromptu triangular meet behind a season-best score, 195.350 to 195.325 to 194.275.

For ISU coach Jay Ronayne and his gymnasts, the loss is one of the most disappointing of the season.

“Heartbreaking is definitely it,” Ronayne said. “I’m just really mad. I don’t like to lose for one thing, and stuff that could have been avoided was not avoided.”

Iowa State (10-4) was originally scheduled to face Minnesota (5-6) in Ames last Friday, but the snowstorm that hit the state caused the meet to be canceled.

Instead of postponing to a later date, Minnesota was instead invited to compete in Iowa City on Sunday, making the scheduled Iowa-Iowa State dual a triangular meet.

The Cyclones’ downfall came on the balance beam, where they recorded a 48.350 after having to count a fall. Sunday’s loss is eerily similar to the loss to Oklahoma on Feb. 16 – in both meets, falls on beam led to an event score of 48.350.

Despite strong comebacks on floor exercise (49.225) and vault (49.050) to finish the meet, Iowa State couldn’t overtake the gap created by mishaps on beam and bars (48.675).

“We had half a meet that was good,” Ronayne said. “We didn’t do bars at all like we warmed up [or] like we did in practice. We thought we were going to get it together on beam and it just never happened.”

A visibly disappointed Katie Lasher shared her coaches’ feelings.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Lasher, one of four seniors on this year’s team. “We had a lot of mistakes that shouldn’t have happened. Every single person on this team had something that they messed up and contributed to this loss.”

Ronayne liked what he saw during the last two events of the meet, but was frustrated the Cyclones couldn’t pull it together on all four rotations.

“The second half of the meet, I’m very proud of how they came back,” he said in regards to Iowa State’s response to Minnesota’s 97.725-97.025 lead halfway through the meet. “They showed what they’re made of, second half – they took it to them.”

The result of Iowa State’s comeback, however, took Ronayne by surprise.

“I’m surprised we came back and didn’t win it. I really was positive we were going to. That’s why I’m still mad,” Ronayne said.

Despite Iowa State’s gymnastics victory over Iowa (5-7), the Cyclones as a whole trail the Hawkeyes, 11-6, in the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk series. The two points earned Sunday, however, keep Iowa State in the running to win the series this year.