With the first-ever “Beauty and the Beast” event this weekend, the No. 7 ISU gymnastics team (7-2, 2-0 Big 12) is hyped to be the belle of the ball.

The event will feature the ISU gymnastics and wrestling teams sharing the floor at Hilton Coliseum to compete in simultaneous meets against Big 12 rival Nebraska on Sunday.

Senior Kacey Oiness said she is looking forward to the event, but isn’t sure what to expect.

“We’re all interested to see how it’s going to be,” she said. “People keep asking us, ‘What’s it going to be like?’ and we don’t even know. It will be exciting and should draw in a big crowd.”

As far as added distractions are concerned, Oiness said her team doesn’t get distracted easily.

“I don’t think we’ll be distracted by the wrestling [meet],” she said. “At our last meet, there was a band there, so we deal with things like that all the time, and we practice with music.

“I think we’re pretty well-trained at being able to focus on ourselves and not be distracted by outside things, so I don’t think it will be a problem,” she said.

Coach K.J. Kindler pointed out that her team has been preparing themselves for what the event could bring.

“We’re pretty focused on what we’re doing and we’ve been playing the radio louder each day in practice to get them ready for the potential of a Cyclone wrestler pinning somebody during one of [the] routines and hearing the crowd explode,” she said. “We understand that that will happen, and we’re ready for it.”

Kindler doesn’t believe the elements of gymnastics will agitate the wrestlers.

“I doubt we’ll be very distracting to the wrestlers, because most of our equipment will be off to the side,” she said. “It’s a good opportunity for us to cross audiences a little bit and get more people interested in both sports.”

Junior Ashley Alden said that the wrestlers are just as pumped for the meet as the gymnasts.

“The wrestlers are really excited too – we’re all friends with them actually,” she said. “They think it’s going to be really cool.”

The meet will be the second of the weekend for the Cyclone gymnasts. Before they face the challenge of No. 8 Nebraska (8-3-1, 2-0 Big 12), they must first fend off the attack of a hungry No. 19 Oregon State (6-5) team.

“Oregon State and Nebraska are going to be very tough opponents,” Kindler said. “Oregon State has traditionally had a very great program and very experienced coaching staff.”

Kindler noted how important it is for the team to stay focused for Sunday.

“It’s always tough having two meets in the same weekend,” she said. “Being able to regroup and go over what happened on Friday and try to improve on that for Sunday is a tough thing to do.”

“Having Nebraska, the toughest opponent in the Big 12 for us, is something we want to be up for, so we’re going to have to lay low on Saturday and come back out on Sunday.”

However, the gymnasts don’t share Kindler’s concern when it comes to competing twice in one weekend.

“As a senior, I’ve done it before in past years and it’s not really that tough, because we have a day off in between where we don’t do anything, and then we just get back into it the next [day],” Oiness said.

Junior Janet Anson said the team’s excited to show its improvement.

“We’re really confident because we hit three huge meets in a row out of town and coming back home is kind of a treat,” Anson said.

After a strong performance at Oklahoma on Feb. 10, Anson was named the Big 12 gymnast of the week.

Upon hearing the news, Anson responded with trademark humility.

“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I had it – I think – once before, and it’s just kind of cool that out of the whole Big 12, they voted for me.”

The meet against Oregon State begins at 7 p.m. Friday and the meet against Nebraska starts at 2 p.m. Sunday, both at Hilton Coliseum.