MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Despite the chants of “fear the gophers” by passionate Minnesota fans, the No. 7 Iowa State gymnastics team buried the No. 20 Minnesota Golden Gophers, 196.075-194.750.

Saturday night’s meet provided a unique atmosphere for the 1,782 fans in attendance, some of which had the aforementioned chant painted across their shirtless chests. The friendly confines of the Sports Pavilion gave the meet a small-town feel, similar to that of a hometown high school basketball game.

The competition began after the shooting off of confetti guns from a high balcony, with colorful paper raining down upon the fans. Adding to the distinct environment was the sound of a common loon, the state bird of Minnesota, chirping to begin warm-ups on each event.

The uniqueness of the meet didn’t go unnoticed by ISU coach K.J. Kindler.

“It’s a great facility with wonderful fans,” she said. “They put on a great meet and they’re great sportsmen.”

Junior Janet Anson was impressed by the friendliness of the Minnesota crowd.

“They have great fans and they support every team that comes here, even if they’re not from Minnesota,” she said. “It’s great to see good fans for gymnastics.”

As far as the competition, Iowa State earned high scores, but had what Kindler described as an overall average performance, characterized by bobbles and steps on landings.

“I think we’re a lot better than we showed tonight,” she said. “We were off all night. We were off in warm-ups. Considering how really off they were, I thought they did a pretty good job.”

Kindler added that she was proud of her team for fighting through adversity.

“They know it wasn’t there tonight and they fought through it,” she said. “They’re going to have to do that sometimes because they’re not going to feel 800 percent every day, and I’m really happy because it’s moments like this that will make the team stronger.”

Despite errors in their routines, the Cyclones (10-2, 3-0 Big 12) defeated the Golden Gophers (8-3) by a comfortable margin. With the win, Iowa State earned its third-best start in school history, behind only 2004’s 11-2 and 1976’s 12-0 starts.

Iowa State has now won seven consecutive dual meets, while topping the 196.000-point mark in the last five.

“I feel we did really well coming off a little weaker warm-up,” Anson said. “.we looked really strong staying in the 196 range.”

Anson and her fellow All-Americans, seniors Erin Dethloff and Laura-Kay Powell, have now combined to hit – or perform without error – 58 of their last 63 routines, including going 11-for-11 against Minnesota.

This accomplishment is even more impressive considering Dethloff rolled her ankle during her floor exercise performance, but still went on to post a season-high score of 9.875 on the balance beam.

“I was really proud of Erin [Dethloff] tonight,” Kindler said. “She really tweaked her ankle and not every kid’s that tough, so that was really great to see.”

Dethloff said she was happy to do her part to help the team.

“I was happy with my beam performance and I was also happy with the team’s beam performance,” she said. “We went six-for-six and that’s a real accomplishment for our team.”

Iowa State takes on Minnesota once again at 7 p.m. Friday in Hilton Coliseum. Kindler said she knows the Golden Gophers will be looking for revenge, so she’s hoping for a stronger overall performance from her team.