National qualifiers Janet Anson, Erin Dethloff and Laura-Kay Powell hope their successes this season will guide the entire ISU gymnastics team to national competition next year.

After leading the ISU women’s gymnastics team to an unprecedented number of wins this season, the three gymnasts were the only Cyclones to qualify for last week’s NCAA National Gymnastics Championships, after a disappointing team performance at regionals left the rest of the team in Ames.

The Cyclone squad would have fit in just fine, Anson said.

“[After seeing all of the other teams compete], I think we could have been right in there,” she said.

Dethloff competed in rotation with the team from Stanford, which went on to tie Alabama for third place in the final team competition.

“Definitely, [Stanford] should have been there, but we were just as good of a team as they were,” Dethloff said.

Head coach K.J. Kindler said the trio’s routines make up half of the team’s total scored routines (they compete in 12 of the Cyclones’ 24 routines). Kindler said exposing her top three all-around athletes to the high pressure of nationals will give them the experience they need to better guide the Cyclones in the postseason next year.

“It will come out in their workouts and competition routines,” Kindler said. “They’ll communicate their experience and focus to the team through their actions next season.”

The Cyclones faced a year of “what ifs” in the postseason, missing the Big 12 Championship crown by the narrowest margin possible, .025, and missing a team berth in the national championships by .225.

Dethloff said the team will only be losing two seniors this year, so the majority of next year’s team will know what level of performances are needed make it to nationals.

“Now everyone [on the team] knows,” she said. “Everyone knows how it felt to lose to Michigan [and miss nationals] by a few tenths. That will be motivation in itself.

“In the postseason, every little tenth counts. It was very evident for everyone on the team that literally every tenth comes down to it.”

Dethloff, who had an outstanding showing at last year’s nationals in the all-around competition, did not find the same success this year.

“I was a bit disappointed because I could have done better,” Dethloff said.

After the uncharacteristic miss of her release move, Dethloff suffered one of her lowest bars scores of the season, but was able to regain focus and turn in one of her best beam performances of the year, Kindler said.

Both Kindler and Dethloff agreed Dethloff’s beam performance was one of her greatest achievements. She earned second-team All-American honors on the event by tying for eighth place in session one of the competition.

Anson said she gained experience and motivation from performing a new vault routine at nationals. Anson secured her spot in the vaulting event finals, where she eventually finished sixth overall, by being the only person to perform the competition’s most difficult vault, a 1 1/2 twisting Yurchenko, in the preliminary competition.

“It was a one-timer,” Anson said. “It gave me the extra push I needed for people to look at it and say, ‘She should make it to finals with that vault.'”

Anson said it was an amazing experience to compete in the finals with the nation’s top gymnasts and a great incentive for her to return and place higher next year.

“I know I’m going to want to make it again next year,” Anson said. “I just can’t take time off; I love learning new skills and what I can do for next year. I’m already back [in the gym practicing].”

Kindler said she has a tough road schedule planned for the Cyclones next year, and it may be difficult for the team to achieve the same winning record (10-1-1) it did this season.

She said, however, that the tough environments should help focus the leadership of her all-arounders and prepare the team for success in the postseason.