The Iowa State women’s gymnastics team will travel to Denver, Colorado on February 24 at 3 p.m. The Cyclones will face two teams for the Denver Tri-Meet. The teams include No. 6 Denver and No. 10 Boise State.

This will be the second time this year that the Cyclones will face No. 6 Denver, with the first time being at the West Virginia Tri-Meet, where the Cyclones lost 196.700-197.450.

Senior Meaghan Sievers was nominated for the AAI Award on Wednesday. This award is given to the top senior gymnast in the nation each year.

Head coach of the women’s gymnastics team Jay Ronayne is up for the challenge of competing against two top ten ranked teams this week.

Last week the Cyclones had trouble on the bars, floor and event vault events. The Cyclones are looking to improve and take down Boise State and Denver.

According to Ronayne, the bars at the Mardi Gras Invitational felt very different than what they normally practice with. But it is not a concern at all in practice.

The toughest event for the women all year has been floor.

According to Ronayne, the circumstances are different for everyone.

“We have to able to meet the challenge head-on and the women are doing a great job of this so far,” Ronayne said.

Last week at the Mardi Gras Invitational, Natalie Horowitz took the place of Cassie Diaz in the Cyclones’ lineup.

Horowitz performed well on the floor in her first career attempt. Horowitz had two great passes but fell on the third, scoring a 9.00.

“I am hopeful that Diaz will come back in no time and that she has a speedy recovery,” Ronayne said. “Natalie did very well competing in floor, considering it to be the first time she has ever competed in the event. Natalie is uncommonly determined.”

Iowa State will face Denver for a second time this year.

According to Ronayne, the team has to stick all of their landings in order to place first at the Denver Tri-Meet.

“We have to hit all 24 routines, if we do not do that, we will lose the meet,” Ronayne said.

Iowa State not only has to worry about facing Denver again but facing Boise State as well, who is known to be dangerous around this time of the season.

“If we start to concern ourselves about what the other teams are doing it will distract us from our goal,” Ronayne said.

Senior Kelly Martin had a great floor exercise at the Mardi Gras Invitational last week earning a 9.750. This was also the first time Martin has performed on the floor in her career at Iowa State.

According to Martin performing on the floor was a cool experience and very different from what she is used to on the vault event.

“All of my teammates had my back during the event. This really made the difference, and helped me with confidence to perform well,” Martin said.

“During the event, I tried not to let the nerves get to me,” Martin said. “Once I started the event I was confident in my abilities, but I was shocked at my score that’s for sure.”

According to Martin, there are still things she needs to improve on.

“I think my biggest weakness is overthinking,” Martin said. “In the gym, I never think about falling, but during the meets, I tend to overthink up until I perform my event.”

In the 2018 season, Martin took part in all 13 meets and finished on a high note, recording a career-best 9.825 at the NCAA Gymnastics Championships in Minneapolis.

According to Martin, ending on a high note last year helped her gain momentum and strive to be better for the 2019 gymnastic season.

According to Martin, her favorite gymnastics memory is when they were up against West Virginia and she scored a 9.9 on the vault event. Martin also had a high score on the floor event at the Mad Gras Invitational when her teammates embraced her.

Martin had some advice for people wanting to join the sport of gymnastics.

“Make sure you love it and have with it, don’t be too hard on yourself because it is supposed to be fun,” Martin said.

Where to find the results:

All the results of the gymnastics meet will be posted on the Iowa State twitter page and released on the Iowa State Athletics page.

Twitter- @CycloneGYM

Iowa State Athletics- cyclones.com