The No. 19 ISU gymnastics team finally broke into the Big 12 win column Friday night with a 196.450-195.375 win over No. 23 Missouri.

“Neither team counted a fall and we came out a point ahead and that says a lot for our program and probably where we should have been at the beginning of the year,” head coach K. J. Kindler said.

It is the second-highest score the Cyclones have posted all season. With the win, Iowa State improves to 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12 Conference. The Tigers fall to 9-6 overall and 1-3 in Big 12 Conference action.

Kindler said the team was excited that it had beaten Missouri. In their first meet of the season, the Cyclones lost to them in Columbia, Mo., 192.000-192.575.

“They definitely wanted to show that they were not at their best at that first meet,” Kindler said.

“They had an attitude about it, and they had a lot of energy tonight, which was what we were trying to do. They just went in there and said ‘We’re the better team’ and came out ahead.”

The Cyclones nearly lost freshman Laura-Kay Powell for the meet. During warmups she fell and hurt her neck.

“It’s always scary when you fall, especially if it’s a bad fall, and it was,” Kindler said. “She really is the hero of the day because she was able to overcome it and compete in all-around for the first time in a while — and she made her vault, which we’ve been trying to get in there time after time. So we’re really proud of her for being able to overcome that.”

Powell was able to finish third in the all-around with a score of 38.575. She also took first on the floor exercise with a score of 9.9. She had a fall during her uneven bars routine but was able to shake it off and move to the balance beam and score a 9.9 to take first on the event.

“I fell on my head in warm-ups,” Powell said. “So my neck was bothering me a little bit. I fell on bars and I shouldn’t have, but I had to get back up and put it behind me and focus on beam and floor.”

The Cyclones never trailed in the meet. They won each event except the vault. On beam they posted a 49.175 and on floor a 49.30.

“Beam was very steady. On the bars I think they did a good job of improving from their last performance. We just got to keep building on that,” Kindler said. “Bars has to continue to improve as does everything, the little landings. Beam landings weren’t as good as I probably would have liked.”

Kindler said the team will continue to focus on vault and bars in practice.

“If we can continue to improve there, there’s no reason these guys can’t go to nationals — absolutely no reason,” Kindler said.

“That has to be our focus and maybe a little bit on beam landings.”

Iowa State swept first place in all of the events. Freshman Erin Dethloff took first place in the all-around with 39.175 and also took first on the uneven bars and tied for first on the vault with scores of 9.850 and 9.875, respectively.

Senior Karen Kuplicki and junior Chee Chee Calina tied for second on the bars with a score of 9.775. Kuplicki also tied for second on the floor with freshman Kacey Oiness with a score of 9.875.

Sophomore Susan Stock tied with Dethloff for first on the vault with a 9.875. Stock and Calina were also tied with each other for second on the beam with 9.850.

“We have some of the toughest judges in the country and we still scoring 196.500s. So we had to fight for every score we got and we got a great score,” Kindler said. “They were very particular and that’s good. No one got anything more or less than they deserved. This is a real true test of what we’re able to do.”