Her coach calls her animalistic, and freshman gymnast Erin Dethloff said the description isn’t too far off.

“She’s very animalistic out there,” head coach K.J. Kindler said. “She knows what she wants — and there’s nobody that’s going to get in her way and she’s going to get it.”

Through Iowa State’s first four meets, animalistic has meant a rise to the top of a stellar freshman class for Dethloff. In her very first collegiate competition against Missouri, Dethloff won the vault competition, placed second on the uneven bars and garnered third place in the all-around competition.

She didn’t stop there, setting the mark for best all-around score for a freshman in Cyclone history (39.40) on her way to a first-place finish against Michigan State the following week.

She swept the bars and floor against the Spartans with new career highs.

After that performance — just the second collegiate meet for Dethloff — she was named Big 12 gymnast of the week.

Dethloff experienced the rivalry with Iowa for the first time Friday and promptly tied the mark for best bars performance in school history — 9.95— as the Cyclones defeated the Hawkeyes for the 19th straight time.

“You can see it in her facial expressions,” Kindler said last week. “She’s just very determined.”

Dethloff’s quick start as a Cyclone might be surprising to some, but it’s not like the sport is new to her. She started tumbling as a 3-year-old with some advice from her dance teacher.

“I jumped all over the beds and I was hyper as a kid,” said Dethloff, whose father was also a gymnast in high school.

“My mom first started putting me in dance, but the instructor told her I would be more suitable for gymnastics.”

That suggestion started what has become a rewarding gymnastics career for Dethloff. As a 12-year-old, Dethloff advanced to the Junior Olympics — a national competition designed for outstanding amateur athletes.

The 5-foot-2 all-arounder made an appearance at Junior Olympics each of the last six years before she enrolled at Iowa State. She said she remembers her first experience from national competition well.

“It was very nerve-racking,” Dethloff said. “I finished 98th or something that year and I just kept moving up each year. Last year, I was eighth in the country and I won the uneven bars.”

She is also the reigning 2002 high school national all-around and uneven bars champion as she trained with Cahoy’s Gymnastics in Omaha, Neb.

Dethloff has those accomplishments to look back on, but when she got the word that Iowa State wanted her to become a Cyclone, she valued that offer just as much as her national success.

“Getting a full-ride scholarship here was a pretty big thing for me,” Dethloff said.

Kindler said it there were several things that attracted her to Dethloff, but the most important factor was Dethloff always came through with the competition on the line.

“She was a great gymnast in club,” Kindler said. “When it came down to it, in a pinch, she was great. She never pulled it, she never gave up, she just always came through in those tight situations and that’s the kind of kid you want anchoring your team.”

So far, she has anchored the Cyclones, who are 2-3 on the season. Dethloff said she wasn’t sure she would be performing this well so early in the season and even Kindler was skeptical whether Dethloff would shine right away. Kindler said she knew Dethloff would be great someday, but starring as a freshman is not typical.

“For a freshman, she’s doing a great job,” Kindler said. “But we knew when we recruited her that she was a competitor.”

Dethloff said she hopes to become the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year this season, and before she’s finished in 2006, she hopes to have individual and team Big 12 championships under her belt.

“By the time I graduate, I would like our team to be a Big 12 Champion for at least one year, if not more. That would be such an accomplishment,” Dethloff said. “I’d also like to be a Big 12 all-around champion sometime in the future.”

The Cyclones can take a big step toward a Big 12 championship Friday when they take on No. 2 Nebraska at 7 p.m. in Hilton Coliseum.

The battle will be personal for Dethloff, who hails from Nebraska. She said the Cornhuskers recruited her, but she got the feeling they expected her to attend Nebraska all along. Meanwhile, Iowa State made her a priority.

“[Iowa State] really recruited me and I felt like I was No. 1 on their list,” Dethloff said.

Dethloff will see first-hand on Friday what might have been. She said she’d like nothing more than an ISU victory.

“They’re a very strong team and they’re number two in the country,” Dethloff said. “To beat them would be amazing — just awesome.”