Cyclone gymnasts de-claw Missouri

Jeff Raasch

The Cyclone women’s gymnastics team is on a roll. After starting the season 0-2, the defending Big 12 Champions have reeled three straight wins, including last Sunday’s 196.475-190.500 pounding of the Missouri Tigers in the 11th Annual AT&T Broadband Gymnastics X-Treme. The overall team score was the highest of the season and the third highest in Cyclone history. Iowa State also broke every single X-Treme record. The win evened their conference mark at 1-1, and for the second straight week, the Cyclones took first place in every event.Coming off an emotional victory at Iowa, the 14th-ranked Cyclones were busy re-writing the record books again at Columbia. Shelly Kringen, last week’s Big 12 Gymnast of the Week, took the all-around title with a 39.575. It was her second all-around career high in as many weeks and ranks as the second highest all-around score ever from an ISU gymnast. The junior tore it up all night, winning the vault with a 9.925, as well as the floor exercise with a career-high 9.950. She made it three for three when she matched Missouri’s Leah Gremaud for first place on the balance beam (9.850). Her uneven bars routine was second only to Iowa State’s Sissy Huey, who is ranked first in the conference and fifth nationally in that event.After starting out with three strong routines Sunday, the Tigers had three falls leaving the door wide open. The Cyclones were able to take the top five scores in that event and establish a lead that they would never relinquish.Huey continued her success by setting career-highs in the vault and all-around, and tying personal bests in the uneven bars and floor exercise. She scored a second place finish on the vault at 9.850, just ahead of Cyclone sophomore Karen Kuplicki (9.80). She also took second place in the floor exercise with a 9.90. Huey’s balance beam routine was good enough to tie for third place. Fellow Cyclones Courtney Sarrett, Stephanie Sweitzer and Jessy Smith joined Huey in sharing the honor. All of that and a fifth straight uneven bars win added up to a second-place, all-around mark for Huey (39.475).Smith joined Kringen at second place in the bars. The senior scored a 9.850 to earn a third-place finish on the floor exercise. Smith also placed third in the all-around competition with a score of 39.200.Sarrett, who is nursing a sore back, said that it was the team’s best meet of the season. “We hit 24 of 24 routines,” the sophomore said. “It just goes back to practices … the meet shouldn’t be any different.”The 196.475 was the second highest mark an MU opponent has put up this season behind sixth-ranked Nebraska’s 197.050 on Jan. 28. “They are definitely not peaking,” ISU head coach K.J. Kindler said. “I think they can go higher. This team is so cohesive — more than I’ve ever seen before.”Kindler said that even though freshman all-arounder Chee Chee Calina was out for the meet due to a sprained ankle, the team didn’t miss a beat. Gabby Layne, Kendra Ciancio and Lauren Goldberg filled the void. “They all did a wonderful job,” said Kindler. “It gave some people a chance to show what they can do. Those three couldn’t have done it any better.”The Cyclones will be looking to keep their winning streak alive when they return to action this Friday. The Cyclones will host Minnesota and Oklahoma for a 7 p.m. start at Hilton Coliseum. “I anticipate this to be one of our toughest meets of the season,” Kindler said. The Golden Gophers and the Sooners are ranked 10 and 17, respectively, in this week’s national rankings.