Thursday started out like a bad dream for ISU gymnastics coach Amy Pyle.

Preparing to compete against Iowa without the services of Sissy Huey, things got even more sour fast.

“We start with the trainer telling me at 4:30 that Shelly [Kringen]’s sick, feels nauseous, and I called [assistant coach] KJ [Kindler] to let her know,” Pyle said.

“We had pretty much decided at that point, OK, let’s concentrate on vault, maybe bars, and that will be it. She was nauseous, dizzy…it’s kind of hard to stand on a beam when you’re dizzy, and when you’re feeling sick, it’s kind of hard to finish a floor routine. So that’s how it started. I was a little nervous, having Sissy out and one of your other veteran kids out.”

Pyle’s worries would soon turn to elation as the 8th-ranked Cyclones not only defeated Iowa, 196.950 to 193.175, but in the process took the top spots in every event to set a new team score, breaking the old mark of 195.975 set in 1998 also against Iowa.

Junior Betsy Hamm, last week’s Big 12 Gymnast of the Week, captured her third all-around title in a row, taking the top spot on the uneven bars (9.90) and floor exercise (9.90), an event she has won in every meet this season.

She also tied for second on the vault with a 9.825.

Not even sickness could stop the Cyclones. Even the ailing Kringen nabbed first place on the vault with a score of 9.875.

Nor could an equipment problem slow them down, as junior Jessy Smith was allowed to do her uneven bars routine over after her grip ripped during the routine.

“I stopped as soon as the grip broke, and it hurt,” Smith said. “I’ve never had that happen, and I didn’t know what to do…I was so mad at myself. I didn’t know why that happened at all, but the coaches told me they were going to talk to the judge about it, and I did it again.”

That routine would earn Smith a share of second place with teammate Sarah Sanderson, as both scored 9.875.

The team also set a new school record on the event with a team score of 49.275.

Due to the injuries and illnesses, Pyle’s squad needed some people to step up and deliver, and they did.

Sophomores Dena Albacker and Stephanie Sweitzer tied for second on the beam, scoring 9.90. It was Albacker’s first appearance on the beam in meet competition and a career-high score for Sweitzer.

Pyle said she was hesitant at first on whom to put on the beam in Kringen’s place, but she made the call on Albacker and went with it. It was a call that paid off.

“Going on beam, it was Dena or Courtney [Sarrett]. Dena had hurt her rear end, pulled a muscle, and so she hasn’t been doing one of her skills on the beam all week because that’s what hurts it,” Pyle said. “I asked her if she was ready to go, and she said she was, so I put her in.”

Albacker said she was ready to go when her coach needed her.

“I felt well rested, and I’ve been working hard in the gym,” Albacker said. “I didn’t wobble [on the routine], and I just felt positive throughout the whole event.”

Sweitzer has been one of the mainstays on the Cyclones’ beam team this season but felt like this meet was her time to shine.

“This whole week had been really good at practice, and I went into it confident,” said Sweitzer, who also scored a career-high of 9.85 on the floor. “My warm-up was good, and I didn’t have any pressure going into it. I felt like everything was going to click, and I had three people ahead of me who stuck it, so that just added to it.”

Pyle said she was concerned at first after the start on vault but felt confident that her team could rise to the occasion.

“Actually, we started a little flat on vault with Jessy and Kendra [Ciancio], which wasn’t a good feeling, but the rest did a good job,” Pyle said. “But then it was over from there. The people that had to step in, Shantell [Doree, who scored a career-high 9.85 on floor], Dena…were awesome.”

The veterans were steady yet again for the Cyclones, as senior Kelli More took the top spot on beam with a 9.925 and tied for second on the floor with a 9.875.

Sanderson nabbed a career-high in the all-around with a 39.350, in addition to tying for second on the vault, bars and floor exercises, with scores of 9.825, 9.875 and 9.875, respectively.

For More, the victory was a sign of improved focus by the team and a wake-up call after the loss to Bringham Young University. She said the team finally realizes that it takes more to win a meet than just saying it.

“I’ve always known we can compete like this, and it’s finally coming together,” More said. “I think we learned our lesson from BYU; we went into BYU thinking that we don’t need to worry about beating them because it’s going to happen, and I think our focus was not where it should have been. That taught us that anybody can win…they were on and we were off, and it showed.

“You can’t go into any meet whether they’re ranked 50th in the country or not and think that it’s just going to happen because it won’t always happen. I think the team did a great job of pulling it back together again,” More said.

Pyle said that the focus of the team was not to win but to have the highest possible scores that they could, to help them in Big 12 and national standings.

“Our focus was not to win. It was everybody’s individual score and then the team score on that event and then move to the next event,” Pyle said. “If Iowa beat us, that doesn’t matter. It’s the scores that matter.”

Pleased with the effort, especially with the circumstances surrounding the meet, Pyle said this victory is a major step toward preparation for the major meets.

“They could have easily let down, knowing Shelly’s sick, Sissy’s out, and Betsy wasn’t feeling well yesterday [Wednesday],” Pyle said. “The part that pleases me is now they believe in themselves, and they’ll be able to focus in the big meets where they need to. Now I think they can handle that at the regionals…they’re not going to buckle because they’ve been through just about everything this year and sticking together.”

Sweitzer said that she and her teammates came into this meet more relaxed than before and hopes that their renewed focus will help them tonight at Nebraska.

“Hopefully we can keep this momentum up because we’ve been doing really good the last couple of weeks and now have the confidence to do really good,” Sweitzer said.

Iowa State will try to even the score tonight against Nebraska, who defeated the Cyclones back on Jan. 14.

“The girls want to win bad; we all do,” Pyle said. “We’ve been runner up to them for a long time and we’re as good, if not better now. They’d like to beat them on their home court, and then they have to come to our home court for Big 12’s, so that will definitely be a mindset for them if we beat them at home.”