The Iowa State Women’s gymnastic team has achieved success not only for their tumbling technics, but also for their intellectual accomplishments.

Six of the Cyclone gymnasts were named Scholastic All-Americans.

Nationally, ISU the team earned a fifth-place ranking. In the Big 12 Conference, the women were the dozen’s first with an overall team GPA of 3.35.

The honorees include senior Kim Mazza (4.0), senior Katie Mazza (3.92), junior Libby Bell (3.87), freshman Martha Strain (3.84), junior Amy Wall (3.79) and senior Karen Mazza (3.59).

Coach Amy Pyle was thrilled with her team’s showing.

She said as a team, they had set a goal of being ranked in the top six and kept in mind achieving “this goal makes others more realistic.”

When Pyle was notified of the award, she said she was excited to know the hard work had paid off.

The gymnastics team practices for 20 hours a week and has about 13 meets a season, occupying every weekend. This schedule forces the women to develop time-management skills.

Wall said it was challenging to balance gymnastics and classes her first year at ISU, but she said her involvement in athletics and her time-management skills have improved.

Strain added that “having gymnastics forces you to prioritize, and studying comes first.”

Both Wall and Strain said they were honored by the award and pleased all of their hard work received recognition.

When gymnasts come to ISU, they jump right into the study mode with a mandatory program.

Freshman gymnasts are required to attend 10 hours of study table a week to make sure they remain academically eligible.

After that, there are no set study hours for the women. However, if a gymnast’s GPA dips below a 3.0, she is obligated to attend study sessions for six hours per week.

With goals like these, be sure to look for more academic and athletic achievement from the Cyclone gymnasts during the 1997-98 season.