The Cyclone gymnastics team landed in second out of three teams Sunday afternoon at the West Virginia Tri-Meet in Morgantown, West Virginia. The team faced off with Big 12 opponents West Virginia, the host team, and No. 7 Denver. The week prior, Iowa State suffered a loss at the hands of Denver, when it went 1-1 at the Denver Tri-Meet.

Iowa State entered with a 3-4 record overall, with no wins on the road. The team also sat ranked No. 24, a two-spot demotion from its placing at the Denver Tri-Meet.

The Cyclones did not enter a single all-around performer Sunday, as the usual all-around gymnast, Hannah Loyim did not participate in the floor exercise or the vault.

Overall, the Cyclones went 1-1 in the tri-meet for the second week in a row, suffering another loss at the hands of the Denver Pioneers. Despite struggles, the team did outscore the West Virginia Mountaineers, giving the team another conference win.

Noelle Adams struggles

The Cyclones have been heavily led by the performances of freshman Noelle Adams. However, Adams struggled and fell beneath her usual scoring Sunday.

Adams fell below her averages in her three events, falling furthest with a 9.650-point performance in the vault portion of the competition. She also had a season-low of 9.800 points in the floor exercise, one in which she usually performs her best.

Emilie Hong steps up

While many Cyclones struggled to match their season averages, the team was not absent of bright spots entirely. Emilie Hong entered the vault event and scored 9.875 points, making her the highest scorer for the Cyclones in any four of the events and tied for the highest in the vault event overall.

This performance was a step above Hong’s meet average of 9.683 in the vault and beat her previous season high of 9.850.

Below 49-point performances

Across the four events present at the West Virginia Tri-Meet, the Cyclones did not score 49 team points in any of them. The team came closest in the floor exercise, where they scored 48.975 points.

This stood as particularly unusual with the vault event. The Cyclones tend to have their best-scoring performances in this event but scored 48.950 Sunday. The lowest of their scoring outings came in the beam event where they scored a meet-low of 48.800 points.

In total, Iowa State’s outing at the West Virginia Tri-Meet culminated in the second-lowest meet score for the Cyclones this year with a total of 195.675 points.