No. 27 Iowa State welcomed Brown and Iowa in its home opener for the Iowa State Tri-Meet on Friday.
The Cyclones looked to find themselves in the win column following the tight loss to No. 2 LSU in the season-opening meet.
Iowa State held a slight advantage over both Brown and Iowa due to having competed in a meet previous to Friday’s home opener. First-meet jitters for the Bears and Hawkeyes gave the Cyclones two confident wins.
Iowa State’s stellar performances all-around earned three of four leads
On the path to the Cyclones’ first win of the season, they held the lead in vault, beam and floor.
Iowa State started the night on vault and as a team, scored 49.075 to start a successful night.
Following vault, the Cyclones competed in uneven bars to earn 48.275. This was the only event where they did not hold the overall lead. Iowa put up a total score of 48.675.
With a total score of 49.025 on the balance beam, Iowa State earned its second event lead of the night.
Rounding the night out with the floor exercise, the Cyclones scored 48.275, as they earned their third and final event lead of the night.
The final scores of the night went as follows: Iowa State 195.100, Iowa 194.575 and Brown 190.300.
Cyclone gymnasts find spots in the top three with individual scores.
Starting with the vault, sophomore Noelle Adams and senior Josie Bergstrom-Te Slaa earned scores of 9.9 on their routines to take a first-place tie amongst all vault scores.
These two have proven to be electric on vault and have continuously shown the talent it takes to push the team ahead and begin the night with the lead.
Moving to uneven bars, sophomore Paige Wills took third overall with a score of 9.775.
In the third event of the night, fifth-year Lauren Thomas took a first-place tie with an Iowa gymnast on the balance beam with a score of 9.850.
Ending with floor exercise, freshman Haylee Hardin and Adams tied for first place with scores of 9.825.
Hardin proves to be a high-producing gymnast
A freshman for the Cyclones who participates all-around has shown that her talent is a compelling part of the team. This season, Hardin has competed in three events.
The first event was vault against LSU in the season-opening meet. She earned a score of 9.75. As Hardin gets familiar with the colligate level of competition, she looks to be stellar.
In the home opener, Hardin placed 12th all-around and competed in vault and floor exercises.
Hardin earned a score of 9.800 on vault and 9.825 on floor exercise.
This was also the first time that Hardin had competed in floor exercise and it’s clear that being a freshman means nothing, as the performance showed the talent.
Following the home opener, the Cyclones will head to Salt Lake City to compete against Utah on Jan. 17 at 8 p.m.
