Three Big Takeaways: Season-high win for gymnastics

Iowa State gymnast Emilie Hong celebrates after finishing her routine in the vault event in the Cyclones’ meet against the University of West Virginia on Jan. 28.

Hailey Dohnal
February 18, 2022

Cyclone gymnastics found new ways to earn career-bests Friday night at the GymQuarters invitational.

The Cyclones gained their second win of the season with a 196.325 score while Illinois State came in second with a 195.175. Lindenwood finished third with a 194.400 and Southeast Missouri State took the fourth-place finish scoring a 193.075.

Strong start & finish

The Cyclones started off their competition strong on vault and finished with high scores on the floor exercise.

Ariana Orrego vaulted first for the team and scored a 9.775. No scores below a 9.775 occurred from the rest of the vault lineup.

Emilie Hong and Kelsey Boychuk tied their career highs on vault scoring a 9.87 and both had the highest scores on the event. Makayla Maxwell was also in the 9.8 range scoring a 9.850.

The team ended the competition on the floor exercise where they again received high scores.

Alondra Maldonado made her first floor appearance this season, scoring a 9.650 while her sister, Andrea Maldonado, matched her career high with a 9.875.

Hannah Loyim and Maddie Diab had career highs on the floor. Loyim scored a 9.850 while Diab scored a 9.950 and also won the event.

Leading the pack

The Cyclones have had a slower start to their season that they would’ve liked but haven’t let that stop them.

The team came out on top after every rotation and continued to stay in the lead.

After their first two rotations, the team was up 1.175 points. The team continued to lead by .625 or higher.

Throughout the whole competition, no scores dropped below a 9.075. That score came from the fall on the balance beam which would have earned them back five-tenths without it.

With only the top five scores counting, the fall had little to no impact on the beam squad.

Career highs & season highs

The uneven bars have been a large setback for the team this season. During their last meet against Denver, the team lost five-tenths just on their landings.

But the scores skyrocketed during this uneven bars rotation.

Hannah Loyim and Laura Cooke both earned career highs on the event with a 9.900. Ana Palacios tied her career high with a 9.850.

After falling on the event last meet, Makayla Maxwell was able to put up a 9.700. A lineup change also occurred on uneven bars as Maya Ford was put into the lineup and scored a 9.725.

The team continued to bring the energy to the balance beam. Sophia Steinmeyer earned a season high with a 9.825 and Alondra Maldonado made her first career beam experience with a 9.675.

Throughout each event, the Cyclones had at least two career highs or a season high. Additionally, the Cyclones earned a season high event score on both the uneven bars and floor exercise.

The most exciting thing to celebrate of course, is the huge win the team accomplished.

The team will look to continue bringing their fierce competition as they will travel to Illinois to compete against Northern Illinois and Central Michigan on Sunday. The competition is set to begin at 4 p.m.

Results (top five scores are counted):

Vault:

Kelsey Boychuck: 9.875

Emilie Hong: 9.875

Makayla Maxwell: 9.850

Josie Bergstrom: 9.775

Ariana Orrego: 9.775

Kaia Parker: 9.775

Bars:

Laura Cooke: 9.900

Hannah Loyim: 9.900

Ana Palacios: 9.850