Iowa State gymnastics signs Olympian for next season
Maddie Leopardo/Iowa State Daily
Iowa State Gymnastics Head Coach Jay Ronayne cheers on sophomore Meaghan Sievers as she finishes her uneven bars routine during The Beauty and The Beast event at Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 27. Sievers would go on to earn a score of 9.850.
April 18, 2017
The Iowa State gymnastics team will welcome an Olympian to the team next season.
Ariana Orrego Martinez, the first gymnast to qualify for the Olympics from Peru, signed with Iowa State on April 12, the team announced Tuesday morning.
“Ariana’s experience internationally is something that we’re really excited about,” coach Jay Ronayne said in a statement. “She performs with an international flair and she competes with an elite gymnast mentality. We’re excited to see her bring that to our program.”
Orrego competed in the 2016 Olympic games in Rio as an all-around gymnast when she was 17.
She moved to the United States and trained in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with Excalibur Gymnastics under coaches Gustavo Moure and Dena Walker at 15 years old.
Orrego, 18, took first place last week at the Region 7 Championships on beam, second on all-around and third on floor, vault and bars, according to an Iowa State press release. She also holds eight Virginia State Championship titles.
Orrego joins Sophia Steinmeyer as the two class of 2017 signees for the Cyclones. The two freshmen will join an Iowa State gymnastics team that returns everyone from a team that qualified for the regional competition in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2017.
