The Iowa State Gymnastics team battled a very good West Virginia Mountaineers team on Friday, coming out just one-tenth of a point on top. The Cyclones succeeded in continuing their momentum from last week’s victory to give them a perfect record at home thus far, half-way through the season. Haylee Young sparkled in cardinal for yet another outstanding performance throughout the entire night.

To start the meet, the Cyclones showed their talents on the vault. Kelsey Paz, Sara Townsend, Haylee Young, Sydney Converse, Briana Ledesma, and Meaghan Sievers made-up the starting line-up.

The women’s total score for the vault was a 48.700. Concluding the first, the Cyclones were just .375 points ahead of the Mountaineers. Although all but Young and Sievers struggled to obtain perfect dismounts, ISU still came out on top.

“[The vault] is the event we really got to fix up,” said head coach Jay Ronayne. “That’s five-tenths at the very least, half a point right there, you could easily lose a meet right there, you could easily not qualify to the NCAA regional or national with that alone, so that is something we really have to take back to the gym and fix.”

Next, Iowa State met the uneven bars where Sammie Pearsall was injured in the touch warm-up period, forcing the Cyclones to alter their line-up. Sara Townsend, Madeline Johnson, Haylee Young, Kelsey Paz, Meaghan Sievers, and Hilary Green would take on the uneven bars.

“She [Sammie] peeled off the bars, it scared us. She was pretty shaken up, so she wasn’t able to compete.” explained Coach. “And she was looking really good prior to that … just an unfortunate set of circumstances for her, but I really anticipate her being ready for next week.”

Townsend was awarded a 9.625, Johnson made her collegiate debut earning a 9.600, Young had a beautiful dismount earning a 9.800, Paz was given a 9.750, freshman Sievers got a close to perfect 9.875, and lastly Green fell in a release mid-routine but finished strong and was given a 9.500. With that, the Cyclones trailed the Mountaineers 97.400-97.350 after the second rotation.

Sydney Converse, Kelsey Paz, Madeline Johnson, Meaghan Sievers, Alex Marasco, and Haylee Young took on the beam for the third event. To open up the event, Converse earned an outstanding 9.850. Paz scored a 9.625, Johnson struggled and managed a 8.975, Sievers got a 9.750, Marasco with a beautiful routine was awarded a 9.850, and Young finished off the event with a 9.850. Iowa State regained a solid lead to head into the final event.

For the final rotation, Ledesma opened up the Cyclones floor routine scoring a clutch 9.800. Courtney Middelkoop received a deserving 9.777, Sievers received a 9.725, Converse was awarded a 9.500, Paz scored a 9.800, and Young was the final competitor of the night and received a 9.875.

With three 9.8+ performances, the Cyclones barely outscored West Virginia.

“Definitely the right direction we want to go … it’s definitely showing that our work is paying off in the gym and it’s exciting to keep building every week,” said rookie Sievers.

Haylee Young was awarded the Mari Rae Sopper award at the end of the night.

“I thought I did pretty good tonight, I was proud of my performance but obviously there is always room to improve,” said Young on her overall performance. “I was pleased, but I can do better.”

Looking forward, the gymnastics team will travel to Shreveport, Louisiana next Saturday for a tri-meet.

“We just need to look at how great we are doing and how much we are improving every week and take it back to the gym to look at the details, because we can be so much better than we are right now,” said Young “We are pumped up, but it was close… we need to focus on that.”