Chalk dust filled the air in Hilton Coliseum Friday night, for the Iowa State Gymnastics team had many reasons to high-five each other throughout the meet.

Victory reigned amongst the entire line-up against North Carolina State and Lindenwood, especially for rookie Meaghan Sievers and Haylee Young. Both Sievers and Young were all-arounders alongside Kelsey Paz.

It was the first time the 5’3 freshman saw the inside of Hilton Coliseum in an leotard with ISU bedazzled on the front. Sievers had the home crowd cheer for her for the first time as she placed highest for the team on the vault. The three-time Junior Olympic Qualifier did what she does best, win.

“I could feel Hilton Magic, it was awesome,” Sievers said after signing autographs for many young admiring children. “Exactly what I’ve been waiting for, it has been so fun building up to this point … It’s so good to have what I’ve been doing in practice finally carry over into a meet.”

Sievers scored a 9.850 on the vault, a 9.900 on the bars, a 9.700 on the beam, and a 9.725 on the floor. Sievers totaled a score of 39.175. The 5-foot-3 South Dakota native gave exceptional efforts in every single event that came her way and was awarded with the Mari Rae Sopper award for the best outstanding performance on her bar routine.

“Bars was probably the best I could put out there right now, it was really exciting to have to bring to the table,” Sievers said. “There’s always room for improvement, we have a sport that you strive for perfection at all times.”

It was also big night for Young ,who had a lot she want to improve on from her previous meet. The sophomore performed with the utmost poise and power, proving to their home crowd her and the team are ready to turn their season around.

Young scored a 9.800 on the vault, a 9.725 on the bars, a 9.850 on the beam, and a 9.850 on the floor. Young finished the meet with a total score of 39.225. Haylee is well-known to execute in every meet like its her last, and tonight was no different. The Des Moines native made it clear in last week’s practice that she would do everything she could to bounce back from last week’s heartbreaking loss.

“I definitely made some improvements from last week like on vault, I started off the season not as strong as I wanted to on vault,” Young said. “But coming back from a shoulder injury and getting the timing back felt pretty good tonight.”

Coach Jay Ronanye, so humbled by their performances, was almost speechless when asked about Sievers and Young.

“They are competitors, it’s part of their nature and they don’t like to lose. It’s impressive that they can do this often, what they’re doing right now,” Ronanye said. “It just apart of who they are, I am very impressed with them it makes me proud just to be able to hang around with them because they’re really good.”

The gymnastics team as a whole kept a consistent lead throughout the night, not giving North Caroline State or Lindenwood any room to breathe.

“Our team energy was so high tonight, even after we had one mistake we stayed together and we didn’t watch the other teams,” Young said.