Although the ISU gymnastics team put forth one of its best early-season performances of school history, it was not enough to outlast Oregon State at Beauty and the Beast.

Oregon State (2-1, 0-1 Pac-12) finished with a score of 195.975, followed by Iowa State (1-2, 0-0 Big 12) at 195.950 and Southeast Missouri State (1-2, 0-0 Ohio Valley) at 193.300. 

Despite scoring uncharacteristically high for this early in the season, a 2.475 improvement from their previous meet at Minnesota, the Cyclones finished .025 points short of the Beavers. .025 is the absolute smallest differential that can exist between two scores in the sports of gymnastics.

Iowa State led after the first rotation by scoring 48.925 on the vault, led by freshman Haylee Young and senior Caitlin Brown with scores of 9.825 a piece.

The ISU freshmen continued to portray their potential as Hilary Green led the Cyclones on the uneven bars with a score of 9.825, recording the best score on the bars amongst all of the competitors.

Haylee Young echoed her teammate’s presentation by spearheading not only the ISU effort on the vault with Brown but also the floor exercise with a score of 9.850. 

The Cyclones finished with scores of 48.750 and 48.850 on the bars and floor, respectively.

Even though the ISU gymnasts enhanced their combined scores on the aforementioned three events, these numbers were overshadowed in light of the balance beam.

Not only did Iowa State’s combined score of 49.425 tie the university’s third-best number all-time in the event, but also both Caitlin Brown and junior Sammie Pearsall tied the school record individually, each scoring a 9.950 in their back-to-back performances.

For ISU gymnastics, this second-place finish is as not as disappointing as the final standings may suggest.

The Cyclones will look to continue to improve as they will travel to Morgantown next weekend.

Iowa State will face off against West Virginia and George Washington in the triangular meet that is set for 1 p.m. on Jan. 25.