CYber CYd with Jay Ronayne

Head coach Jay Ronayne writes this week's CYber CYd for the gymnastics team and gives an inside look back on last weekend's performance at Michigan. Ronayne lets fans in on information they normally would not be aware of and he looks forward to Saturday's meet at No. 18 Minnesota. Check back next Thursday when senior Ashley Kent writes the next edition of CYber CYd.

CYber CYd with Jay Ronayne

Hey Cyclone fans. This has been a strange two weeks for me. Allow me to try to paint a picture for you...

After seeing steady progress from the team as we begin this year's journey to the postseason, we encounter some bumps in the road. We come back from a road trip to Auburn where we improved our team score substantially but fell short of the win. Knowing that win/loss records don't have any bearing on rankings, we feel pretty pumped about where this team can go this year. We have steadily improved our scores in the first three meets of the year and find ourselves as the 18th-ranked gymnastics team in the country. We know that we have a lot of room for improvement because we still haven't hit all 24 routines yet. We still have some landing errors to correct and a few form mistakes that we can fix. With the progress we are making, we will ease our way into the top 15 in the next couple of weeks and then make the run for top 12 by the time we get to the Big 12 Championships in Ames on March 21. The future looks bright and all is right in the world!

Then, Megan Barnes gets sick during the week before we head to the University of Michigan. Jenn Salfen is in a little bit of a slump with her vaulting. We have been resting Melanie Tham so she can let a sore ankle get a little better and she is not quite as ready on floor as we want her to be. We still feel pretty good that we will be able to score well at Michigan as long as Megan (one of our all-arounders) is back in the game.

We get to Ann Arbor and Megan falls on bars and vault, does a pretty shaky floor routine but hits a fine beam routine. Jenn's vault is still missing so she can't compete. Jody McKellar has a very erratic warm up so she only competes on vault (where she struggled). And, we have four gymnasts go out of bounds on floor.

This was not our finest hour. Jasmine Thompson and Ceilia Maccani had a very good night but we came home with a 193.9 and not everyone was happy.

On this road to the postseason we were accelerating to 197 mph and simply took our foot off the gas. Saturday's trip to the Minnesota will be a test for us. Can we get a “no excuses” attitude in gear and get the bus rolling again? Cyclone gymnastics is an entire team effort. This is the time when the entire team needs to take a turn in the driver's seat and get us to our destination.

Players Mentioned

Megan Barnes

Megan Barnes

Megan Barnes

Ashley Kent

Ashley Kent

Ashley Kent

Ceilia Maccani

Ceilia Maccani

Ceilia Maccani

Jody McKellar

Jody McKellar

Jody McKellar

Melanie Tham

Melanie Tham

Melanie Tham

Jasmine Thompson

Jasmine Thompson

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