AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State gymnastics team is back at Hilton Coliseum this weekend for a pair of home meets. The Cyclones kick off the weekend by hosting No. 1 Oklahoma Friday night at 6:30 p.m. and will close it out on Sunday with a meet against Centenary College.
Friday's meet will serve as Elementary School Night, as kids with a voucher (click
here) will receive free admission. Sunday is ISU's Think Pink meet, with the first 300 fans receiving pink t-shirts and $3 tickets for fans who are wearing pink. Tickets for the meet can be purchased at the Hilton Coliseum Ticket Office, located on the Southwest corner of Hilton.
Both meets will be shown live on Cyclones.TV Powered by Mediacom and the Cyclones.TV web player. For more information about Cyclones.TV, click
here. Live stats for both meets will be provided, click
here for the Oklahoma meet and
here for the Centenary meet.
Iowa State Athletics Communications student assistant Cassidy Mace will be providing a live blog throughout the meet
here. Results will also be posted throughout the meet on the Iowa State Gymnastics Twitter page
@CycloneGYM.
Cyclone Headlines
- The Iowa State gymnastics team will be looking for a bounce back this weekend when they host a pair of home meets. The Cyclones host No. 1 and defending national champions Oklahoma Friday night at 6:30 p.m. and follow that up by hosting Centenary College on Sunday at 2 p.m. inside Hilton Coliseum.
- Last weekend, ISU took part in the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas against three of the best teams in the country in Oklahoma, LSU and Arkansas, all of whom were in the top-eight. The Cyclones finished fourth, recording a score of 193.400.
- Leading the Cyclones was all-around competitor Caitlin Brown, who posted a 39.125 across the four events. Brown ranks atop the Big 12 and is r 19th nationally with an average score of 39.213 in meets this season.
- A senior and 2014 NCAA Championships qualifier, Brown's top event has been the balance beam, where she ranks tied for sixth nationally with a 9.875 average score on the apparatus. Brown has posted a score of at least 9.875 on beam in three of Iowa State's four meets this season.
- In Iowa State's home meet against Oregon State and Southeast Missouri, Brown and Sammie Pearsall tied the ISU record with 9.950s on beam. Brown and Pearsall are two of nine gymnasts in the country this season to record a 9.950 on beam.
- In the OSU-SEMO meet, ISU recorded a 49.425 team score on balance beam, a score that ranked tied for the third-best in Iowa State history and is tied with Stanford for the highest score on the apparatus in the NCAA this season.
- For her effort on beam in the tri-meet, Pearsall was named the Big 12 Event Specialist of the Week, becoming the first Cyclone to get a nod from the Big 12 in 2015.
- The Cyclones are a young squad, featuring seven freshmen and a sophomore transfer among their ranks. At the Metroplex Challenge, ISU competed eight gymnasts in at least one event who are freshmen or sophomoes.
- The top of that group is all-arounder Haylee Young. The freshman from Des Moines has competed in the all-around at all four meets so far this season and ranks among the top-50 in the country in the all-around. Yong's 39.325 against OSU-SEMO was the highest all-around score by a freshman under Jay Ronayne.
- Young has shown her potential to put up big scores, having scored 9.900s on both beam and floor early on in her career.
- While Iowa State is returning an NCAA qualifier, the Cyclones have many talented gymnasts to replace, losing six seniors who were all in the lineup in multiple events last season in 2014 All-Big 12 honorees Henrietta Green and Milan Ivory, 2013 All-American on balance beam Michelle Shealy, 2014 All-American on uneven bars Camille Santerre-Gervais and Hailey Johnson.