Cyclones Earn First Conference Win with 195.300

AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State gymnastics earned its first conference win against West Virginia on Friday night. The Cyclones earned a 195.300 after impressive scores on floor, beam, and vault. West Virginia took second place at the meet with 195.200. Last minute line-up changes and close scores throughout the meet provided challenges for the Cyclones, but they fought hard to bring in their second-highest overall score of the season.

“Sammie Pearsall was in the uneven bars line-up and warming up great,” head coach Jay Ronayne said. “She flew off the bars and the way she landed on her back, I thought she was knocked out. It shook all of us up, and we immediately had to make a switch on the line-up. I'm upset she wasn't able to show what she can do tonight, but we think she's okay and we'll probably see her competing in the next meet.”

“I'm really pleased with our performance tonight," Ronayne continued. "West Virginia brought it. They looked really good and I'm just happy the way my team kept pulling themselves back together. Every time there was a mistake, they were able to come back and get the job done.”

Floor Exercise
Needing a 9.775 to win the meet for Iowa State, Haylee Young highlighted the Cyclones' performance on floor in Friday's meet, earning a 9.875 and taking first at the competition. Briana Ledesma and Kelsey Paz both posted impressive scores with a 9.800 each. Meaghan Sievers and Courtney Middelkoop both contributed 9.775's to help bring the team score to 49.025.

Assistant coach Kristen Maloney:
“Floor went okay. We had some really bright spots with Kelsey Paz, Haylee Young, Briana Ledesma, and Courtney Middelkoop. We've still got a few things to clean up here and there, so I'm looking forward to continuing to improve.”

Balance Beam
The Cyclones stepped up their performance on beam, earning a team season-high with 48.925. Three Iowa State gymnasts tied for a team-high score of 9.850, including Haylee Young, Sydney Converse, and Alex Marasco. Converse beat her career-high by two-tenths of a point with this score. Meaghan Sievers also performed a strong routine, putting up a 9.750. Kelsey Paz continued to be a consistent contributor with 9.625.

Assistant coach Katie Minasola:
“Beam was better this week. I'm still looking for that one person to fill in the sixth spot, so we can get six hit routines. But the performance this week was definitely much better. We made a change with Kelsey Paz's routine, which she only had three days to work on. I thought she handled it well and with a couple more practices and meets under her belt, it'll be a great routine for her. I was also very happy with Sydney Converse who finally broke out of her shell. We've been waiting for that for a while, so that was a good start and we're only looking to improve.”

Vault
Iowa State came close to their season-high team score with a 48.700 on vault. The team was led for the fifth-consecutive meet this season by freshman Meaghan Sievers. The Gary, South Dakota native earned a 9.850 on her vault, tying her career high. Following Sievers was sophomore Haylee Young, who received a 9.750. Also contributing on vault were Converse (9.725), Townsend (9.700), and Paz (9.650).

Volunteer coach Danielle Guider:
“I was happy that we hit all of our vaults, but we still need to key in on our form and our landings to get a little bit better. We have a lot of room to improve.”

Uneven Bars
Sievers led the team again on the uneven bars, scoring a 9.875 just one week after earning a career-high 9.900 against NC State and Lindenwood. This earned the freshman first-place finish in the meet. Young came in with the next highest score for the Cyclones with a 9.800. Kelsey Paz put up a 9.750 on her bars routine. Sara Townsend and Madeline Johnson both contributed to help bring the team uneven bars total to 48.650.

Head coach Jay Ronayne:
“It could have been better; we were counting on Hilary Green's usual performance. We were expecting her to get a 9.900 or 9.950. So we were quite a bit under what we anticipated to score. That put us behind going into the third rotation, and it was a really close competition. But that happens in sports.”

All-Around
Haylee Young, Meaghan Sievers, and Kelsey Paz all competed in the all-around in Friday's meet. Young came out on top with a season-high 39.275, with Sievers close behind with a 39.250. This earns the freshman her career and season high. Kelsey Paz earned a 38.850 in the all-around, tying her season-high.

Up Next
The Iowa State gymnastics team will be heading to Shreveport, Louisiana next week to take on Centenary and Texas Woman's University. The meet will be next Saturday, February 13, and will begin at 6:00 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Sydney Converse

Hilary Green

Madeline Johnson

Briana Ledesma

Alex Marasco

Courtney Middelkoop

Kelsey Paz

Sammie Pearsall

Meaghan Sievers

Sara Townsend

Haylee Young

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