Cyclones to Compete in Historic Fisk MLK Meet

AMES, Iowa – Next Monday, January 15, the Iowa State gymnastics program will be competing in a special holiday event – the Fisk MLK Meet.

Fisk University, home of America's first HBCU gymnastics team, is hosting a joint gymnastics match that will bring the nation's only African American women head coaches together for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day competition.

Monday's meet will be held at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tenn. Iowa State, along with Brown, Fisk, Rutgers, William & Mary and Talladega will make up the field.

"I'm so excited to have Iowa State Gymnastics represented in this meet.," said Coach Ashley Miles Greig. "For me personally, it's so special to be able to be part of something historic that is promoting black excellence and inclusivity in the sport of gymnastics."

Members of the coaching field are Aja Sims-Fletcher (Talladega), Brittany Harris (Brown), Kelsey Hinton (W&M), Umme Salim-Beasley (Rutgers) and Corrinne Tarver (Fisk).

The entire field of coaches were once collegiate gymnasts. Sims-Fletcher, like Coach Greig, was a standout gymnast at the University of Alabama. Harris competed at Oregon State, Hinton at NC State and Salim-Beasley at West Virginia. Fisk's Tarver, the organizer of the meet, competed at Georgia and was the first African-American member of the Bulldog gymnastics team where she was a nine-time All-American.

The meet, celebrating African American inclusion in gymnastics, has been adopted as an official event of Nashville's Martin Luther King, Jr. week of celebration.

For tickets, you can visit the 2023-24 Women's Gymnastics Schedule - Fisk University (fiskathletics.com) and select the January 15, 2024, meet. You can also go to the Vanderbilt Athletics ticket page to purchase tickets.

Iowa State University Athletics

Cyclones to Compete in Historic Fisk MLK Meet

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