The Ball State gymnastics team suffered its first road defeat of the season, falling to Iowa and Michigan State in a tri-meet hosted by the Hawkeyes.
Ball State scored a 193.350 on Sunday, while Michigan State and Iowa received scores of 195.625 and 194.425, respectively.
Ball State has scored higher at this point in the season than in previous years. Despite the team's record, head coach Joanna Saleem has a positive outlook for the rest of the season.
“We have a lot of work to do in the gym and we still haven't put our best gymnastics out on the competition floor,” Saleem said. “The month of January is about learning how to succeed as a team and learning how to work together and making sure we're comfortable doing the routines that we have, and hopefully getting the harder skills ready so that we can put them in our routines [later].”
Ball State had two falls which brought down the team score.
Saleem also said the team is not used to the rigorous spring schedule and competing every weekend yet, which should change as the season continues.
“We need to be better at coming into the gym the first day back and making sure that we're productive all week long, working on all of the details of what we needed to work on from the weekend before so that we're ready to go out on that competition floor that next weekend,” she said.
Despite an early fall, Saleem credited freshman Jordyn Penny for her performance. She tied for second on vault and finished third on bars.
Sophomore Kayla Beckler and junior Erin Patchey also contributed to the overall score. Beckler tied for fourth on beam with a career-high score of 9.775. Patchey also posted a new personal record on the floor with a score of 9.85.
Beckler said the team's skill level has increased since her freshman year, which shows in its scores.
“We have a lot of underclassmen who are competing,” Beckler said. “When I first came in, there were a lot of us but we all were kind of specialists. [Now] we have girls coming in doing three, four events right off the bat, so that's really nice to see.”
Last season, the Cardinals won two gymnastics meets. Still, Saleem said she cares more about the team's performance than wins.
"The wins are going to come,” Saleem said. “Right now, we are still a young team ... I'm not really focused on the win-loss record at this point. I know that that is important and it will come down the road, but right now it's important for us to be maintaining solid scores and solid performances.”
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