Cyclones Win Cy-Hawk Meet With Season-High 196.025

AMES, Iowa - Five Iowa State gymnasts earned or tied individual career-highs on the way to earning team season-highs on beam, floor, and in the overall competition. All this combined to earn the Cyclones a victory over in-state rival, the Iowa Hawkeyes, in the annual Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk series, finishing the meet 196.025-196.000. Three Cyclone gymnasts received scores above a 9.900, all of which beat their current career-highs.

Senior Alex Marasco scored the first 9.900+ routine of the night for Iowa State, finishing her final beam routine in Hilton Coliseum with a career-high 9.900. Floor proved to be the strongest meet of the night for the Cyclones yet again as both Briana Ledesma and Haylee Young stretched pass the 9.900 mark, Ledesma earning a career-high 9.900 and Young earning a career-high 9.925.

“Going into the last event we knew it was going to be tight,” head coach Jay Ronayne said. “We were down just a tiny bit. It was head-to-head, we just had to stay on pace with them. It came down to the last competitor and I could tell it was right about at a tie.”

“Sara Townsend, who is incredible at math, looked up and said Haylee [Young] need a 9.925 to win. Everybody looked at her and said, 'okay let's go.' Haylee started her routine, it was a great routine, and we knew the judges would judge it fairly. They did and the score of 9.925 went up, and the whole team knew at that moment that we won.”

Vault
The Cyclones started off the meet strong with a 49.025 on vault for the first rotation. Meaghan Sievers led the team with a 9.850, continuing to be a strong competitor on floor after earning a team season-high vault score with a 9.925 last week at Illinois. Sievers' 9.850 earned her a tie for second place at the meet against Iowa. Alex Marasco came in close behind with the next highest score, a 8.825 after not competing on the event for six meets. Briana Ledesma and Sara Townsend both earned 9.800's, Townsend earning a career-high with the score. Haylee Young recorded a 9.750 to bring the team score just 0.025 under the season high.

Volunteer assistant coach Danielle Guider:
“I thought vault was great. I changed up my line-up, I put two seniors in there. My heart felt it was right, and I knew Alex [Marasco] would start us off great and she did with a season-high. And Sara [Townsend] got a career-high of a 9.800. I thought they did awesome.”

Uneven Bars
Haylee Young brought in the highest score on uneven bars with a 9.800 earning first place at the meet. Senior Sammie Pearsall and sophomore Hilary Green both earned 9.775 on their uneven bars routines, coming in close behind Young on the event and tying for second at the meet. Two more Iowa State gymnasts earned the same score, with Sara Townsend and Briana Ledesma recording 9.650's.

Head coach Jay Ronayne:
“We some improvement from the past three meets. We've struggled to keep the event together. We still made mistakes, but the team stayed together and focused and we were able to leave that event feeling like we did our job.”

Balance Beam
Senior Alex Marasco finished her final meet in Hilton Coliseum without any regrets, earning a career-high on balance beam with a 9.900 and placing second at the meet. Her outstanding performance helped the team to their highest beam score of the season, a 49.050. Haylee Young brought in the next-highest score on the event, just below Marasco with 9.875. Meaghan Sievers earned a 9.800 and Kelsey Paz recorded a 9.775 for Iowa State. Sydney Converse rounded off the rotation scores with a 9.700.

Assistant Katie Minasola:
“I'm so happy with the way that they performed tonight. Alex [Marasco] coming away with a career-high was awesome to see on senior night. There were some other great performances and I'm really proud of them. They worked really hard this week and it showed and I can't wait to do more next week.”

Floor Exercise
Sophomores Haylee Young and Briana Ledesma both scored career-high's on floor exercise in Friday night's victory over Iowa, helping the Cyclones to a season-high 49.300 on the event. Young brought in a score of 9.925 for her routine, Iowa State's highest individual score on the event this season. Ledesma brought in the next-highest score on the event with a career-high 9.900 for her excellent performance on her floor routine. Meaghan Sievers tied her career-high with a 9.875, coming in just behind Ledesma. Young, Ledesma, and Sievers took first through third place on the event at the meet, respectively. Kelsey Paz earned another great score for the Cyclones with a 9.850 and Courtney Middelkoop contributed a 9.750 to help the team to their highest floor score of the season.

Assistant coach Kristen Maloney:
“I though floor went excellent. We fixed our little wobbles from the past two weekends, so I was really proud of the way they went back and worked hard on those little details. They really made a difference to push us past Iowa.”

All-Around
Iowa State had two gymnasts compete in the all-around on Friday against Iowa. Haylee Young took first place in the all-around competition with a score of 39.350 after placing first on floor and the uneven bars and coming in third on balance beam. Meaghan Sievers earned a 39.000, placing third on floor after tying her career-high on the event.

Up Next
The Cyclones will travel to Lexington, Kentucky next week to compete in their final regular season meet against Kentucky. Iowa State will be taking on Kentucky at 6 p.m. Central Time next Friday at Memorial Coliseum.

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Players Mentioned

Sydney Converse

Hilary Green

Briana Ledesma

Alex Marasco

Courtney Middelkoop

Kelsey Paz

Sammie Pearsall

Meaghan Sievers

Sara Townsend

Haylee Young

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