Gymnastics posts best score, falls to Iowa State
Published Feb. 6, 2007
Despite having its best performance of the season, the gymnastics team lost its third-straight meet.
On Friday night at Iowa State, the team scored 195.025. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it was not enough to match the Cyclones' 195.725.
Coach Rob Drass said that he's happy about the high score, especially since his team was on the road, but that he also thinks Iowa State is a beatable team.
"Overall, I think we did a pretty decent job," he said of the meet.
Although Drass said the beam is his team's best event, it once again was the worst of the four scores. The team posted a 48.350 on beam. Its scores on bars, vault and floor were 48.950, 48.775, and 48.950, respectively.
Drass said his team was being conservative on the beam and trying to avoid falls.
The gymnasts succeeded in avoiding falls, something Drass said will lead to confidence in future meets.
"That was a step we needed to take to get confidence," he said.
Sophomore Adrianne Perry, who fell on the beam the past two meets and went out of bounds during her floor routine two weeks ago at Oklahoma, put it all together on Friday. She scored 9.8 or above on all four events, notching a 39.300 all-around score. The Cyclones' Janet Anson beat her for the all-around title by .025. Perry said she was glad to finally hit all four routines.
Perry said she hopes to achieve a 39.5 all-around score on Friday against Southeast Missouri State.
Drass said he is confident that Perry's performance was no fluke: "I think that's what you're going to see from her the rest of the year."
Drass said if his team continues to put up higher scores on the road, it could reach 10th in the nation.
"I think we are every bit as good as Iowa State was," he said.
Drass said the ratings jump would take some time, as high road scores improve rankings more than home ones. The team has three straight home meets and doesn't travel again until March 3, when it is scheduled to travel to the University of Pittsburgh.
Drass said his team is capable of receiving a 196.5 score if it hits all 24 of its routines without making mistakes such as going out of bounds on the floor or falling on the beam. He said he thinks the team could score a 49.2 on the beam and a higher score is possible against Southeast Missouri State. The Redhawks won the Gershon/McLellan Invitational on Friday but only scored 190.850.
Drass said the Tigers will concentrate on their own scores instead of the other team's.
"I don't think you'll see us lose focus," he said.
Another possible advantage to being home is that the team will compete in the beam in the third rotation instead of the fourth and final one. Although this might relieve some pressure, junior Julie Abaray said it isn't much.
"We still have to compete beam," she said.