Ball State University
Iowa
Gymnastics Competes vs. Two Big Ten Conference Foes
January 19, 2015 | Gymnastics
Ball State's gymnastics team competed at Iowa with Michigan State and finished third with a score of 193.350. Michigan State won the event with a 195.625, while Iowa was second with a score of 194.425.
"We had a few more errors today than we did last week, but I believe we handled them well as a group and overall had a solid performance," Ball State head coach Joanna Saleem said. "It is still early in the season and this was our first meet on the road. We definitely have things we need to work on this week to continue forward progress on the competition floor. Overall there were some really solid improvements from several of our student-athletes, we had a lot of small victories that will help us as we continue into Mid-American Conference play. We started the meet on beam and had to count a fall, which is not the way you want to start a meet. I am really proud of the way the team performed as a unit throughout the day, staying together and really focusing on our team. We had solid performances on floor and vault, and scored higher this week on bars than last week despite having to count a fall on that event."
On the vault, the Cardinals were led by freshman Jordyn Penny, who tied for second with a career high score of 9.775. Denasiha Christian and Erin Patchey tied for fifth for Ball State with marks of 9.750. The Cardinals managed a 48.675 team score on the vault, which surpassed the mark of 48.450 by Iowa.
Penny led the Cardinals on the bars with a tie for third and a score of 9.825, which tied her career high. Brooklyn Schumacher tied for sixth with a 9.775 mark. Ball State tallied a season high team score of 48.200 on the bars.
On the beam, Ball State's team score of 47.700 once again topped the Hawkeyes mark of 47.500. Kayla Beckler tied for fourth with a career high 9.775 score to lead the Cardinals.
Patchey was the team's top competitor on the floor with a career high 9.850, which tied for sixth, while Penny was the Cardinals' top all-around performer with a 38.475 mark.
"It is great to see our freshmen on the road being competitive against two Big Ten teams their first time out," Saleem said. "We plan to use the experience we had during our first two meets against high caliber teams to help us as we enter into the MAC portion of our competition schedule. Jordyn Penny had a solid meet despite having a fall in her first event. She is figuring out how to compete in college and is handling herself very well."
Ball State will host Central Michigan Friday at 7 p.m. in Irving Gym of the Jo Ann Gora Student Recreation and Wellness Center in its MAC opener. Admission is free to the event.
