Gymnastics Hosts NIU For Sunday #MACtion

MUNCIE, Ind. - - Make Worthen Arena the "unofficial" start to your Super Bowl Sunday celebration and join the Ball State gymnastics team when it hosts Northern Illinois for Student Life/Greek Life Day at 1 p.m.

The first 100 Ball State students in attendance will receive FREE aviator sunglasses, while the office of Student Life/Greek Life will help sponsor prizes for the chapter with the highest percentage of members at the meet.

Sunday's contest will be the second home meet of the season for the Cardinals who tallied the third-best team score in program history in its home opener on Jan. 29 to sweep the Ball State Quad.

Fans unable to attend Sunday's meet can also follow the action from home with:
Live Results: https://bsu_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/Stats/Gymnastics/gymlive.htm
ESPN+ Broadcast: https://es.pn/3jUxaUC

Looking to know more about the squad, here are some highlights of the season to date:

BREAKING RECORDS AT THE TENNESSEE COLLEGIATE CLASSIC:
- The Ball State gymnastics team broke three team records at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20) … The meet started with the Cardinals counting five scores of 9.800-or-higher on the way to a record vault team score of 49.250 … Two events later, the Cardinals counted five more scores of 9.800-or-higher in a record beam team score of 49.350 … Combined with scores of 49.125 on bars and 48.825 on floor, Ball State finished the meet with a program record team score of 196.550.
- Overall, Ball State tallied a program record seven individual scores of 9.900-or-higher in the meet … The previous best was three scores of 9.900-or-higher in the same meet set March 5, 2017 versus Western Michigan and tied Feb. 6, 2021 in a quad at Eastern Michigan and March 3, 2021 in a home quad.
- Individually, senor Megan Teter set the program record on bars at 9.950; junior Suki Pfister tied the program record on floor at 9.950; seniors Taylor Waldo and Grace Evans tied the program record on beam at 9.925.

MORE RECORD NEWS:
- Senior Taylor Waldo and sophomore Grace Sumner would add two more scores of 9.925 on beam at the Ball State Quad (Jan. 29), giving Ball State four record scores on the event so far this season
- In the program's 10 years under current head coach Joanna Saleem, Ball State has tallied the 18 best team scores in program history … In fact, of the 23 scores of 195.450-or-higher in the record book, 21 have been set by Saleem's squads.
- In addition, Saleem's squads own the event records on vault (49.250), beam (49.350), and floor (49.500), along with the second-best score in program history on bars (49.250).
- All 27 entries on the vault record book are held by Saleem's teams, as are 20 of 26 scores on beam, 14 of 20 scores on floor, and 14 of 20 scores on bars.

VAULTING OFF STRONG:
- Ball State's best event so far this season has been vault, with the Cardinals ranking first in the MAC and 21st nationally with an average vault score of 49.045.
- Ball State's program-record vault score of 49.250 is also the best in the MAC so far this season and is the 21st-best team high score in the nation.

PFISTER LEADING THE WAY:
- Suki Pfister has picked up right where she left off last season, ranking first in the MAC with a 9.880 average score on vault.
- Pfister started with a third-place finish in the quad meet at Florida (Jan. 6) with a 9.875 … She followed with back-to-back 9.900s in the quad meet at Rutgers (Jan. 14) and at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20)
- She would add the MAC's best vault of the season to date at the Ball State Quad (Jan. 29), scoring 9.925.
- No other student-athlete in the league is averaging higher then 9.825, with teammates Victoria Henry (9.825) and Hannah Ruthberg (9.815) ranking second and third in the MAC, respectively.

PFISTER ALSO SHINING ON FLOOR:
- Suki Pfister has also turned in four brilliant performances on floor this season, including tying the program record with a score of 9.950 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20).
- Pfister's score of 9.950 ties as the best in the league on floor so far this season.

MORE ON HENRY:
- Victoria Henry has competed in the all-around in all five meets so far this season, the first five all-around performances of her collegiate career … She tallied the second-highest all-around score in program history at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20), counting a 9.925 on floor, a 9.875 on vault, and 9.775s on bars and beam for a score of 39.350.
- She followed with the fourth-best score in program history in the Jan. 22 dual win over Eastern Michigan, earning a 39.325 … The effort included 9.875s on bars and floor, a 9.825 on vault, and a 9.750 on beam.
- She also logged what is now tied as the 15th-best all-around score in program history with a 39.175 at the Rutgers January Quad (Jan. 14).

RUTHBERG SOLID ALL-AROUND AS WELL:
- Hannah Ruthberg continued her all-around assault on the record book at the Ball State Quad (Jan. 29), tying the seventh-best score in program history at 39.275.
- The effort was led by a career-best score of 9.875 on beam, along with scores of 9.825 on bars, 9.800 on floor and 9.775 on vault.
- Overall, Ruthberg has three of the top 10 all-around scores in program history, with her career-best mark of 39.325 at West Virginia (March 6, 2022) tying as the fourth-best.

SCORING HIGH:
- Overall, the Cardinals counted 57 scores of 9.800-or-higher this season … 19 of those performance have come on floor, including a 9.950 from Suki Pfister, a 9.925 from Victoria Henry, and a 9.900 by Megan Teter.
- Ball State has added 16 scores of 9.800-or-better on vault, paced by a 9.925, along with a pair of 9.900s, by Suki Pfister.
- The Cardinals also boast 12 scores of 9.800-or-better on beam and 10 on bars so far this season … Megan Teter's program record score of 9.950 leads the team on bars, while Taylor Waldo, Grace Evans, and Grace Sumner have all tied the program record on beam at 9.925 … In fact, Waldo has hit the mark in two of the last three meets.

FRESHMAN IMPACT:
- Freshman Zoe Middleton found an immediate home in the Ball State lineup, competing in three events in each of the first five meets of the season … Her best scores to date are a pair of 9.800 on floor and a 9.800 on vault at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20) … In fact, 14 of her 15 scores have counted towards Ball State's team total this season.
- Florida native Karah Vargo made her collegiate debut in her home state, scoring a 9.650 on vault.
- Leah White made her first appearance in the competitive lineup on vault at the Rutgers January Quad (Jan. 14) and has competed on the apparatus ever since with a career-best 9.775 coming at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 22).

BEAM VOLPE UP:
- Ball State's lone fifth-year senior, Lauren Volpe registered a season-best 9.825 on beam to help the Cardinals record the second-best beam team score in program history at 49.275.
- In fact, Volpe is one of three current Ball State gymnasts to have a countable score in all four of the top team beam marks in program history, along with Hannah Ruthberg and Grace Sumner.

WHERE THEY STAND ENTERING THE WEEK:
- Ball State enters the weekend ranked 32nd nationally with an average score of 195.610 according to the Road To Nationals rankings … BSU's best event is vault, with the team ranking 21st nationally with an average score of 49.045.
- Northern Illinois enters the weekend ranked 45th nationally with an average score of 194.825 … The Huskies' best event is beam, in which they rank 32nd nationally with a 48.796 average.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Grace Evans

Victoria Henry

Zoe Middleton

Suki Pfister

Hannah Ruthberg

Grace Sumner

Megan Teter

Karah Vargo

Lauren Volpe

Taylor Waldo

Leah White