Gymnastics Competes at Kent State Sunday

MUNCIE, Ind. - - The Ball State gymnastics program will get its first look at the 2023 Mid-American Conference Championship floor this weekend, when it travels to Kent State for a 1 p.m. league dual Sunday.

The Golden Flashes' Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center will be the site of the 2023 league championships which will be held Saturday, March 18.

This weekend's meet, however, will pit the league's top two teams based on current average score, in head-to-head competition. The Cardinals enter the week ranked 32nd nationally with an average mark of 195.683, while the Golden Flashes are 36th at 195.395.

Fans unable to attend Sunday's meet can also follow the action from home with:
Live Results: http://sidearmstats.com/kent/gymnastics/ksubsu021923.htm
BoxCast Live Video: https://boxcast.tv/view/kent-state-gymnastics-vs-ball-state-21923-g6nkhcsgnucvkikvzxqw

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), while Waldo and senior Lauren Volpe hit the mark in the come-from-behind victory over Northern Illinois (Feb. 12) to give Ball State six 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 19 best team scores in program history … In fact, of Ball State's 24 scores of 195.450-or-higher, 22 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 15 of 20 scores on beam, 15 of 21 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 22nd nationally with an average vault score of 49.046.
- Ball State's program-record vault score of 49.250 set at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20) 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 9.875 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 (9.813) ranking second and third in the MAC, respectively.

PFISTER ALSO SHINING ON FLOOR:
- Suki Pfister has also turned in five 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 second-best in the league on floor so far this season.

MORE ON HENRY:
- Victoria Henry has competed in the all-around in all six meets so far this season, the first six 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 72 scores of 9.800-or-higher this season … 24 of those performance have come on floor, including a 9.950 from Suki Pfister, 9.925s from Victoria Henry and Zoe Middleton, and a 9.900 by Megan Teter.
- Ball State has added 20 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 16 scores of 9.800-or-better on beam and 12 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, Grace Sumner, and Lauren Volpe have all tied the program record on beam at 9.925 … In fact, Waldo has hit the mark in three of the last four meets.

FRESHMAN IMPACT:
- Freshman Zoe Middleton found an immediate home in the Ball State lineup, competing in three events in each of the first six meets of the season … Her best meet to date came last Sunday versus Northern Illinois when she scored a 9.925 on floor, a 9.800 on vault, and a 9.800 on bars … She also scored a 9.800 on vault at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20)
- Of Zoe Middleton's 18 routines this season, 17 of her scores have counted towards Ball State's team total.
- Zoe Middleton also scored a 9.800 in an exhibition on beam versus Northern Illinois (Nov. 12) … If that score would have been in competition, she would have had an all-around score of 39.235 which would have tied as the fourth-best mark in program history.

MORE FROM THE NEWBIES:
- 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) and versus Northern Illinois (Feb. 12).

BEAM VOLPE UP:
- Ball State's lone fifth-year senior, Lauren Volpe registered a career-best beam score of 9.925 in last Sunday's win over Northern Illinois (Feb. 12), helping the Cardinals finish the meet with the second-best team score in program history at 49.300.
- In fact, Volpe is one of three current Ball State gymnasts to have a countable score in all five 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 195.683 according to the Road To Nationals rankings … BSU's best event is vault, with the team ranking 22nd nationally with an average score of 49.046.
- Kent State enters the weekend ranked 36th nationally with an average score of 195.395 … The Golden Flashes' best event is floor, in which they rank 18th nationally with a 49.260 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