Gymnastics Heads To Kent State For Saturday's MAC Championship

MUNCIE, Ind. - - So far, it has been a record season for the Ball State gymnastics program which will look to carry that momentum into Saturday's Mid-American Conference Championship hosted by Kent State.

The Cardinals (16-6; 5-1 MAC) are coming off a record-breaking performance last Sunday versus Western Michigan, in which BSU turned in a team score of 196.900 to break the program record for the second time this season.

While the score was .050 behind the Broncos for the meet win, it was the third-highest team score in the MAC this season, trailing only WMU's top two team performances.

The effort, along with Ball State's performance the entire season, has BSU poised to win just the second MAC Championship in program history, with the first crown coming in 2002.

Fans unable to attend Saturday's MAC Championships can also follow the action from home:
   MAC Championship Live Results: https://bit.ly/3JLSqGc
   MAC Championship Live Video (ESPN+): https://es.pn/3LtGeLU
   MAC Championship Central: https://bit.ly/3ZS3Az3

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

TEAM RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCES:
- Last Sunday's 196.900 versus Western Michigan marked the second time this season the Cardinals have broken the program record for team score, the first was a 196.550 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20).
- Of the top nine team scores in program history, eight have some this season.
- Ball State has broken the vault team score record twice, with 49.250s at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic and at Bowling Green (March 3) … In fact, BSU has posted the four best team vault scores in program history this season.
- The Cardinals have also registered the top four beam team scores in program history this season, led by a program record of 49.350 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic.

INDIVIDUAL RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCES:
- Ball State tallied a program record seven individual scores of 9.900-or-higher at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20) … 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.
- Senor Megan Teter set the program record on bars at 9.950 the Tennessee Collegiate Classic and has three career bars routines of 9.900-or-higher.
- Junior Suki Pfister tied the program record on floor with her 9.950 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic … She has also tallied two scores of 9.950 on vault this season, and three in her career, with the latest coming this past Sunday versus Western Michigan.
- Four Cardinals have tied the program record on beam so far this season, starting with seniors Taylor Waldo and Grace Evans scoring 9.925s at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic … Waldo and sophomore Grace Sumner earned 9.925s on beam during the Ball State Quad (Jan. 29), while Waldo and fifth-year senior Lauren Volpe landed 9.925s versus Northern Illinois (Feb. 12).
- Ball State has also seen the all-around program record topped this season, with junior Victoria Henry scoring a 39.400 versus Central Michigan (Feb. 26) … She started the day with a 9.875 on vault, followed by a 9.775 on bars, and a career best 9.850 on beam … Henry then closed the meet on floor, earning the event win with a 9.900.
- Junior Hannah Ruthberg would follow with a 39.400 of her own in last Friday's quad meet at Missouri (March 10) … Her performance was highlighted by a career-best 9.900 on beam and included 9.850s on vault and bars, as well as a 9.800 on floor.

RECORDS UNDER HEAD COACH JOANNA SALEEM:
- In the program's 10 years under current head coach Joanna Saleem, Ball State has tallied the 24 best team scores in program history … In fact, of Ball State's 28 scores of 195.450-or-higher, 26 have been set by Saleem's squads.
- 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 33 entries on the vault record book are held by Saleem's teams, as are 19 of 24 scores on beam, 18 of 24 scores on floor, and 18 of 25 scores on bars.

PARTYING LIKE IT'S 1999:
- After registering two of the top three scores in program history last week, Ball State climbed back to 32nd nationally with an NQS of 196.355
- In addition, the effort locked the Cardinals into an NCAA Regional team berth for just the second time in program history … With just one weekend of competition remaining before Monday's NCAA Selections Show (March 20), 33 of the 36 regional spots have been locked up … Five teams are battling for the final three spots, and according to RoadToNationals.com, no combination of teams or scores will knock the Cardinals out of a team regional bid.
- Ball State's only other NCAA team regional berth came in 1999 when the Cardinals placed fourth among six teams at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional … Ball State earned a team score of 193.375 in the event, topping both Auburn (193.300) and Kentucky (191.825) … Stanford (194.675) took the top spot, followed by Louisiana State (194.600), and Central Michigan (193.550).
- What is NQS: Qualification for regional competition is based on a team's and an all-around competitor's six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain the national qualifying score (NQS), the high score is eliminated, and the remaining five scores are averaged.

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 NQS vault score of 49.170.
- Ball State's program-record vault score of 49.250 set at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20), and tied at Bowling Green (March 3), is the second-best in the MAC so far this season and is tied as the 32nd-best team high score in the nation.

PFISTER LEADING THE WAY ON VAULT:
- Suki Pfister has picked up right where she left off last season, ranking first in the MAC and tied for 10th nationally with a vault NQS score of 9.915.
- So far this season, Pfister has registered six vault scores of 9.900-or-higher this season, including tying her career best with 9.950s versus both Central Michigan (Feb. 26) and Western Michigan (March 12).
- She's also won the vault competition in seven of Ball State's 11 meets so far this season, including four of BSU's six league competitions.
- Pfister has been one of the nation's most consistent vaulters, ranking 11th nationally with an average vault score of 9.891 … All 11 of her vaults have come in at 9.800-or-higher.
- No other student-athlete in the MAC has an NQS higher then 9.885, with teammates Victoria Henry (9.885) and Hannah Ruthberg (9.835) ranking second and sixth in the league, respectively.

PFISTER ALSO SHINING ON FLOOR:
- Suki Pfister has also turned in eight brilliant performances (9.800-or-better) 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, while her NQS of 9.855 is 11^th in the league.

MORE ON HENRY:
- Victoria Henry has competed in the all-around in all 11 meets so far this season, the first 11 all-around performances of her collegiate career … Her best outing came versus Central Michigan (Feb. 27) when she set the program standard with a score of 39.400.
- She tallied the fourth-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 sixth-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.
- Overall, Henry has three of the top seven all-around scores in program history.

RUTHBERG SOLID ALL-AROUND AS WELL:
- Hannah Ruthberg continued her all-around assault on the record book as well, tying the program record with a 39.400 at the Missouri Quad (March 10) … The effort included a career-best 9.900 on beam, 9.850s on vault and bars, and a 9.800 on floor.
- Ruthberg also has a pair of 39.275s this season, with the first coming at the Ball State Quad (Jan. 29) and the second at Bowling Green (March 3) … Those scores tie as the ninth-best in program history.
- The effort at the Ball State Quad (Jan. 29) was led by a 9.875 on beam, along with scores of 9.825 on bars, 9.800 on floor and 9.775 on vault.
- The effort at Bowling Green (March 3) was paced by a career-best 9.875 on vault, along with a 9.850 on beam, a 9.825 on floor, and a 9.725 on beam
- Overall, Ruthberg has nine of the top 19 all-around scores in program history, with her 2022 season-best mark of 39.325 at West Virginia tying as the sixth best.

SCORING HIGH:
- Overall, the Cardinals have counted 145 scores of 9.800-or-higher this season … 47 of those performance have come on floor, including a 9.950 from Suki Pfister and 9.925s from Victoria Henry, Zoe Middleton, and Megan Teter.
- Ball State has added 37 scores of 9.800-or-better on vault, paced by a pair of 9.950s, a 9.925, and a trifecta of 9.900s by Suki Pfister … Victoria Henry also has a pair 9.925 on vault this season.
- The Cardinals also boast 31 scores of 9.800-or-better on bars and 30 on beam 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 three times this season.

FRESHMAN IMPACT:
- Freshman Zoe Middleton found an immediate home in the Ball State lineup, competing in three events in each of the first 11 meets of the season … Her best meet to date came versus Northern Illinois (Feb. 12) 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) and a career-best 9.825 on bars in each of the last three meets.
- Of Middleton's 33 routines this season, 31 of her scores have counted towards Ball State's team total.
- 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 39.325 which would have tied as the fifth-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 at the Florida Quad Meet (Jan. 6).
- 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), versus Northern Illinois (Feb. 12) and against Western Michigan (March 12).

BEAM VOLPE UP:
- Ball State's lone fifth-year senior, Lauren Volpe registered a career-best beam score of 9.925 in the 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 six of the top team beam marks in program history, along with Hannah Ruthberg and Grace Sumner.

MORE ON BALL STATE'S SENIOR:
- Grace Evans enters the MAC Championships tied atop the beam record book with her score of 9.925 set at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20) … She has eight scores of 9.800-or-better this season, including a season-best 9.850 on bars which was also set at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic.
- Megan Teter set the bars record at 9.950 and earned a career-best vault score of 9.825 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 20) … She has five scores of 9.900-or-better this season, including a 9.925 and a pair of 9.900s on floor, as well as a 9.900 on bars.
- Taylor Waldo has been strong on beam all season, tying the program record three times at 9.925, most recently versus Northern Illinois (Feb. 12) … She also tied her career best on floor versus Western Michigan (March 12) with a 9.875 and owns 10 scores of 9.800-or-better this season.

SENSATIONAL SOPHOMORE SEASON:
- After a strong freshman campaign in 2022, Grace Sumner has not missed a beat this season, including tying the program record on beam with her 9.925 at the Ball State Quad (Jan. 29) … In addition, she scored a career-best bars routine of 9.850 versus Northern Illinois (Feb. 12).
- Overall, Sumner has tallied 12 scores of 9.800-or-better this season, including a 9.925 and a pair of 9.900s on beam.

Gymnastics Heads To Kent State For Saturday's MAC Championship

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Players Mentioned

Grace Evans

Victoria Henry

Zoe Middleton

Suki Pfister

Hannah Ruthberg

Grace Sumner

Megan Teter

Karah Vargo

Lauren Volpe

Taylor Waldo

Leah White