Ball State University
Illinois
Gymnastics Hosts Taylor Swift Eras Day Sunday in Worthen Arena
January 08, 2025 | Gymnastics
| Ball State Gymnastics hosts Ball State Quad | |
| Meet 2 - hosts Ball State Quad   w/Illinois, SEMO, Wisconsin-Eau Claire |
Sunday, Jan. 12 at 1 p.m. ET Live Results  | ESPN+ |
| Tickets Info | Purchase Tickets Here |
| Notes | Ball State | Illinois | SEMO | UW-Eau Claire |
| Social Media | Twitter  |  Instagram |
» THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE GYMNASTICS: The Ball State gymnastics team opens the home portion of its 2025 slate Sunday at 1 p.m. inside Worthen Arena with the Ball State Quad ... In addition to the Cardinals, the meet will feature Illinois, SEMO and Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
» TAYLOR SWIFT ERAS DAY: We are calling all Swifties to Worthen Arena Sunday for Taylor Swift Eras Day ... Bring your friendship bracelets and join us as we embrace a new Era with each Ball State rotation: Vault (Fearless Era / Orange & Gold), Bars (Red Era / Red), Beam (Debut Era / Green) and Floor (Speak Now / Purple) ... In addition to T-shirts for all our scores of 9.75-or-higher, we will also be throwing out friendship bracelets during the meet and select athletes will be available to trade bracelets after competition has concluded ... There will also be special presentations throughout the day.
» MORE PROMOTIONS:
- Sunday's meet is also Indiana Club Day with discount group tickets available for club programs interested in attending ... If your club has not been contacted about attending and you are interested in joining in the fun, please call the Ball State Ticket Office at 1.888.BSU.TICKET or 765.285.1474 and a representative will help get you set up.
- Ball State's freshman class will be available for autographs and photos following the conclusion of the meet.
» GET YOUR TICKETS NOW: Looking to join us in the gymnastics fun for the 2025 season, purchase your season tickets now at a discounted cost of $32 for adults and $16 for youth (3-18 years old) ... Single meet tickets are also available at $10 for adults and $5 for youth ... Visit https://BallStateSports.com/GymTickets to purchase of for more information.
» OFF TO A SOLID START: Ball State opened the 2025 campaign last Friday at Missouri's Beauty and the Beast night by tying the best opening-meet team score in program history with a 194.925 ... It was the best team score in the MAC and 14th-best among all NCAA gymnastics programs opening weekend ... It tied the effort set at last year's UNC Quad (Jan. 5, 2024), while the previous record was 194.475 set at Kentucky to open the 2018 season.
» BARS LEADS THE WAY: Ball State's best event opening weekend came on bars, with the Cardinals earning the 10th-best score in the nation at 49.050 ... Sophomore Ashley Szymanski led the way with Ball State's best score of the season to date, earning a 9.875 for her routine ... Szymanski's score leads the MAC and ranks 24th nationally ... Senior Grace Sumner and junior Mary Rose Bellan followed with scores of 9.850 which are tied for second in the league and rank 32nd nationally.
» MORE ON SZYMANSKI: Ashley Szymanski was crowned a MAC Bars Champion after scoring a 9.925 in her league championships debut last season ... That followed a regular season which saw her earn First Team All-MAC honors on bars after ranking first in the league and 24th nationally with an NQS of 9.920 ... Including her MAC title, Szymanski has won the bars competition in six meets over her collegiate career and turned in seven routines of 9.900-or-higher ... Her career-best score was a 9.975 in her MAC debut versus Bowling Green (Jan. 22).
» RUTHBERG EARNS BSU'S FIRST MAC HONOR OF 2025: Graduate Hannah Ruthberg opened her fifth season for the Cardinals with a bang, leading the squad on three events and placing second in the all-around at Missouri's Beauty and the Beast night last Friday ... The effort helped her earn MAC Gymnast of the Week honors for the third time in her career ... Ruthberg's all-around score of 39.075 also led all MAC student-athletes opening weekend and included scores of 9.800 on beam, 9.775 on floor and 9.750 on vault and bars.
» MORE ON RUTHBERG: Hannah Ruthberg has been a staple in the Ball State lineup over her career, including competing all-around in each of the last 27 meets ... In fact, Ruthberg has competed all-around in 38 of her 49 collegiate meets and owns four of the top 20 all-around scores in program history ... Her best effort was a 39.425 last season at George Washington (Feb. 23), which is the sixth-best score in program history ... In addition, Ruthberg turned in career-best scores on all four apparatuses last season, including a 9.925 on floor, a pair of 9.925s on bars, a 9.900 on beam and a 9.875 on vault.
» NEW FACES SHINE OPENING WEEKEND: Ball State saw six new student-athletes break into the competitive lineup at Missouri, while one also made her debut on a new apparatus.
- Sophomore Ava Molina made her first career appearance on beam to open the meet, scoring a 9.650 as Ball State's first competitor of the season ... She also returned to both the floor (9.725) and bars (9.650) lineups after competing in each event last season.
- Sophomore Delaney McMahon made her competitive debut on beam, tying for BSU's second-best score with a 9.775.
- Junior Alauna Simms made her competitive debut on floor, earning BSU's final countable score of the event with a 9.700.
- Sophomore Lindsay Girard made her competitive debut on both floor (9.550) and vault (9.625), with her vault score counting in BSU's final team tally.
- Senior Cai Afalla turned in a pair of countable scores in her debut in the lineup, earning a 9.775 on floor and a 9.725 on vault.
- The lone freshman to see action in the lineup last Friday was Karli Mercer with her vault of 9.725 tying for second on the squad.
- Junior Mary Rose Bellan rounded out Ball State's new faces in the competitive lineup, tying for the team's second-best score with a 9.850 on bars.
- Including Molina's debut on beam, Ball State's first-time competitors accounted for eight of the team's 20 total scores last Friday.
» MIDDLETON GOES 3-FOR-3: Junior Zoe Middleton went 3-for-3 in her 2025 debut at Missouri, with all three of her routines counting in Ball State's final team score ... She started the meet with a 9.625 on beam, followed by a 9.700 on vault and a 9.725 on bars ...Over her collegiate career, Middleton has seen 89 of her 94 total routines count in the final team score ... The effort includes 49 of 52 routines last season, along with 37 of 39 routines her freshman campaign ... Over that time, Ball State has turned in the top 10 teams scores in program history, along with 18 of the top 20.
» WELCOME BACK SUKI: The first All-American in program history, earning WCGA First Team All-America in 2024 and WCGA Second Team All-America in 2023, Suki Pfister will be returning for one more go around with the Cardinals in 2025 ... Pfister, who owns program records on both vault (10.0) and floor (9.950), finished the 2024 regular season tied for fifth nationally with a vault NQS of 9.935, has turned in a score of 9.900-or-higher on 18 of her 46 collegiate vaults ... The total includes one 10.0, one 9.975, four 9.950s, three 9.925s and nine 9.900s.
» PFISTER ROCKS THE FLOOR TOO: In addition to being one of the nation's vault leaders, Suki Pfister was crowned a 2024 MAC Floor Champion after earning a 9.900 at the MAC Championships ... It is the first MAC title of Pfister's illustrious career ... Along with her league title, Pfister tied the program record for a second time in her career with a 9.950 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 19) ... Of her 16 collegiate floor routines, six have produced scores of 9.900-or-higher.
» SCORING HIGH IN 2025: The Cardinals opened the 2025 season with four scores of 9.800-or-higher at Missouri's Beauty and the Beast night last Friday ... Three of the routines came on bars, with the other on beam ... Last season, Ball State registered 187 scores of 9.800-or-higher, led by the team's 22 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic (Jan. 19) and 19 at George Washington (Feb. 23) ... Of the 187 routines, 54 were on floor, 53 on bars, 44 on vault and 36 on beam ... The total included 55 scores of 9.900-or-better.
» RECORDS UNDER SALEEM:
- In the program's first 12 seasons under head coach Joanna Saleem, Ball State has tallied the 37 best team scores in program history … In fact, of Ball State's 41 scores of 195.450-or-higher, 39 have been set by Saleem's squads.
- Saleem's squads own the event records on all four apparatus: vault (49.375), bars (49.775), beam (49.350) and floor (49.625).- All 46 team entries in the vault record book are held by Saleem's teams, as are 29 of 36 scores on bars, 27 of 33 scores on floor and 27 of 32 scores on beam.
» COMING BACK TO THE NEST: Both Illinois head coach Nadalie Walsh and Wisconsin-Eau Claire head coach Jessie Deziel have spent time coaching in Muncie.
- Walsh was the head coach of the Ball State gymnastics program for six seasons from 2008-2013 ... She coached six different Cardinals to NCAA Regional appearances, while developing four MAC individual champions ... She also helped Brittney Emmons become the first MAC Senior Gymnast of the Year in program history, while coaching five different First Team All-MAC selections.
- Deziel was an assistant coach for the Cardinals for the 2017 and 2018 seasons under Saleem ... She led Ball State's floor squad to a then-program record score of 49.500 versus Western Michigan on March 5, 2017 ... She also helped mentor then-freshman Tia Kiaku to an individual floor appearance at the 2018 NCAA Regionals.
Players Mentioned
