Ball State University
Mid-American Conference Championship
Gymnastics Heads To CMU For Saturday's MAC Championships
March 20, 2025 | Gymnastics
| Ball State Gymnastics (12-8; 3-3 MAC) at MAC Championships hosted by CMU | |
| Meet 12 - at MAC Championships | Saturday, March 22 at 2 p.m. ET Live Results  |  ESPN+ Event Streams (FREE): Vault | Bars | Beam | Floor |
| Tickets Info | Ticket Information |
| Notes | Ball State | MAC Championship Central |
| Social Media | Twitter  |  Instagram |
» THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE GYMNASTICS: The Ball State gymnastics program heads to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, for Saturday's 2025 Mid-American Conference Gymnastics Championships hosted by Central Michigan ... Action starts at 2 p.m. ET at McGuirk Arena with the meet broadcast live on ESPN+
Â
» IN THE RANKINGS:
- Ball State enters the MAC Championships ranked third in the MAC and 45th nationally with an NQS of 195.445 ... The Cardinals are one of 12 teams battling for the final three team spots in the 2025 NCAA Championships according to the latest Road to Nationals Rankings.
- Ball State is the league's second-ranked team in three of the four events, starting with its bars NQS of 49.055 which is also 34th nationally ... BSU also ranks second in the league and 38th nationally on floor (49.100) and second in the MAC and 44th nationally on vault (48.870).
- The Cardinals also have two student-athletes who earned First Team All-MAC honors earlier this week for leading the league in NQS in their respective events ... Sophomore Ashley Szymanski picked up the honor for the second straight season with a bars NQS of 9.875, while junior Zoe Middleton tied for the league's top spot on floor with a NQS of 9.890 ... Middleton also ranked second in the league in the all-around with a NQS of 39.155.
- 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 ... The top 36 teams in the NQS rankings earn NCAA Regional berths ... Teams 1-16 are seeded by the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Committee and the remaining teams are placed geographically at one of the four regional sites, with teams 29-36 battling in first-round duals ... Included in the championship field are also 12 all-around competitors and 64 individual event specialists (all of whom are not on a qualifying team).
Â
» SEASON BEST MARK: Ball State turned in a season-best score of 196.900 in its victory over Northern Illinois (March 2) ... Not only is it the best team score in the MAC this season, but it also tied as the third-best score in program history ... Overall, the Cardinals earned 19 total scores of 9.800-or-higher in the win, including six of at least 9.900 ... Junior Zoe Middleton posted three of the 9.000s on her way to the fourth-best all-around total in program history at 39.500, while sophomore Delaney McMahon tied the program record on beam with her 9.925.
Â
» TYING THE PROGRAM'S BEAM MARK: Led by Delaney McMahon's program-record tying 9.925, the Cardinals also tied the program's all-time team beam record with a score of 49.350 versus Northern Illinois (March 2) ... The effort also included a 9.900 from Zoe Middleton, 9.850s from both sophomore Lindsay Fuller and senior Grace Sumner, and a 9.825 from sophomore Ashley Szymanski ... Ball State originally set the mark Jan. 20, 2023, at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic ... One familiar face in both lineups was Sumner who earned a 9.875 in the first record-setting effort.
Â
» MORE ON SZYMANSKI: Ashley Szymanski, who was crowned a MAC Bars Champion after scoring a 9.925 in her league championships debut last season, enters the week ranked first in the MAC and 55th nationally with a bars NQS of 9.875 ... The effort helped her earn First Team All-MAC honors on bars for the second straight season and has her in the hunt for an individual spot in the NCAA Regionals ... Including her five bars wins this season, Szymanski has won the bars competition in 11 of her 25 collegiate meets and turned in eight routines of 9.900-or-higher ... Her career-best score is a 9.975 in her MAC debut versus Bowling Green (Jan. 22, 2024).
Â
» BACK TO THE FLOOR: Ball State also turned in a season-best floor score of 49.225 in the win over Northern Illinois (March 2), led by 9.000s from both juniors Alauna Simms and Zoe Middleton ... It was a career-best floor score for Simms, while it was Middleton's fourth 9.900 on floor this season ... Thanks in part to those efforts, Middleton currently ties for first in the MAC with a floor NQS of 9.890, while Simms is 14th at 9.810.
Â
» MIDDLETON IS 36-FOR-42: Junior Zoe Middleton, the defending MAC All-Around Champion and defending Beam and Floor Co-Champion, has seen 36 of her 42 total routines count in the final team score so far this season, led by her four 9.900s on floor ... Over her collegiate career, Middleton has seen 122 of her 133 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 11 team scores in program history, along with 19 of the top 21.
Â
» TWO OF THE BEST ON VAULT: With her 9.925 on vault at Kent State (March 9), graduate student Suki Pfister tied the top vault by a MAC student-athlete so far this season ... Throw in a 9.900 by Zoe Middleton versus Northern Illinois (March 2) and the Cardinals own two of the league's top five individual vaults this season ... In fact, only 316 of the 6,159 vaults across the nation this season have scored at least a 9.900.
Â
» 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 made her 2025 debut with a 9.725 on vault at Bowling Green (Feb. 2) ... After turning in a season-best 9.925 in her sixth meet at Kent State, Pfister owns a NQS of 9.795 which ties for sixth in the league ... 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 ... She has turned in scores of 9.900-or-higher on 19 of her 53 collegiate vaults, including one 10.0, one 9.975, four 9.950s, four 9.925s and nine 9.900s.
Â
» MOLINA MAKING NOISE: Sophomore Ava Molina has made a big impact for the Cardinals so far this season, scoring 9.725-or-higher in 21 of her 33 competitive routines ... She scored a career-high 9.825 on floor at the EMU Golden Girls Classic (Jan. 17) and a career-best 9.825 on beam at Kent State (March 9) ... She also scored a season-best 9.800 on bars in BSU's first trip to Ypsilanti.
Â
» NEW FACES SHINE: Ball State has seen seven student-athletes break into the competitive lineup for the first time in their collegaite careers this season.
- Junior Alauna Simms competed on floor in all 11 meets and was named the team's MVP at the Ball State Quad (Jan. 12) after posting a 9.825 ... She earned a career-best floor score of 9.900 in the win versus Northern Illinois (March 2) ... She currently ranks 14th in the MAC with a 9.810 floor NQS.
- Senior Cai Afalla turned in a pair of countable scores in her debut in the lineup at Missouri (Jan. 3), earning a 9.775 on floor and a 9.725 on vault ... She has competed in both events in 10 meets and turned in a career-best 9.875 on floor versus Kent State (March 9) and a 9.800 on vault versus NIU (March 2).
- Junior Mary Rose Bellan has shined on bars so far this season, competing in all 11 meets and earning scores of 9.850 at Missouri (Jan. 3, at EMU's Golden Girls Classic (Jan. 17), versus Northern Illinois (March 2) and at Kent State (March 9) ... She currently ranks ninth in the MAC with a bars NQS of 9.815.
- Sophomore Delaney McMahon made her competitive debut on beam at Missouri (Jan. 3), tying for BSU's second-best score with a 9.775 ... She has competed on beam in nine meets for the Cardinals and tied the program record with a 9.925 versus Northern Illinois (March 2) ... She currently ranks 16th in the MAC with a 9.775 beam NQS.
 - Sophomore Lindsay Girard made her competitive debut on both floor (9.550) and vault (9.625) at Missouri (Jan. 3) ... She has vaulted in all 11 meets and competed on floor nine times, earning career-best scores of 9.825 in both events.
- Freshman Karli Mercer made her collegiate debut with a 9.725 on vault at Missouri (Jan. 3) ... She has competed in all 11 meets and earned a career-best 9.825 versus Northern Illinois (March 2) ... She also made her beam debut with a 9.725 at Towson (Feb. 21).
- Freshman Jordanna Phillis was the latest Ball State gymnast to make her collegiate debut, competing on both bars (9.775) and vault (9.625) at EMU's Golden Girls Classic (Jan. 17) ... She owns two 9.775s on bars and a career-best 9.675 on vault ... Of her eight competitive routines, seven have counted in the final team score.
Â
» MORE VETERAN LEADERSHIP: Seniors Carissa Martinez and Grace Sumner are starting to hit their strides ... Martinez tied her career-best with a 9.825 on vault at Bowling Green (Feb. 2), while adding a season-best 9.875 on floor versus Northern Illinois (March 2) ... Sumner owns nine scores of 9.800-or-higher this season, including a season-best 9.850 on bars twice and a season-high 9.850 on beam versus the Huskies.
Â
» THE RUTHBERG FACTOR: Hannah Ruthberg has been a staple in the Ball State lineup over her career, including competing all-around in 42 of the 56 collegiate meets she has participated in ... She also owns four of the top 20 all-around scores in program history ... After missing four meets in the middle of the season due to injury, Ruthberg returned to action with a vault score of 9.800 at Towson (Feb. 21) and returned to the all-around lineup last Friday at Eastern Michigan ... Her career best all-around effort was a 39.425 last season at George Washington (Feb. 23), which is the sixth-best score in program history.
» SCORING HIGH IN 2025: So far this season, the Cardinals have produced 95 scores of 9.800-or-better ... Of the total, 27 have come on floor, 25 on bars, 23 on beam and 20 on vault ... 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.
Â
» RECORDS UNDER SALEEM:
- In the program's first 12 seasons under head coach Joanna Saleem, Ball State has tallied the 40 best team scores in program history … In fact, of Ball State's 45 scores of 195.450-or-higher, 43 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 48 team entries in the vault record book are held by Saleem's teams, as are 34 of 41 scores on bars, 29 of 35 scores on floor and 29 of 34 scores on beam.
Â
Players Mentioned
