By Alex French
alexander-french@uiowa.edu
The Iowa women’s gymnastics team is coming off of its highest overall team score this season; it posted a 195.15 on Feb. 3 in a second-place finish to No. 10 Penn State.
The GymHawks (1-2-1, 1-1-1) also posted season-highs in the uneven bars with a 49.175, and 49.35 on the floor exercise — the highest the team has scored on the event in seven years.
Iowa has improved on its prior meet’s score three out of four times this season. Head coach Larissa Libby, who called her squad a “floor and beam team,” said the floor exercise is the hardest lineup to break in to.
“It’s a core group of kids who are very comfortable with each other and what they’re doing,” she said.
A gymnast must outscore an existing teammate twice in competition to break into that lineup, Libby said.
Junior Emma Stevenson scored a career-high 9.9 in the floor exercise on Feb. 3, and has appeared in the floor lineup all four meets in 2012.
“I think it’s a really strong event for us, because everyone is really confident,” Stevenson said on Thursday. “Looking at our lineup, I don’t see anyone [else] jumping in anytime soon.”
Seniors Jessa Hansen and Rachel Corcoran have joined Stevenson on the floor in all four meets this season. But the other half of the lineup is comprised of three freshmen.
Sydney Hoerr, a freshman from Bloomington, Ill., scored a career-best 9.85 on Feb. 3. She said she came off the floor already knowing the minor mistakes she had made.
“On my double pike, I came down with my chest down a little bit, and on my last pass I hopped to the side,” she said. “[If I] clean those things up, hopefully it’s 9.9 [next time].”
Hoerr has stepped up to fill the void left by four gymnasts that graduated after last year.
“With gymnastics come a lot of injuries. It’s good to have stronger freshmen that are healthy and can come in so upperclassmen can heal their bodies before bigger competitions,” Hoerr said. “It’s awesome that our freshmen are healthy and strong and can step into upperclassmen’s roles when their bodies can’t handle it.”
Libby said the fact the floor lineup is 50 percent freshman speaks volumes about the team and its potential for years to come.
“It shows we have a good-quality team all way through — we’re not dominated all the way by upper-class [gymnasts],” she said. “It also speaks to the leadership of upperclassmen, showing and exemplifying to [underclassmen] what we expect.”
Iowa’s opponent tomorrow evening, No. 11 Ohio State (3-2, 1-2), is averaging a 48.890 on the floor exercise this season. The GymHawks, ranked No. 23 in the nation, are averaging a slightly better 48.94.
Libby said she was impressed with these recent high scores, and expects those type of results week in and week out. She did concede, though, that these numbers might be hard to beat as a result.
“Four of them have hit the highest [scores] they’ve ever done; there isn’t too much better,” Libby said with a laugh. “They’re already reaching a pretty impressive score each time.”
