The Iowa men’s and women’s gymnastics teams unofficially kicked off their seasons Sunday afternoon with the annual Black and Gold intrasquad meet.

The combined teams used the event to introduce fans to the teams and to have an intrasquad meet in front of a live audience to prepare for their respective seasons.

The Gold team won this year’s matchup, defeating the Black team by the score of 452.30-442.05. Javier Balboa, a senior from Mexico, was the top performer of the event for the men. He won both the parallel and high-bar events with scores of 14.8 and 14.9. 

For the women, sophomore Sydney Hoerr’s performance was the highlight of the meet. The Bloomington, Ill., native set a personal best in the vault competition by scoring a 10.0.

Head women’s coach Larissa Libby was pleased with the performances from her team, especially the five freshmen on her roster. But the ninth-year coach noted that there is still plenty of room for improvement. 

“Overall, I was very pleased with how they handled themselves,” Libby said. “But they’re still making mistakes that I don’t believe they should be making, considering we’ve been ‘intrasquadding’ for five and a half weeks.”

Both teams will have an extended break before actual competition begins. The women’s team will begin its season on Jan. 11, when they will face Ball State. The men’s team will begin its season with the Windy City Invitational in Chicago on Jan. 19.

— by Matt Cabel and Ryan Probasco