After a successful road trip to Michigan State on Jan. 15, the Iowa women’s gymnastics team took its home floor Monday afternoon in what turned out to be a tight loss to Denver.

“I think, unfortunately, what I’m seeing is they’re already … looking forward in their head, trying to think, ‘I’ve got to be ready for Saturday,’ ” Iowa head coach Larissa Libby said. “In doing that, we kind of passed up being ready for this one.”
The Pioneers defeated the GymHawks, 195.900-194.725.

With such a tight point differential between the teams, there were a few missed opportunities that potentially could have put Iowa in position to win.
The most glaring of these was on the beam. Iowa lost to Denver 49.025 to 48.300, the largest defeat for Iowa in any event. This was due in large part to a fall by Iowa’s fifth-scoring gymnast, who alone scored half a point worse than Denver’s fifth gymnast.

Iowa fell to Denver by narrow margins in both the vault (49.000 to 48.650) and the bars (48.950 to 48.800).
In the final event, the Hawkeyes defeated the Pioneers in the floor competition by a narrow margin (48.975 to 48.925). The strong finish proved to be too little, too late for Iowa.

Despite a tough night of competition and a grueling weekend, the Hawkeyes never lost their passion.

After the defeat, different players were ringing the same attitude. They said that their team did great and that they loved performing in front of the home crowd in Carver-Hawkeye.

“When you’re up close and personal, man, it’s amazing,” assistant coach Caleb Phillips said. “I just get to dress sharp and cheer for our athletes.”

It may have also helped that Phillips understood how tough it was for the athletes to compete in two meets in three days.

“For these guys, it’s tough,” Phillips said. “Our kids who do multiple events, it’s a little bit more taxing for them … we have all-arounders competing in four events, that’s eight full routines in just a few days.”
The Hawkeyes came off of a victory against Michigan State, which they won, 194.900-192.575.

After traveling back home and competing again, Iowa’s team score fell nearly two-tenths of a point, but the mistakes were fixable and can be attributed at least in part to a grueling schedule.

The coaches said the Hawkeyes will try to stick more landings and execute the little things Saturday, when they face Ohio State in a home meet.