There will be one weekend this gymnastics season in which both the men’s and women’s Iowa teams will compete in Carver-Hawkeye.
This weekend.
The men, ranked No. 10 in the nation, will begin competition at 1 p.m. on Saturday in a dual with No. 3 Illinois in a meet that has implications all over it.
It’s a chance for the Hawkeyes to prove themselves against some of the best competition in not only the Big Ten but in the nation.
Even with the talent Iowa has, it will have a rigorous task in facing the Fighting Illini, who have shown they have a shot at winning it all this season.
Illinois holds two of the top three spots nationally in the pommel horse. The Illini also finished first last weekend at the Windy City Invitational with a team score of 425.950, while the Hawkeyes finished fourth at 419.650.
After the battle with Illinois, the Hawkeyes will have no time to celebrate or to hang their heads,; they will travel to Chicago the following day to take on Illinois-Chicago in another dual meet.
The Flames also competed last weekend in the Windy City Invitational, finishing sixth out of six with a team score of 378.450.
While no competition is a certain victory, the Hawkeyes did out-perform the Flames last weekend. Iowa, however will performing a full competitive meet for the second day in a row when they take on Illinois-Chicago.
The Hawkeye men have their work cut out for them, and this weekend may seem just as crucial to the women’s squad.
The Iowa women will face No. 25 Ohio State, which is some serious competition.
The dual meet will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday.
After a loss last weekend to Denver, head coach Larissa Libby has a clear message for the GymHawks.
“The most important thing that we have talked to them about is that consistency wins,” Libby said in a release. “We are making a lot of mistakes that we don’t make in practice. Not the falls, but short handstands, the wobbles, the details that are done very well in practice that are not transferring over … The big mistakes aren’t the ones that are hurting us.”
In separate competitions last weekend, the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes posted team scores of 194.725 and 195.275, respectively. This half a point difference can easily be made up for by the Hawkeyes if they have a competition free of falls and execute the little things more consistently.