Far from home, the Hawkeye gymnastics teams survived the weekend.

By Mason Clarke
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The sixth-ranked Iowa men’s team took part in an elite tri-meet in Norman, Oklahoma, on Jan. 30, facing off with No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 7 California.

The Hawkeyes finished second with a team score of 426.950, edging out the Bears (425.850). Neither team could come close to the Sooners, who posted a gaudy 447.400.

“We did some good stuff, some bad stuff, and not much in between,” head coach JD Reive said in a release. “There were a lot of misses, and there was a lot of energy, too.”

Those misses included three falls during the rings competition, leading to a season-low score the event (71.350) for the Hawkeyes.

Despite the misses, the Hawks held on and competed until the end, clinging to a small lead over Cal for nearly the entire meet.

All-around scores were encouraging signs for the Hawks as they look forward.

Seniors Matt Loochtan (86.250) and Jack Boyle (86.200) finished second and third, respectively, in the all-around. Loochtan’s mark set a personal career best.

Despite a lower score than in the previous two meets, Reive was not disappointed in his men.

“Our first three guys on rings … did a great job of bouncing back,” he said. “The all-arounders did awesome, so this was all a part of our process of beating the better teams.”

The women’s gymnastics team took down Maryland at the Terrapins’ home floor on Jan 31, 196.275 to 195.500.

The Terrapins dropped a season high with their score, but the GymHawks continued the hot streak they started last weekend with a second-straight team performance better than 196.

To put things into perspective, every individual is scored on a 10-point scale, so a score of 196 means that Iowa gymnasts averaged 9.800 or better per individual in each event.

Five gymnasts are scored in each of the four events, and Maryland had women score 9.800 or better only an average of two-and-a-half times per event.

The Terrapins still pulled off an impressive score, going to show how good the team has been of late.

Junior Mollie Drenth for the Hawkeyes finished first at the meet in two events — beam (9.850) and floor (9.900) — on her way to a first place all-around finish with a score of 39.350.

Three GymHawks — freshman Rose Piorkowski, junior Angel Metcalf, and freshman Misty-Jade Carlson — earned season-high scores on the vault to land first, second, and fourth in the vault.

Metcalf and senior Johanny Sotillo both scored season-highs of 9.875 to lead Iowa to a victory in the bars.

Follow @makeclarson for Iowa gymnastics updates, news, and analysis.