By Ricardo Ascencio | [email protected].
It was an eventful weekend for both the Iowa men’s gymnastics team and one elite woman’s gymnast when both competed in the 2016 NCAA Championships.
The men’s team traveled to Columbus, Ohio, on April 15 and 16 to stamp their mark on the NCAAs, and Iowa junior Mollie Drenth competed in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 15, in which she was able to claim her first All-American award of her career.
“I don’t think the season could have ended a better way for Mollie,” Iowa head coach Larissa Libby in a release. “I know that she is upset that she fell, but she represented our program with such class and a high level of gymnastics. She did her job. She came out here and put Iowa on the map.”
Drenth started the meet on beam, on which she posted an impressive score of 9.9125, placing her third. Despite a stumble on the bars at the end of the meet, she was able to post an 8.9625 and a cumulative score of 38.475. Drenth is Iowa’s first All-American since Alex Maday in 2004.
“It was thrilling from start to finish,” Libby said. “She has come a long way since her freshman year, and she has more in her.”
Drenth was not the only Hawkeye to be impressive under the bright lights.
The men’s championships were divided into two days of competition; the first day one was for team trials in which all teams competed in two pools, with the top-three teams from each pool moving onto the next day. Iowa needed to pull an upset over Illinois to get into the second day but unfortunately, it was not able to.
Iowa’s team score of 423.250 was only good enough to place it fourth in the pool, one spot away from advancing.
Oklahoma won the 2016 national title with a score of 443.400 followed by Stanford (434.050) and Ohio State (433.050).
Despite not being able to advance as a whole, seniors Jack Boyle and Matt Loochtan, junior Cory Paterson, and sophomores Dylan Ellsworth and Austin Hodges advanced to the second day of competition as individual finalists.
Loochtan and Boyle competed in the all-around, rotating with Ohio State and Illinois.
Loochtan finished the meet 11th, compiling a score of 84.15, just .100 away from walking away with an All-American award. Boyle came in 14th with a score of 83.60.
Ellsworth led the Hawkeyes on parallel bars, tying for 18th with a score of 14.300.
Hodges and Paterson both competed in high bar, on which they posted respective scores of 14.350 and 13.750. The sophomore placed 25th, and the junior placed 37th.
With the championship completed, the season is now over for both the men and women’s gymnastic squads.
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