Iowa women’s gymnastics pulled off an upset at the NCAA Raleigh Regional Championships on Thursday afternoon.

The GymHawks finished second in the four-team field with a score of 196.900 — the fourth-best score in program history. 

Iowa upset No. 6 LSU, which scored 196.575 points, and defeated host North Carolina State, which posted a 195.700 mark. Iowa and first-place Missouri, which finished with 197.150 points, advanced to the regional finals on Saturday afternoon. 

Sophomore Adeline Kenlin led the Hawkeyes with two top-two finishes. She scored 9.900 on bars and 9.950 on beam.

Iowa entered the final event in third place, trailing frontrunner LSU by .300 points. The GymHawks rode a 49.225 team score on vault, led by senior Linda Zivat and sophomore Allison Zuhlke’s 9.875 scores, to a second-place finish.

“We are aware of how incredible all the teams are that are here,” head coach Larissa Libby said via release. “We have always said we wanted to have our time on the same floor, in the same place to see where we measure up. The teams here are always really good, but so are we.”

Hawkeyes make history

Iowa is advancing to its first NCAA Sweet 16 since 2004. Libby praised her team for its perseverance in the runner-up finish.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team,” Libby said via release. “It was a team effort, everything about it was top down. We weren’t great and we know we have a lot more, but they stayed the course. They didn’t give up on each other and that’s what we needed to do.” 

Up next

Iowa will compete at the NCAA Raleigh Regional Final at 4 p.m. Saturday. The GymHawks will face off against Missouri and two undetermined teams at Valvano Arena.

The remaining members of Saturday’s four-team field have yet to be determined. No. 3 Michigan, No. 14 UCLA, No. 20 Maryland, and North Carolina will compete in a regional competition, and the top two finishers will advance to the finals on Saturday.