The No. 18-ranked Iowa gymnastics team ended its Big Ten regular-season competition with a second-place finish at the Big Four Meet in Los Angeles, California, on Friday night.
Iowa finished with a team score of 196.475, just narrowly behind No. 5 UCLA, which took home first place with 196.950. Finishing behind the Hawkeyes was No. 19 Ohio State with 196.425 and the 25th-ranked Terrapins with 195.025.
Though only finishing 0.475 points behind the Bruins, Iowa saw one of its least productive scoring meets, scoring above 49 points on only three of its four events, the first time since the Michigan meet on Jan. 24.
One very notable positive of the meet was the excellent performance of first-year Sophie Schriever, who finished second in the meet’s all-around standing, just 0.325 behind No. 1-ranked Jordan Chiles of UCLA.
While the Gymhawks typically start their meets on vault or bars, the Big Four Meet had Iowa open its routine on the floor event, where it ranks 23rd in the nation.
Iowa performed with veteran consistency throughout rotation one, only having one of the six competitors score below a 9.800. Leading the Hawkeyes, though, was program icon fifth-year JerQuavia Henderson, who scored a 9.900, her third score of a 9.900 or higher this season, on floor.
Only being behind the Burins by 0.075 through rotation one, the Hawkeyes looked to make a move on the top-five nationally ranked team in the vault event, which Iowa ranked 18th nationally on.
However, that did not go as planned, as only one of the six competitors for the Hawkeyes was able to stick a landing. The sole Gymhawk being second-year Aurélie Tran scoring a 9.850, tying Schriever for the leading Hawkeye on the vault event.
With UCLA stretching its lead to 0.200 and Ohio State pulling within 0.075, Iowa needed to bounce back on the bars event like it has all season long. The Hawkeyes rank just outside the top ten nationally on the event, and just recently scored a new program record for the event the previous weekend on Feb. 21 against Penn State in Iowa City.
Iowa did bounce back with five of the six Gymhawks sticking their landings, putting the Hawkeyes back in the hunt and on track to another 196-point team score.
Rotation three was not only good for the Hawkeyes but also for the Buckeyes as they jumped ahead of Iowa in the meet standings by just 0.075 points, leaving it all up to the fourth rotation.
The fourth event for the Hawkeyes was beam, which Iowa has struggled with all season, only ranking 20th nationally.
The start was no better as beam leader third-year Eva Volpe took a fall off the beam during the first series of her routine, though she did rebound with a stuck landing. The score was a dismal start for the Gymhawks.
With already one score out for the Hawkeyes, it was up to the other five Gymhawks to post scores high enough to cancel Volpe’s from the team’s official score.
The first to do so was fourth-year Gianna Masella, who balanced and stuck her landing, leading to two other Gymhawks to do the same. One of whom was second-year Sydney Turner, who ended up leading the Hawkeyes in their team scoring with a 9.8 score.
With a comeback performance on both bars and beam, Iowa snuck back into second place by just 0.050 points and added two more wins to its conference resume.
Up Next
The Gymhawks return to Iowa City next week, Friday, March 6th, for a senior day quad meet with Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, and Southeast Missouri State at 6 p.m. on Big Ten Plus.