Lindenwood at Iowa State

Recap 

The Big Storyline: Madison Diab earned her first career perfect 10.0 on floor while teammate Andrea Maldonado earned a 10.0 from one judge on the same event. Tonight’s performance marked the Cyclones’ highest team total of the season. Lindenwood fell off its usual pace due to counting a fall on bars. Gayla Griswold was left out of the vault lineup this week despite being nearly perfect last week. 

Implications: Overall, this season has been up and down for the Lions. When the team hits, the score is among the best in the conference and USAG. However, this week’s low resulted in Lindenwood finally succumbing to conference foe TWU in the rankings, with SEMO, Air Force and Yale still charging closer. The Lions will need to pick the pace back up if they hope to remain the No. 1 seed through the end of the season. Gayla Griswold was missing in tonight’s efforts on vault and had a less-than-normal floor performance as well. We hope it was just a precautionary rest day and not something more serious. For Iowa State, this improved team performance did not make a huge eimpact on its national standing. In fact, the Cyclones will slide back at least one spot as Boise State re-enters the rankings this week. The team will be happy with its improved beam performance this weekend, led by a 9.900 from Meixi Semple. Iowa State will look to continue this momentum through the rest of the season, capitalizing on the scoring potential of its top performers. 

Records: Diab’s 10.000 is a new career high on floor. Griswold’s 9.825 on beam is also a personal best. Iowa State posted the second-highest score in Jay Ronayne’s tenure with a 196.875.