NORMAN, Okla. - The No. 9 Iowa State gymnastics squad won three of four team events and claimed individual winners on both vault and beam to upset No. 6 Oklahoma 196.275 - 196.050 at the Howard McCasland Field House Friday. The event marked the second-consecutive time that the ISU gymnasts have upset a higher-ranked conference foe on the road. Iowa State has now defeated two of the three Big 12 opponents ranked ahead of them as it also defeated then-No. 7 Missouri last week.
"To beat the No. 6 and 7 teams on the road is huge for our confidence and really shows what we can do," Iowa State head coach K.J. Kindler said. "This puts us one step closer to our year-end goal of making it to our second-consecutive NCAA Championship appearance."
ISU took a 147.200-146.825 lead into the final rotation where they would perform on the balance beam, an event that the Cyclones capitalized on to upset conference rival Missouri a week ago. Senior Laura-Kay Powell anchored ISU's 49.075 as the Sooners followed up with a 48.750. Powell, who took eighth at the NCAA Championships a year ago on the floor exercise, collected Iowa State's top beam score of the season to tie for first with OU's Brittany Koncak-Schumann at 9.900. Cyclone freshman Ashley Kent continued to step up as she tied for third with a season-high 9.850.
"Our beam was incredible again tonight like it was at Missouri," Kindler said. "The girls have to feel really good about being able to nail landings under pressure. We've really worked on that the past few weeks and our routines have just been very solid overall."
The Cyclones (7-2 overall, 2-0 Big 12 duals), started out on bars, tying a season-high with a 48.950. Three ISU gymnasts placed in the top five as Janet Anson and Erin Dethloff tied for second with OU's Lori Winn with scores of 9.850. Sophomore Jade Kvach tied for fifth with two other Sooner gymnasts at 9.825. Oklahoma's Haley DeProspero won the event with a 9.900. Cyclone senior Krystal Carney saw her first action of the season, notching a 9.675.
ISU moved to the vault for the second rotation where Anson, a four-time All-American, took first with a season-best 9.900 while senior Laura-Kay Powell followed suit with a second-place 9.875. Anson, the 2005 NCAA runner-up on vault, entered the competition as the 24th-ranked vaulter in the nation with a 9.837 average.
In the third rotation, Iowa State took to its best event, the floor exercise, an event where the Cyclones held a team-best No. 8 ranking. ISU topped OU once again, garnering a 49.175 to the Sooners' 48.700. Powell tied a season-high with a 9.900 to tie for first with Oklahoma's Kiara Redmond while Anson tied for third with a 9.875.
Anson won her second all-around title of 2006 with an ISU season-high 39.425. Dethloff took second for Iowa State, recording a 39.300.
The sixth-ranked Sooners dropped to 4-5 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12 Conference standings. ISU defeated the Sooners in Norman for just the fourth time in 18 previous tries.
Next weekend will prove to be a pivotal point in the regular season as Iowa State will host No. 19 Oregon State Friday at 7 p.m. and No. 7 Nebraska Sunday at 2 p.m. The meet vs. Nebraska will be donned "Beauty and the Beast," as the seventh-ranked Cyclone wrestlers also take on the Huskers in Hilton Coliseum simultaneously.
