GymHawks Travel to Iowa State

Jan. 24, 2012

Complete Release in PDF Format

This Week
The University of Iowa women’s gymnastics team, ranked 23rd in the nation, will travel to Ames, Iowa, for a meet against Iowa State on Friday. Competition will be held in Hilton Coliseum and is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. (CT).

Live Blog
Iowa team manager Nicole Pineau will offer interactive content live from Hilton Coliseum via the Official Iowa Gymnastics Blog. This feature gives diehard Hawkeye fans the opportunity to voice their opinion by submitting questions and comments, while receiving up-to-the-minute play-by-play, notes and stats about the meet and Hawkeyes. The live blog will begin at approximately 6:15 p.m. (CT) and run throughout the meet.

Last Time Out
The Hawkeyes rewrote season highs on every event in a tie against Illinois on Jan. 21. With a season-high team mark of 195.075, Iowa was led by a different competitor in every event, plus the all-around. Junior Maya Wickus tied for first on vault with a 9.850, Iowa’s highest mark of the night.

National Rankings
The GymHawks jumped back into the national rankings with their performance against Illinois. Iowa is one of six Big Ten programs inside the top-25. With a team scoring average of 194.058, the Hawkeyes are ranked third in the North Central Region.

Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series
The Cy-Hawk Series is in its eighth season in 2011-12, being sponsored by Iowa Corn for the first time. The 12-event series awards two points (except football, which is worth three) to the winning school in each head-to-head match-up between the two institutions. With five events remaining, including two gymnastics meets, Iowa State leads this season’s series 13-6. The GymHawks clinched the 2010-11 Cy-Hawk Series with a 195.450-195.200 win at home last season.

Head Coach Larissa Libby
In her eighth season at Iowa, Libby has a career record of 65-71-2. The Hawkeyes are searching for their fifth consecutive NCAA postseason appearance, the sixth in Libby’s tenure. She coached the 2011 GymHawks to an 11-6 record and sixth place finish at the Big Ten Championships, this coming after a third place finish in 2010, their best finish in six years. Libby coached three All-Big Ten selections in 2011 — Rebecca Simbhudas, Houry Gebeshian and Jessa Hansen. Libby was named North Central Region Coach of the Year in 2009 for her efforts in guiding the GymHawks to a 10-5 record and a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Regionals. She was also named co-Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2008. Libby served as associate head coach in 2004 and assistant coach from 2001-03 at Iowa before being named head coach in 2005.