Ball State gymnastics went up against Northern Illinois University, another Mid-American Conference (MAC) team, March 2 at Worthen Arena.
The Cardinals won with their highest score of the season with 196.900 against the Huskies’ 193.975 for the Cardinal’s senior day.
Coming back from two weeks on the road and a defeat from their last away meet, Ball State head coach Joanna Saleem said the team worked hard for their win, and she was proud of the team pulling together.
"We focused on having some clarity about what our goals are and what we're trying to accomplish,” she said. “Just really coming back to the core value of being connected as a team and working together and finding the joy in the here-and-now and eliminating distractions.”
Individually, the Cardinals dominated with junior Zoe Middleton receiving all-around with 39.500, the highest score on vault, 9.900, and tied with fellow Ball State junior Alauna Simms on floor with 9.900.
“I already knew I hit every single routine before I even did it, just because of how hard I've been working the gym this week,” Middleton said. “So it was just really fun today, just knowing that I was gonna eat down.”
Sophomore Ahsley Szymanski scored 9.900, receiving the highest uneven bar score of the meet. Sophomore Delaney McMahon received the top score on the balance beam with 9.925, along with being the team's MVP.
“The best part was watching your teammates get one after another, and it just was that feeling for them was a million times better than feeling it for me,” Szymanski said. “I have chills thinking back to it, like ‘guys, we did that.’”
On top of being on the road, McMahon was coming back from illness while graduate student Hannah Ruthberg recovered from surgery to return to competition at their Feb. 21 away meet.
Coming back mid-season, battling both physical and mental soreness, Ruthberg's teammates
motivated her to return.
“It was just so clear to me the entire time, after surgery, in those weeks, why I was coming back and who I was doing it for, even when people would tell me that I was being crazy or that this is insane and that I need to go sit down. I was like, ‘No, I don't. No, I don't,’” Ruthberg said. “These girls are why I'm coming back. I want to be there for them, and I know that I can give them more, so I'm going to.”
Her teammates echoed her sentiment, saying, “One thing about Hannah Ruthberg is she never sits down.”
To continue competing, Ruthberg is switching skills in her routine while also being aware of the pressure on her knee.
Starting their first rotation with vault, the Cardinals scored 49.150 while Northern Illinois scored 48.725 on the uneven bars.
For their second rotation, Northern Illinois scored 48.925 on vault and Ball State scored 49.175 on the uneven bars, maintaining their lead in the meet.
After winning the top score on the uneven bars, Szymanski said Ball State’s mentality of not prioritizing the score but instead focusing on the performance helped her.
“I just kind of tried to tap into what we know as Ball State gymnastics, which is fun, it's free. It's just loving what you're doing and kind of chasing that performance,” she said. “I was surprised. I didn't know, and then, that feeling was better than finding out what the score was.”
On the third rotation, the Cardinals in their shining red and white leotards competed on the beam, scoring 49.350. Northern Illinois performed their floor routines in their glittering red and black leos, scoring 48.650.
Like Szymanski, McMahon focused on her performance rather than the score, on top of taking everything one thing at a time and being calm.
“A lot of people find this funny, but I got off the beam, and everybody was like, ‘Oh my god, you did something impressive.’ ‘What?’ I had no idea what [was] going on,” McMahon said.
In the final and fourth rotation, the Cardinals ended with floor, scoring 49.225, and the Huskies ended with the balance beam, scoring 47.700.
On floor, first-year Avery Kantor had to end her routine early due to receiving an injury from a bad landing. After she fell, her music cut out, and she had to be assisted as she limped off the floor. Saleem said the injury is unknown and still too early to tell.
Despite this setback, both Simms and Middleton received the highest scores for the final rotation, and both echoed Szymanski's sentiments of seeing their teammates succeed.
“[The score] was surprising, but it's not the same as that feeling and the performance and just how we did overall as a team is more than one of us getting the top score,” Simms said. “The team is a better feeling than being the top score of an event.”
For the remainder of this season’s meets, Saleem wants to focus on the Cardinals’ mentality.
“We double down on the things that matter. The connection, the why, why are we doing this, and how are we doing it, and what are the standards that we've set,” she said. “Just continuing to make sure that we don't get distracted by other things as we near the end of season and then conference.”
Ruthberg cited the meet’s success was in the team's belief in themselves and each other. Staying in that mindset and belief is what she and the team will attempt to continue doing.
“Our approach today, staying in our Ball State bubble and keeping our boat dry, was all we did today,” she said. “It felt like we were the only team in there, and that's when we do our best gymnastics. So focusing on that from now on, keeping it dry,”
The Cardinals will take flight again and compete against Kent State University in Kent, Ohio March 9.
Contact Hannah Amos via email at hannah.amos@bsu.edu or on X @Hannah_Amos_394.
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