Meet 4: Gymnastics at Iowa

Saturday, January 26

Iowa City, Iowa

5:00 PM

Rutgers University

Iowa

Photo by: Rich Graessle

Jan 24 | Women's Gymnastics

Notes BTN2Go Live Results Twitter Updates Fact Book

Scarlet Knights return to the road for Big Ten dual meet

RUTGERS at IOWA
January 26, 2019 • 5 p.m. ET
Carver-Hawkeye Arena • Iowa City, Iowa

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers gymnastics will compete on the road for the third time in four weeks with a trip to Iowa Saturday at 5 p.m. ET inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It will be the second of five-straight Big Ten duals leading up to the Big Five meet.

Saturday's meet will broadcast through BTN2Go, live results will be available online and @RUGymnastics will tweet instant scores.

RUTGERS MEET PREVIEW
The Scarlet Knights totaled a season-high 194.325 last time out in their home opener at the Livingston Gym. Nebraska, ranked 15^th at the time, finished at 194.850. RU posted a 49.300 on floor exercise to highlight the meet, the third-highest team mark on the event in program history. Both senior Riahanah Ali and sophomore Belle Huang led the way with a career-high 9.925 routine, which marked the best scores on floor exercise across the Big Ten last week. Also contributing, senior Jenna Rizkalla followed at 9.875, senior Michelle Amoresano notched a 9.800 and sophomore Toni Williams added a 9.775. The school record of 49.375 was set in 2015, as the 49.300 was the best number ever secured by the team in the month of January.

Amoresano ended with four scores of 9.700 or higher to total a 39.025, her first time reaching 39 in eight times competing all-around. Huang, who collected a team-high 9.850 on balance beam last week, has completed the circuit all three meets so far this season and had her best showing yet at 38.725 versus Nebraska.

Rutgers also had its best 2019 performance on uneven bars last Saturday with a 48.700. Amoresano paced the lineup at 9.800 and Ali had a career-high 9.750. Vault is the highest ranked event for the Scarlet Knights, sitting at No. 33 with a 48.608 average. Huang tied for the meet high with a 9.800 last time.

Saturday will mark the Scarlet Knights' second visit to Iowa, with the 2017 Big Five meet being the first. The team will start on uneven bars before moving to vault, floor exercise and balance beam. The Hawkeyes will be home for the third time and have scored as high as 194.700 in 2019.

COACH SALIM-BEASLEY Q&A
On progress and areas to improve: "We have made progress every week from our first meet to last weekend. They have focused in on the tiny details and really have just gone out and had fun. When they have fun, they tend to compete better. They were really able to come out in front of the home crowd and show off what they are capable of doing. It really gave them a boost of confidence to see that we were competitive with a ranked team in the country and within our conference as well. That is making them a little bit more motivated as each week goes by to go out and see what they can do.

"One thing we could have done better is we missed a few connections on beam, which ended up dropping some of the difficulty values of what the routines were worth. That's why some of the scores were lower even though we didn't have falls. Those little things, making sure we are making connections on skills that are giving us bonus value, are things we are really focusing on this week. Those tenths of a point add up and it was the difference between us winning the meet and finishing slightly behind. One good thing that we learned from that is that we can have little mishaps in the middle of a routine, but stay composed and fight all the through and not have a major mistake. They learned a lot about what they were able to do in a pressure situation."

On competing on the road: "We focus on each person having a specific role, even if they're not competing on a certain event. Even something such as U.S. trivia during the bar rotation to keep their mind off being nervous. That tends to relax them when they're focusing in on something when they're not getting ready to compete. Then we have specific people on beam who are supposed to talk to a specific person to keep them focused. From meet to meet, whether a home meet or an away meet, we stay within our roles to stay focused within we're doing and not on outside factors and things we can't control. So that was a recipe that we came up with at our second meet at Bridgeport that the team really liked and wanted to carry though. We've also been doing that at run-throughs too, finding ways to keep focus and not gravitate towards being stressed out or thinking about things that could possibly happen."

UP NEXT
The Scarlet Knights will return home to face off with Maryland on Feb. 2 in the first of three meets at the RAC. The annual Pink Meet, it will begin at 3 p.m. and admission is free.

Follow Rutgers Athletics on Facebook and Twitter (@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding women's gymnastics, follow the program on Twitter (@RUGymnastics), Facebook (/RUGymnastics), Instagram (@rutgersgymnastics) and Snapchat (rutgersgym).