Olympic Spotlight: Henderson Wins Floor Title
Last week was a transitional week for many of Iowa's Olympic sports. The track and field team moved outdoors, Iowa baseball hosted its first home series, and Iowa softball wrapped up its out-of-conference schedule.
The Hawkeye gymnastics team transitioned to postseason competition by hosting the Big Ten Conference Championship in a packed XStream Arena. The Big Ten is home to some of the best teams in the country, but the Hawkeye stars more than held their own and came away with solid finishes, and a couple of medals.
Let's take a closer look.
Olympic Spotlight: Gymnastics
The Iowa gymnastics team took part in the second session of the Big Ten Championships, scoring 196.125 as a team, good for 8th overall. The meet was won by Michigan, who scored 198.000.
Jerquavia Henderson was the standout performer for the Hawkeyes, taking home a share of the individual title on Floor with an electrifying 9.950 routine. The title was Henderson's second of her career on Floor. Adeline Kenlin had a great night as well, tying for 2nd on the beam with a 9.950 of her own, bested only by a perfect 10 from one of Michigan's gymnasts. Both Kenlin and Henderson were named to the All-Championship team.
Henderson has been a fixture on the team for multiple seasons now, including competing in the All-Around, which requires a further level of skill and commitment. She has been as good as any gymnast Iowa has had in the past few years and cemented that status with another conference title. She is now ranked 12th nationally on Floor.
Kenlin, coming off of a national runner-up finish on Beam last season has continued to be a force in that event. It took perfection to keep her from a Big Ten title and she'll no doubt make some noise on the national stage in the Regional meet and beyond.
The group will be slightly disappointed in their overall performance at the meet. Two falls on the Beam put Iowa behind, and in a meet with as much talent as this one, there was never a chance to make up enough ground. Michigan's 198.000 is an absolutely massive score, but the Hawks finished with the 4th-highest scores on Floor and Bars (where they posted a season-high), so they definitely had a shot to be in the mix without the two unfortunate errors.
The nice part for this squad is that their performance throughout the year has been strong, so they'll have at least one more opportunity to compete in the upcoming NCAA meets. On Monday, the Hawks were selected to compete in Norman regional, alongside Alabama, Kentucky, and Illinois. Last year, the Hawks pulled a massive upset to reach the regional final and they'll look for another impressive performance when they compete on April 1st.
Hawkeye Whiparound
Iowa track and field kicked off its outdoor season last weekend at the Hurricane Invitational. Kat Moody won the women's discus title with a 56.47m throw (4th in Iowa history), Amanda Howe won the women's hammer throw with a 63.13m toss, Elijah Barnes took home the gold in men's shot put with a 17.82m throw, and Zach Pluff won the men's high jump with a 2.06m leap. Other standout performances included the Men's 4x100 of Kalen Walker, Damoy Allen, Gratt Reed, and Austin Kressley who posted the 5th-best time in school history (39.28), and Elizabeth Korsek and Mike Stein, who each set top-ten marks in Javelin. Korsek's 46.07m mark is the 8th-best in school history and Stein's 65.01m mark is 4th all-time at Iowa. Reed also capped off his strong weekend with a win in the 110m hurdles (13.70).
It's another strong start to the season for the Hawks, who seem to be having no issues with the transition into the outdoors. They're continuing to get contributions in a variety of events from a variety of athletes, both underclassmen and veterans. The team will be in action again next weekend at the Raliegh Relays.
Iowa baseball put together another perfect week, besting St. Thomas 10-1 on Wednesday before sweeping South Dakota State 5-4, 12-2, and 5-3 over the weekend. The Hawks used a familiar plan to beat St. Thomas, putting consistent pressure on the Tommies before breaking the game open with a 6-run 8th inning. Sam Petersen led the way at the plate with a 2-4 day that included a grand slam.
It wasn't exactly baseball weather for the weekend series in Iowa City, but Iowa didn't let the cold stop them from coming away with three solid wins. Kyle Huckstorf came up clutch for the Hawks on Friday, going 4-5 with two doubles and the game-winning RBI in the 8th. Brody Brecht threw five innings of two-hit ball in the frigid cold.
It was slightly warmer on Sunday for the series-closing doubleheader, maybe due to the Hawkeyes' hot bats. The Hawks run-ruled the Jackrabbits, with a 5-run third inning and a 7-run 6th in the first game, and then came back from an early 3-1 deficit to close out the sweep. Petersen, Huckstorf, and Raider Tello all homered on the day and Iowa got strong performances on the mound by Jared Simpson in game one (4 IP, 10 K) and Ty Lagenberg in game two (4 IP, 1 H, 6 K). The Hawks will stay home for another week, hosting Grand View on Wednesday before Western Michigan comes to town for a three-game set over the weekend.
Hawkeye softball went 2-2 last weekend, earning wins over Marist and USF and dropping games to Lehigh and #9 Texas. Game 1 was a tense back-and-forth affair, with the Hawks finally getting the 8-7 win on a walk-off single from Brylee Klosterman in the 11th inning. Marist took an early 4-0 lead, but Iowa battled back to tie it in the 5th. The game remained tied from there, with both teams scoring in the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings before the Hawkeyes were finally able to plate the winning run.
Against Lehigh, the Hawkeye bats struggled, with the team only plating one run in the final inning. Breanna Vasquez put together a strong start, pitching a complete game and giving up zero earned runs, but for the second-straight week, Lehigh was able to shut down the Hawkeye bats.
Iowa split their Saturday games as well, starting with a convincing 12-4 win over USF. The Hawks were down 4-0 after two but answered back with two in the 3rd, four in the 5th, and a huge six-run 6th to win. Vasquez pitched another complete game and Klosterman came up big at the plate again with a home run. Tristin Doster also homered for Iowa in the game.
The Hawkeyes hung with #9 Texas for most of the game, thanks to a strong start from Jalen Adams, but the Longhorns came up with three late runs that Iowa wasn't able to match, ultimately winning 5-1. Anna Streff was 2-3 against the Longhorns.
I continue to be encouraged by what I'm seeing from this group. They have clearly taken a step forward from last year and the contributions from underclassmen bode well for the future of the program. There's clearly still room to grow, but the blowout losses of a year ago are turning into close games and some of what would have been close losses last year are turning into wins. The Hawks kick off conference play this week with a three-game set against Penn State beginning on Friday.
Hawkeye tennis split their two matches last week, falling 4-0 to #3 Michigan before rebounding to beat Michigan State 4-1. The Hawks won all four singles points to take the win against MSU, with Marisa Schmidt winning at #1, Samantha Mannix winning at #2, Barbora Porkona winning at #5, and Pia Kranholdt clinching the match at #6. They'll next compete on Saturday when they host Nebraska.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Talk about it inside The Premium Forum
• Follow us on Twitter: @IowaAwesome
• Like us on Facebook.