The Iowa women’s gymnastics team suffered a loss on Feb. 14 against No. 14 Illinois, 196.970-196.370. But even with the loss, the GymHawks were able to beat their season best for the team. They last posted their previous high score during their meet against No. 20 Ohio with a 195.225.

“I have mixed emotions right now because they were so close,” head coach Larissa Libby said. “If we had done what we normally do, who knows what could have happened. But I thought they were incredibly impressive.”

Even with the loss, eight of the players were able to earn 10 career bests. Senior Sydney Hoerr earned two of her career bests on bars, 9.875, and vault, 9.800.

Sophomore Angel Metcalf earned two career best as well on vault and floor, 9.900 and 9.825, respectively.

Accumulating the rest of the season bests were sophomores Mollie Drenth, Caroline McCrady, Ashleigh Edlin and freshmen Nikki Youd, Ashley Fischer, and Melissa Zurawski.

“I am very proud of the work my team and I showed today against such a good competitor team like Illinois,” Hoerr said. “We were able to step up our game, but it just shows how we need to just keep working harder.”

Iowa started off the meet on the vault event, on which the GymHawks hit their best score on the event this season with a 49.200. The Hawks scored five of their 10 individual career bests on the event.

Metcalf posted a career best score of 9.900 and took second place on vault. Edlin also was able to make waves with a career best of 9.875 and finished fourth.

“You have to give credit to this team because they step up their game week in and week out. I am so proud of them,” Libby said. “I know that people have counted us out and underestimated us. So I love that they keep putting up big numbers.”

Iowa stayed close behind Illinois the entire meet. The GymHawks ended the meet on floor, on which Hoerr took second place overall in the event with a posted a score of 9.900. Metcalf followed with a season best score of 9.825 and took fourth place in that event.

“I think we kept our positive energy and focus throughout the entire meet even through some mistakes,” Metcalf said.

The Hawks now look forward to Saturday, when they will travel to Denver to compete in a tri-meet against Denver and BYU.

“I think we have a lot more to give, and we definitely made some mistakes,” Libby said. “But we will go back, fix them, and keep moving forward.”