Michigan State Gymnastics soars in national rankings

Michigan State Gymnastics has had a strong start to the season, jumping in the national rankings to No. 13.

A lot of the attention this winter has been on the Michigan State men’s basketball and hockey teams. And rightfully so, basketball is always the No. 1 sport this time of year and the hockey team is a top 10 team in the country.

But there’s one team, in particular, in East Lansing who isn’t getting talked about enough, and that’s the Michigan State Gymnastics team.

National rankings

The Spartans are off to an excellent start this season, and that is now being recognized in the national rankings. In the latest release of the team rankings, they checked in as the No. 13 team in the country.

Gymnastics also ranks teams in each of the four individual skills as well, and the Spartans are nationally ranked in each event as well. This includes the bars (6), vault (11), floor (17), and the beam (21). These rankings shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone considering they came in second in the Big Ten last year.

Season in review

The Spartans so far this season are 5-3 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten — 5-3 may not seem that impressive, but their schedule has been extremely difficult. Their three losses came to the Nos. 1, 6, and 9 teams in the country. They also already have a win this season against Michigan who was a top-10 team at the time.

The Spartans’ most recent meet came against No. 20 Iowa at home. Michigan State won the meet 197.400 to 195.700, but there was one Spartan who stood out in particular.

Nikki Smith scored a perfect 10.000 on the floor which is the first perfect score in MSU history on the floor. Nikki also earned Big Ten Specialist of the Week after her performance.

The Spartans’ next meet is against the No. 13 Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Feb. 4. I’ve been to a few Michigan State Gymnastics meets as a student and they were always a blast, so I highly recommend getting out to one of you can.