McDonald graduate aims for title

By John Kovach

Is this the year that Iowa State University senior gymnast Jasmine Thompson of McDonald finally will win an NCAA regional championship, and perhaps even an NCAA national title?

Well, considering that Thompson tied for first place in the balance beam event at the recent Big 12 championships with a personal-best score of 9.850 and is beaming with confidence, the McDonald High graduate must be considered a legitimate contender for the regional title.

The regional meet is Saturday in Iowa City, Iowa.

“I have never won a regional and would love to do it,” said Thompson, who shared the Big 12 beam championship with Sarah Shire (Missouri), Megan Ferguson (Oklahoma) and Haley DeProspero (Oklahoma) in the meet held March 21 at Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum.

Thompson said confidence and preparation helped her perform well in the Big 12, and she believes those attributes will carry over with her in the regional, and hopefully into the national meet.

“The main thing was that I had my confidence going in my last and final Big 12 meet,” said Thompson. “I wanted a solid meet and not to think about it too much and to treat it as a regular meet. I am happy with the result.”

Thompson hopes for the same happy feeling in the regional.

“This is my last chance, my last hurrah. My confidence is so high as far as myself and the team, and I will do the best I can,” said Thompson, who will be making her fourth straight trip to the regional with her team.

Thompson also led the Cyclones to the beam championship with a score of 48.925 — their second-highest score of the year in the event and only .075 off their season best.

She was complemented in the beam by Megan Barnes, Ceilia Maccani, and Katie Sweetin, each with scores of 9.775.

However, Iowa State placed last of the four teams in the Big 12, despite its season-best performance for the second straight year in the meet.

Oklahoma won with 196.125, followed by Nebraska (196.075) and Missouri (195.925).

“It was clearly our best performance of the year,” said Iowa State coach Jay Ronayne, who lauded Thompson.

“Winning the beam shows Jasmine was really on her game. She could have let the nerves that come with competing in her last Big 12 meet of her career get to her, but she didn’t. To deal with all those emotions and perform that way, I was impressed.”

Thompson also was tied for No. 6 in floor exercise (9.875), which led her team, and was only 0.025 off her career high.

“[Floor exercise has] been my strongest event the whole year,” said Thompson, the daughter of William G. Thompson Jr. and Beatrice Thompson who began her gymnastics career with Olympic Dreams Gymnastics.

In fact, Thompson was named All-Big 12 on the floor exercise thanks to her highest regional qualifying score of 9.880 in the event.

Thompson also was tied for No. 13 in uneven parallel bars (9.750) and tied for No. 17 in vaulting (9.775).

But she placed last among four competitors in all-around (39.250) behind winner Shire (39.450) and Adrianne Perry (39.325), both of Missouri; and Kylie Stone (39.300) of Nebraska.

Last year in the Big 12 meet as a junior, Thompson placed second on floor and third all-around.

Iowa State now will try to become one of the two squads from the regional advancing to the NCAA championships on April 16-18 at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.

Thompson has made it to the NCAA meet once during her career, as a freshman.

“My freshman year we placed second as a team [in the regional] and got to go to the NCAA meet. We did really well. We made the Super 6 out of 12 teams and from there went to the final Super Six and ended up last at the final Super Six,” she explained.

Thompson, who is majoring in journalism and mass communication, also was one of nine Cyclones to make the 2009 Academic All-Big 12 team. She plans to graduate in May.

In addition, Thompson has been performing before a record number of home fans this season (16,242), surpassing the previous mark of 12,052 set in 2006.

“[Gymnastics isn’t] like football and basketball, but the Olympics and the fact that Shawn Johnson is from Iowa have helped make [the sport] more popular,” said Thompson.

Johnson is a 2008 U.S. Olympic gold medalist from Des Moines.

kovach@vindy.com