In an announcement Tuesday morning, Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard announced that the Iowa State University Athletics Department will discontinue its gymnastics program. In the same statement, Pollard stated that the department will replace the program with another sport that provides equal or additional participation opportunities for women.
Tuesday’s announcement ended speculation surrounding the program and its future after Iowa State cancelled the season on Feb. 8. At the time, the reason
given was because the Cyclones did not have enough athletes to compete.
The Iowa State women’s gymnastics program started in 1973-74 and won four conference championships with the most recent in 2006. The last time Iowa State discontinued a program was in 2001 when baseball and men’s swimming and diving were cut. Two other men’s programs were cut prior to that in 1994 when men’s gymnastics and men’s tennis were cut.
Incoming recruits have been notified as well as current team members of the decision Tuesday morning by associate athletic director Shamaree Brown. The Cyclone gymnastics coaches have been notified that their employment agreements will not be renewed. Head coach Ashley Miles Greig’s contract was set to expire after the season on June 30, 2026. Student-athletes both current and incoming, will have the opportunity to attend Iowa State and have their scholarship agreements honored.
The decision to suspend the season resulted from a series of complex internal conflicts between individual teammates, coaching staff members, and parents. These conflicts created irreconcilable differences that not only prevented our team from competing, but they also prevented team members from carrying on their daily activities, including practice. In the end, suspending the remainder of the season was the only viable alternative after in-depth conversations with the student-athletes, coaching and support staff members.
Iowa State went 2-11 this season and 0-6 in the Big 12 Conference. The two wins came on January 10 against Illinois State in Iowa City, and on Jan, 18 over Bridgeport in Durham, New Hampshire. The last Iowa State coaching staff included head coach Ashley Miles Greig and assistant coaches Jazmyn Estrella, Mary Wise, and Ragan Smith.
The final Iowa State roster included senior Madelyn Manternach; juniors Ella School, Noelle Adams, Kaia Bochow, Chloe Hammond, Lauren O’Brochta, and Paige Willis; sophomores Frédérique Sgarbossa, Haylee Hardin, and Aubree Guinee; and freshmen Ale Alvarez, Gaby Alvarez, Peyton Nock, Ella Roberts, Taylor Sanders, Samantha Schneider, Kennedy Thomas, and Finley Weldon.
