This improvement is what they hope to show their competitors, the Iowa Hawkeyes, at 7 p.m. on Friday at Jenison Field House, which also will be a Breast Cancer Awareness Meet.

“They responded extremely well to the lineup changes, but we still had some trouble on vaulting what we’re capable of and we didn’t put our best on floor,” Klages said of last week’s meet, a loss to then-No. 4 Michigan.

Klages said she also thinks the meet against Iowa will be a “huge competition,” but she is excited to see how it turns out.

“It’ll be a battle. Larissa Libby (head coach of the Hawkeyes) knows how to get her teams ready for competition,” she said. “They might struggle for a number of meets, but they can come back and score five more points than they did before.”

The team did a mock meet this week and Klages judged and scored the team, senior Alex Pace said. The judging helped to compete what they practice.

“We scored much higher than we thought we could,” she said.

After the meet against Michigan — which the team lost 193.900 – 196.800, but got its second best overall team, beam and bars scores of the season — Klages said they met in the bus ride back to figure out some changes that needed to happen.

“We changed things up this week,” Klages said. “They’re more confident on floor and more energetic in the gym.”

Pace did well on her floor exposition and was moved to the lead-off spot on beam, senior Dani Levy did well on floor after teammates struggled, and junior Alina Cartwright placed second in all-around, on beam and vault.

“I have to mention Alina Cartwright, because she’s done an exceptional job this season. It’s becoming routine, which is what we want,” Klages said.

Cartwright said she was “super nervous” with changes in the order of competition, but the consistency of practicing like that this week will help for Friday.

“I was comfortable with the placements before, so I let the nerves get the best of me,” she said.

To prepare for this week’s meet, freshman Holly Ryan said besides practicing, she will do some individual mental preparations.

“I like to use mental keywords during my routine, like skills and some corrections,” Ryan said. “You have to remember it’s just you out there.”

Mentally preparing has helped them during and before competing, Pace said. The gymnasts work with their sports psychologists to do mental visualization.

“We visualize doing our routines perfectly in our minds and that shows on the floor,” Pace said. “On meet days, we have our individual rituals. I relax and treat it as a normal day.”