Rolling, tumbling and jumping their way to victory, the MSU gymnastics team scored 196.775 and defeated Ohio State and West Virginia to break an all-time university scoring record on Saturday.

While a crowd of 1,049 at Jenison Field House watched, the team took titles in every event but vault and eclipsed the previous MSU all-time record of 196.575, a score they had tied Feb. 21.

"After we tied the record last week, I told the girls that if we concentrated on details, we would be able to break the record, and that's what we came out to do," head coach Kathie Klages said.

The meet was the Spartans' last home meet of the season, and Klages added that the win was a real confidence booster.

"It's really exciting to break the record at home," she said. "The crowd cheering us on really helped and made this meet more fun."

Standing out at the meet was senior Sarah Alexander, who took the meet title for both beam and floor exercise, with scores of 9.90 and 9.950, respectively. Her performance on floor tied her season-best performance for the event and her beam score was the third 9.90 she has earned in that event.

"It felt great to come out here and take those titles," Alexander said. "Tonight was senior night because it was our last home game, so it was awesome to take the titles tonight."

Victoria Iakounina captured second for the Spartans on beam with a score of 9.85, her career best. The no-preference freshman has been a leading scorer for the Spartans this season. On Saturday, she broke her individual records on both vault and bars and captured the event title in vault.

"It feels great to come out here and contribute to my team," she said. "I'm happy with my consistency in my events and I tried to pay attention to details while I was out there."

Though the team broke a university record on its way to Saturday's victory, Klages said there's more work to be done in the future. "We did take some deductions tonight that could have been avoided," Klages said. "There's still room for improvement here."

The team hopes to carry the positive momentum through to their Big Ten Conference Championship, held in less than three weeks.

"The Big Ten will be a dog fight," Klages said. "A lot of the teams have just raised their levels this season. The championship will just depend on who's on on that day. We just need to remember to concentrate on details."

The record-breaking team has three more meets this season before starting its Big Ten run on March 20 in Minneapolis, Minn.