The Yale gymnastics team was on the road again Saturday when they faced Iowa, Cornell and host No. 22 Penn State. The Elis placed third overall, behind Iowa and the favorite Penn State, who won the meet.

The Bulldogs, however, defeated the lone Ivy League opponent, defending conference champion Cornell, with a total score of 186.125.

“To beat Cornell was a great feeling …[it] gave us a lot of confidence and some great forward momentum for the rest of the season,” Tara Feld ’13 said.

Both Allison Mak ’10 and captain Brigitte Kivisto ’10 had strong showings on Saturday, representing Yale in the top five for all-around performance at the meet. Mak placed fourth overall with a total of 37.475, while Kivisto finished right behind her teammate with a 37.450 score.

“There were a lot of excellent gymnasts from all four teams at the meet, so I’m proud of finishing fourth in the all-around,” Mak said. “I’m hoping to clean up my routines and add some difficulty for this upcoming weekend.”

In the floor exercise, three Elis finished with scores above 9.500 (out of 10) led by Kivisto. Scoring a 9.725, Kivisto finished seventh overall in the event, followed closely by Talis Trevino ’12 and Mak.

Kivisto again came out on top for Yale in the vault when she scored a 9.750. Feld and Mak finished behind their captain with scores of 9.700 and 9.525, respectively.

Both Kivisto and Mak continued on Saturday to post high scores, but Mak is looking for even more improvement.

“Our lineups on all four events have a lot of potential, and I think if we keep working hard on consistency in practice we’ll be able to post higher team scores,” Mak said.

The seniors and freshmen represented Yale on the parallel bars as Kivisto, the only Eli to score above a 9.500 in this event, once again led the Blue with a 9.600. Lindsay Andsanger ’13 was second for Yale landing a score of 9.450.

On the beam, which Mak says is usually one of Yale’s best events, it was Feld who finished first for Yale. The freshman placed sixth overall with a score of 9.600. Mak and Stephanie Goldstein ’13 were the only other Bulldogs to score above a 9.000.

“We have the skills and the difficulty, so this week we’re going to focus on consistency, with the goal of not counting any falls on the event this weekend,” Mak said of the balance beam.

Feld echoed Mak, saying that the team will now focus on cleaning up mistakes.

“This coming week, we will need to work on our beam routines,” said Feld. “We had some mistakes that we should not have had.”

Just two weeks into the season, the Bulldogs have established themselves among the Ivy elite by defeating the defending champion Cornell — an improvement from the recent past.

“This season has started out better than last year,” said Mak.

The Bulldogs will have another chance against an Ivy opponent this Saturday when they face Penn at 1 p.m. in their first home meet of the season.