The gymnastics meet had just started. The Spartan women kept vaulting themselves in the air and landing with ease. Their teammates kept celebrating loudly and their coaching staff kept giving them hugs and high fives. On the other side of Jenison Field House, the Wolverine women were flying through the air on the uneven bars, to cheers of their own.

Not being a gymnastics aficionado myself – and having been fooled before on the technical aspects of the sport and the scoring – I looked around cautiously. I think Michigan State is winning. And I think they are doing better than No. 2-ranked Michigan. But to make sure, I ask the lady standing next to me near the vault. It’s clear that she has forgotten more about gymnastics than I will ever learn – and she confirmed my suspicions.

“This is a pretty big deal to us because of how good Michigan is,” she said.

I saw that the scoreboard said MSU 49.400, UM 49.125.

“MSU is winning, right?” I asked. "All the scores for the first rotation are accounted for?"

I have been fooled before, with minor deductions and/or corrections happening after the fact.

“Yes,” came the reply – with a big smile – before she scurried off with the rest of the MSU support staff to celebrate a solid first rotation and prepare for the reciprocal event, the bars.

The two teams switch corners and the media members in attendance follow.

And then it happens – the first Spartan on the bars falls and the Jenison crowd gasps.

I asked the photographer sitting next to me – and she confirmed my suspicions – about the extent of that green and white mistake. For those who are unfamiliar, each team takes the best five scores out of six performances -- so that fall has now left the rest of the team with no margin for error. If another Spartan falls, that’s going to be a big, big problem for Michigan State. The next five gymnasts had to lock it down.

And lock it down they did. In fact, Michigan State grabbed four of the top five spots on bars and won the event, 49.250 – 49.125. Bars scores:

1. Abby Heiskell, Michigan, 9.875

1. Olivia Zsarmani, MSU, 9.875

1. Delanie Harkness, MSU, 9.875

4. Jori Jackard, MSU, 9.850

4. Nikki Smith, MSU, 9.850

6. Naomi Morrison, Michigan, 9.825

6. Sierra Brooks, Michigan, 9.825

8. Nicoletta Koulos, Michigan, 9.800

8. Natalie Wojcik, Michigan, 9.800

8. Gabrielle Stephen, MSU, 9.800

11. Gabby Wilson, Michigan, 9.775

12. Skyla Schulte, MSU, 9.325

In addition, the Wolverines did decently on the vault, but not well enough to overcome the Spartans’ earlier performance. MSU won the vault as well, by a score of 49.400 to 49.375.

1. Nikki Smith, MSU, 9.950

2. Gabby Wilson, Michigan, 9.925

3. Skyla Schulte, MSU, 9.900

3. Sierra Brooks, Michigan, 9.900

5. Gabrielle Stephen, MSU, 9.875

5. Naomi Morrison, Michigan, 9.875

7. Sage Kellerman, MSU, 9.850

7. Natalie Wojcik, Michigan, 9.850

9. Olivia Zsarmani, MSU, 9.825

9. Jenna Mulligan, Michigan, 9.825

11. Baleigh Garcia, MSU, 9.775

11. Abby Heiskell, Michigan, 9.775

If you do the math, that means that MSU had the lead after two rotations. Both vault and bars were in the books and Michigan State led, 98.650 to 98.500. The capacity crowd of 4900 had packed Jenison Field House in hopes that their team would be able to pull off the upset – the Wolverines are a perennial Big Ten gymnastics power. MSU had not beaten Michigan in 15 years. Yet here they were, halfway to their goal.

Next up, the Spartans moved to the balance beam and the Wolverines moved to the floor routine. The Wolverines are very strong on floor this year and it showed in the results. The Spartans did well on the balance beam but the Wolverines did better on the floor.

In fact, Michigan scored the highest total event score of the evening on floor – a 49.550 – as compared to MSU’s 49.275 on the beam. After rotation 3 was done, Michigan had erased the Spartans lead and actually held a small lead in the overall meet, 148.050 – 147.925.

The Spartans moved to the floor and the Wolverines to the beam. The Wolverines’ weakest event is the bars so MSU knew it had a chance.

Smooth performances from the Spartans the rest of the way would put MSU in position to win.

Then came the second gasp of the night – when a Wolverine fell on the beam. The door was open for the Spartans to take this thing home and give the Jenison crowd the historic rivalry victory they had been cheering for all night.

But then it all came down to the judges. How would the scores fall? Would MSU’s solid performance on the floor be enough to overcome Michigan’s weakness on the beam? Michigan’s balance beam score was the lowest of any event, 48.925, and MSU’s floor exercise score (49.275) – while not enough to win the event – was high enough to hand the overall victory to the Spartans.

When you add it all up, the Spartans won by a final score of 197.200 - 196.975 (never mind the typo in the tweet to come). As soon as the team heard that the score was final, they started celebrating their biggest regular season win in some time. And there was much rejoicing in Jension.

Not only did MSU win three of the four events, their true freshman, Nikki Smith, was the overall winner of the all-around.

MSU took six of the top eight scores on beam and Michigan was forced to use a 9.550 as their fifth best score:

1. Gabrielle Stephen, MSU, 9.900

1. Natalie Wojcik, Michigan, 9.900

3. Gabby Wilson, Michigan, 9.875

4. Giana Kalefe, MSU, 9.850

4. Skyla Schulte, MSU, 9.850

4. Baleigh Garcia, MSU, 9.850

7. Olivia Zsarmani, MSU, 9.825

7. Nikki Smith, MSU, 9.825

7. Carly Bauman, Michigan, 9.825

10. Nicoletta Koulos, Michigan, 9.775

11. Abby Heiskell, Michigan, 9.550

12. Sierra Brooks, Michigan, 9.375

On floor, the Wolverines performed very well, taking five of the top seven spots. But MSU’s solid performance up and down the lineup secured the win for the home team:

1. Sierra Brooks, Michigan, 9.950

2. Nicoletta Koulos, Michigan, 9.925

2. Naomi Morrison, Michigan, 9.925

4. Nikki Smith, MSU, 9.900

5. Nyah Smith, MSU, 9.875

5. Abby Heiskell, Michigan, 9.875

5. Gabby Wilson, Michigan, 9.875

8. Delanie Harkness, MSU, 9.850

8. Gabrielle Stephen, MSU, 9.850

10. Reyna Guggino, Michigan, 9.825

11. Skyla Schulte, MSU, 9.800

12. Baleigh Garcia, MSU, 9.775

After the awards ceremony, the Spartan gymnasts celebrated with their friends, family, and fans -- and signed autographs for hundreds of the Spartan faithful who had cheered them on.

After the meet was over, I was able to catch up with MSU gymnastics head coach Mike Rowe. Here's what he had to say about the epic events of Sunday evening in East Lansing: