2024 NCAA Round Up – Week 4

2024 NCAA Round Up – Week 4

By Megan Roth

Gymnast of the Week

Congratulations to Kentucky senior Raena Worley and Stanford sophomore Asher Hong, Inside Gymnastics Gymnast of the Week for Week 4!

Raena Worley scored a 39.600 in the All-Around in Kentucky’s meet against Georgia on Friday, helping the Wildcats score a huge 197.950. This tied with Cal for the highest team score of the week and broke Kentucky’s program record! Worley’s best event score came on floor where she finally earned her first 10.0!

Asher Hong put up a strong All-Around performance in the Stanford Open, posting a 84.950. His strongest events were Rings (15.1500) and Parallel Bars (14.8500) and his contributions helped Stanford score a season high 415.250.

Team Rankings

Women’s NCAA Event Leaders:

All-Around: Haleigh Bryant (LSU) – 39.708

Vault: Sage Kellerman (Michigan State) & Mya Lauzon (Cal) – 9.944

Bars: Luisa Blanco (Alabama) – 9.942

Beam: Syd Morris (LIU) & Brooklyn Rowray (Minnesota) – 9.975

Floor: Mya Lauzon (Cal) – 9.950

Men’s NCAA Event Leaders: 

All-Around: Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) – 85.200

Floor: Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) – 14.833

Pommel Horse: Fred Richard (Michigan) – 15.000

Rings: Asher Hong (Stanford) – 14.875

Vault: Paul Juda (Michigan) – 15.000

Parallel Bars: Josh Karnes (Penn State) – 14.900 

High Bar: Fred Richard (Michigan) – 14.400

Meet of the Week!

This week’s Meet of the Week brought a classic SEC rivalry meet. Friday night, we saw Alabama and Florida, two historically dominant programs, in a tight competition. 

The meet remained close, with Alabama narrowly defeating the Gators at home 197.5750 to 197.4250.

For Alabama, 5th year Luisa Blanco stood out, scoring a season high 39.700 in the All-Around, including a 9.95 on vault and beam. Plus, Lilly Hudson stuck her Yurchenko 1.5, scoring a 10.0! For Florida, Sloane Blakely had her best meet of the season, scoring a 9.875 on bars and 9.925s on beam and floor. Ellie Lazzari competed vault and bars for the first time since 2021! While vault did not go her way, she came back and performed beautiful bars (9.925) and beam (9.900) routines.  

Big 12 Showdown

For the last time before Oklahoma moves to the SEC next season, Denver and Oklahoma competed in a regular season dual meet as the top two teams in the Big 12. The meet started shockingly, with Denver taking the early lead ahead of Oklahoma after the first rotation. As the meet went on, Oklahoma closed the gap, helped a bit by Denver’s shaky beam rotation, and recorded a 49.575 to seal the deal for the Sooners (197.775) in the end.

This was a meet of All-Arounders, with both teams putting up four athletes on all four events! Jessica Hutchinson (Denver) won the All-Around with a massive 39.725, including 9.950s on vault, beam, and floor. Denver freshman Madison Ulrich put up the best All-Around performance of her career, scoring a 39.55. For Oklahoma, Jordan Bowers and Ragan Smith came up big, each scoring a 9.975, on bars for Bowers and beam for Smith.

10.0 Performances!

LSU Freshman and the 2022 U.S. All-Around Champion Konnor McClain scored her second 10.0 of her career, this time on beam!

Makenzie Wilson started off Kentucky’s record breaking night by scoring a 10.0 on vault, the Wildcats’ first vault 10 since All-time 10 Record Holder Jenny Hansen last scored a 10.0 in 1996.

Nikki Smith closed Michigan State’s home opener out with a 10.0 on floor, the first ever floor 10 for the Spartans in program history!

The Bruins are Back

After three away quad meets, UCLA returned to Pauley Pavillion to compete in their first home meet of the season, defeating Washington 197.8250 to 196.3000. Chae Campbell stuck her Yurchenko full, earning a perfect 9.95 for the seventh time in her career. Selena Harris had a great day in the All-Around, scoring a 39.6250. (In our opinion, once she starts sticking landings, the 10s will be flying!)

The UCLA floor party did not disappoint as the Bruins scored a season high 49.625 on floor. Watch Chae Campbell’s routine below!

Upsets

In their home opener, Illinois Men’s defeated previously #1 ranked Oklahoma 407.2000 to 406.6500. Because Stanford put up a 415.2500 in their home opener, the Sooners have now fallen in the rankings to #2.

In a tight meet, Missouri defeated LSU 197.3250 to 197.2250 in Missouri’s home opener. Missouri finished the competition with a big 49.600 on floor, with the help of freshman Kennedy Griffin’s 9.975!

All photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics

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