22 Apr 2024 NCAA National Championships Round Up
2024 NCAA Round Up – Nationals
By Megan Roth
While the focus of NCAA Championships is the team title, we saw some incredible performances from individuals that deserve some love. Check out our recaps of the Semifinals and Four on the Floor to see how it all played out as the LSU Tigers took their first-ever title back to Baton Rouge!
All-Around
To go along with her AAI Award and team national title, Haleigh Bryant also brought home the individual All-Around title to Baton Rouge with a huge score of 39.7125.
Business as usual for @haleighbryant3
It's a 9.95 for the senior!
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/zQTZiqHIyk
— LSU Gymnastics (@LSUgym) April 18, 2024
Jade Carey tied for runner-up with a near season-high All-Around score. Here, she brought out the double-twisting Yurchenko for the first time since Elite meets last season. We can’t wait to see what else Carey has up her sleeve now that we move into the lead up to Paris – she’s scheduled to compete later this week at the American Classic!
9⃣.9⃣5⃣💪👊
📺 ESPN2#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/hoyVPO8kEg
— Oregon State Gymnastics (@BeaverGym) April 19, 2024
Washington’s Skylar Killough-Wilhem scored 39.550 in the All-Around to tie the score that qualified her to nationals. She has beautiful form and presentation on all four events and we loved getting to see her on the big stage after such a spectacular career at Washington, leading her program from 42nd place after her freshman season to 23rd this season. Killough-Wilhem especially nailed her bar routine, her favorite event, to join a big tie for 6th alongside Bryant and other bars superstars like Georgia freshman Lily Smith who came back from scoring in the 9.7s on vault to score 9.9+ scores on her other events. Before she left for Fort Worth, Smith had an intrasquad by herself to prepare for the competition with (now retired commentator) Kathy Johnson Clarke on the call!
Thrilled we had the opportunity to have @kathyjohnsongym call Lily’s last practice before she heads to NCAA Nationals as an individual competitor.
What a special moment for both stars!
🔴⚫️🌟🐶#GloryGlory | #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/JMAthzl0X5
— Georgia Gymnastics (@UGAGymnastics) April 18, 2024
Vault
In the first Semifinal, Anna Roberts anchored Stanford’s rotation with a huge, stuck Yurchenko 1.5. Although it was mathematically impossible for the Cardinal to advance at that point in the competition, Roberts came through with one of her career best vaults to win the vault title and finish her day in the All-Around with a score of 39.6375 to win 4th place overall.
What a way to end the rotation, ANNA! 9.950 to tie her career high!
📺: ESPN2#OWNIt | #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/WCpYfJJElk
— Stanford Gymnastics (@StanfordWGym) April 18, 2024
Arizona State’s Anaya Smith also nailed her Yurchenko 1.5 in the first Semifinal to score 9.9375, the highest score until Roberts vaulted. Smith has come up clutch so many times for Arizona State and it was incredible to see her hit an even better vault than she did at Regionals on the biggest stage.
STUCK ON THE BIGGEST STAGE‼️‼️ 9️⃣.9️⃣3️⃣7️⃣5️⃣, the best score of the day so far for @anayasmith_!!!
📲: ESPN2#NCAAGym /// #ForksUp pic.twitter.com/SelFM3CHsZ
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) April 18, 2024
Bars
Coming after Oklahoma’s disappointing vault rotation, Audrey Davis performed the near-perfect bar routine we’ve seen from her countless times. The height on her piked Jaeger is just out of this world! The judges rewarded her with a 9.9625. Later in the meet, Leanne Wong tied Davis’s 9.9625 with another near perfect routine. We love how Wong keeps her legs glued together on her transitions between the bars! Although Davis and Wong did not win titles with their teams, their individual performances here were stunning and were very worthy of a national title.
AUDREY. DAVIS. OH. MY. GOSH.
It's a 9.9625 for the senior! pic.twitter.com/cLzizuYGBW
— Oklahoma Women's Gym (@OU_WGymnastics) April 19, 2024
We loved watching Boise State’s Courtney Blackson nail her bar routine. Last season, Blackson qualified for nationals as an individual on vault by scoring a 10.0 at Regionals. She then went on to tie for the national vault runner-up with Denver great Lynnzee Brown. This season, an injury limited Blackson to just bars in the back half of the season. Some weren’t sure if she’d even be able to compete at Regionals, but there, she won the Regional title outright to qualify for Nationals. In the first Semifinal, she hit a routine almost identical to her routine at regionals to score a 9.925. We love her Khorkina release!
Beam
Audrey Davis also tied for the beam title, scoring 9.9625 in the lead off spot! Later in Oklahoma’s lineup, Faith Torrez also scored 9.9625 to tie Davis for the title. Although Torrez fell on vault in the opening rotation, she was able to come back and perform a beautiful beam routine, very deserving of the national title.
Individuals Selena Harris (UCLA) and Isabella Magnelli (Kentucky) both hit near-perfect 9.95 beam routines to be part of a big tie for second on the event. For Harris, her routine was dedicated to her UCLA teammates whose seasons got cut earlier than expected. Harris had a spectacular year in the All-Around, and would’ve loved to compete in the All-Around with her team. But since that was not possible, she put together one of her career best performances to finish out her sophomore season. This year’s results will be motivating for UCLA to come back stronger next season. Magnelli was such an integral part in Kentucky’s record-breaking season. She is eligible for a 5th year, but has not publicly declared if she will use it. If this was the end of her career, Magnelli should be so proud of her stunning beam work and her work creating a new legacy for Kentucky Gymnastics.
Floor
Part of LSU’s #1 floor team, Aleah Finnegan won the floor title outright with a 9.9625. While there are so many phenomenal floor workers in the NCAA, Finnegan stands out for her difficult tumbling, stunning execution, and entertaining performance quality.
Just another day of Aleah owning the floor.
It's a 9.9625 for the junior!
📺 ESPN2 | @aleahfinn pic.twitter.com/Z2UTZJdulx
— LSU Gymnastics (@LSUgym) April 18, 2024
Kentucky’s Raena Worley was a part of a big tie for second place, scoring 9.95. Like Magnelli, Worley will go down in history as one of Kentucky’s best gymnasts making an ever-lasting impact on the program. Worley scored five tens in 2024 after not having one in her four previous years of NCAA gymnastics. Worley’s floor especially, has been incredible this season, nailing her landings week after week, and putting on a show every time. She will be dearly missed in the NCAA, but we hope she retires knowing the impact she’s made on Kentucky Gymnastics and NCAA gymnastics as a whole.
While Michigan had a disappointing end to their season, 2023 AAI Award Winner Sierra Brooks was able to close out her career with a great 9.95 floor routine as well as a solid vault. Brooks was part of a generation of Michigan gymnastics that truly changed the trajectory of the program, winning Michigan’s first NCAA title in 2021. Along with Brooks, Carly Bauman and Gabby Wilson also represented Michigan strongly, with Bauman scoring 9.900 on bars and Wilson scoring 39.500 in the All-Around. Wilson was rotating with Oklahoma in the Semifinal, and while Oklahoma had an unexpected, devastating ending to their season, they were enthusiastically cheering for Wilson during her final routines as a collegiate gymnast. The sportsmanship and camaraderie were off the charts here.
While Michigan had a disappointing end to their season, 2023 AAI Award Winner Sierra Brooks was able to close out her career with a great 9.95 floor routine as well as a solid vault. Brooks was part of a generation of Michigan gymnastics that truly changed the trajectory of the program, winning Michigan’s first NCAA title in 2021. Along with Brooks, Carly Bauman and Gabby Wilson also represented Michigan strongly, with Bauman scoring 9.900 on bars and Wilson scoring 39.500 in the All-Around. Wilson was rotating with Oklahoma in the semifinal, and while Oklahoma had an unexpected, devastating ending to their season, they were enthusiastically cheering for Wilson during her final routines as a collegiate gymnast. The sportsmanship and camaraderie were off the charts here.
In what might be her final NCAA routine, Chae Campbell delivered a fantastic floor performance with excellent dance and sky high tumbling. Campbell is eligible for a 5th year and mentioned earlier in the season that she is still considering whether or not she will take it. Campbell’s routine scored a 9.900, and many think she was underscored compared to other floor routines. Either way, Campbell was proud of her performance and said the crowd and Arkansas gymnasts she was rotating with really helped hype her up while she was performing.
Chae Campbell with a 9.900 on floor at NCAA Semifinals! 🐻
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/O6YerO4q3w
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) April 18, 2024
5-Peat!
The Stanford Cardinal won its fifth consecutive men’s NCAA championship Saturday, pulling away in the fifth of sixth rotations to score a huge 425.324 to runner-up Michigan’s 419.689. It was Stanford’s highest team-score since beginning it’s national title streak in 2019.
Leading the Cardinal was sophomore (and 2023 U.S. National All-Around Champion) Asher Hong, who captured an incredible three individual titles – on vault (15.266), parallel bars (15.100), and rings (14.966) — and Khoi Young, who captured the All-Around championship, with 86.098 points.
Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship in each of the past 48 academic years, dating back to 1976-77. Stanford has won 135 NCAA championships (71 men, 64 women) and 164 national championships overall (77 men, 85 women, 2 coed).
This is the 10th NCAA men’s gymnastics championship in school history and Stanford has won every NCAA title since 2019 (there was no NCAA championship in 2020). The others were won in 1992, 1993, 1995, 2009, and 2011.
Look for more on the 2024 NCAA Championships in our May/June issue of Inside Gymnastics magazine!
Photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics
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