2024 NCAA Round Up – Week 3

2024 NCAA Round Up – Week 3

By Megan Roth

Gymnast of the Week

Congratulations to Cal Junior Mya Lauzon and Oklahoma Junior Fuzzy Benas, Inside Gymnastics Gymnast of the Week for Week 3!

Mya Lauzon scored a 39.775 in the All-Around on Saturday, helping the Bears score their second consecutive 197.875! Her All-Around score ties the program record that eMjae Frazier set last week. Additionally, Mya set a career high on bars, scoring a 9.950 and won every event title!

At the Rocky Mountain Open, Fuzzy Benas posted the highest All-Around score of the season (85.200). He helped the Sooners to victory over Air Force and Nebraska and won the individual vault (14.550) and parallel bars (14.800) titles. 

For more on Mya, Click Here!

Team Rankings

Women’s NCAA Event Leaders:

All-Around: Mya Lauzon (Cal) & Haleigh Bryant (LSU) – 39.708

Vault: Sage Kellerman (Michigan State) – 9.958

Bars: Raena Worley (Kentucky) – 9.958

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

Floor: Leanne Wong (Florida) & Karlie Franz (Kent State) – 9.950

Men’s NCAA Event Leaders: 

All-Around: Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) – 85.200

Floor: Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) – 15.000

Pommel Horse: Fred Richard (Michigan) – 15.000

Rings: Javier Alfonso (Michigan) – 14.767

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!

LSU vs. Kentucky always entertains and this year did not disappoint! 

Kentucky came into the competition ranked #6 while LSU sat #8. In the last two regular season meetings the Wildcats pulled off the upset against the Tigers, so the anticipation was high on Friday night! (Plus it was also Aly Raisman’s commentary debut!) 

LSU won, scoring 198.125 over Kentucky’s 197.600. The meet stayed close until the fourth rotation where Kentucky had a shakier beam rotation, allowing LSU to surge ahead on floor, where they scored a huge 49.725. 

In the All-Around, it was a close race. Haleigh Bryant (LSU) came out on top with a score of 39.825, including a 10 on bars. Not far behind was Raena Worley (Kentucky) who scored a 39.725. On bars she scored a 9.975, but it looked pretty perfect to us!

After transferring from Florida for her sixth year, Savannah Schoenherr had her best meet of the season, scoring 9.925s on vault and bars. For Kentucky, emerging freshman stars Creslyn Brose and Delaynee Rodriguez stood out. Creslyn scored a 9.925 on floor, amazing Aly Raisman with her performance quality. Delaynee once again showed her consistency, leading off all four events. Her scores did not dip below 9.85 and she set a career high in the All-Around (39.450)!

10 Watch

Time after time, season after season, Kentucky’s Raena Worley turns out incredible, perfect routines yet continues to chase the elusive 10.

#1 For a Reason

At the Denver Quad Meet, Oklahoma scored a massive 198.325, holding on to their first place ranking. On vault, Hannah Scheible, Kat Levasseur, and Jordan Bowers scored back-to-back 9.95s. As a team, the Sooners posted a 49.725 on beam. This is just 0.075 short of the team program record on beam! In the All-Around, Jordan Bowers (39.775) and Kat Levasseur (39.675) recorded career highs.

On the Men’s side, Oklahoma recorded the highest score of the season so far with a 421.350. Additionally, the Sooners won every event title at the Rocky Mountain Open against Nebraska and Air Force. Turkish national team member Emre Dodanli scored a huge 15.2500 on floor and Fuzzy Benas put up a 85.200 in the All-Around, the highest score of the season!

Routines to Watch

Sage Kellerman once again stuck her vault, helping Michigan State score 197.450, by far their highest score of the season. Her score of 9.95 also helped keep her in the number one spot on vault!

After her vault and floor routine didn’t go as planned, Michigan Senior Jenna Mulligan posted a career high 9.90 on beam. As the leadoff, she helped Michigan record a season high 49.500 to clinch the win against Ohio State. We love her calm confidence on beam!

Record-Breaking Meets!

After their program debut last week, Clemson had a sold out crowd on Sunday, an incredible accomplishment for such a new team!

On Friday, both sessions of the Tennessee Collegiate Classic took place with all seven participating teams recording program records. The scoring here certainly had the Gymternet talking (and with good reason) and it will be interesting to see how these teams stack up against the rest of the field as the season progresses. 

In the first session, Lindenwood (197.075) won over Northern Illinois (196.400) and Fisk (193.400) Lindenwood’s first ever 197 came just after the news broke that the program will be cut after the conclusion of this season without any opportunity for fundraising. 

In the second session, Ball State (198.025) just edged out Kent State (197.725). Southeast Missouri scored 197.050 and UW-Whitewater scored 194.450. Ball State especially crushed their program record, scoring a 198 before they ever reached the 197 mark. 

This meet also saw many 10s. On vault, Ball State’s Suki Pfister scored a 10.0, sticking her front handspring front pike half vault. On bars, Megan Teter (Ball State), Zoe Middleton (Ball State) and Lindsay Ockler (SEMO) all recorded 10s. On floor, Karlie Franz (Kent State) posted a 10.

All Eyes On the GymBacks

After a very close meet on Friday night, Arkansas and Alabama tied, both scoring 197.525. Not only was this the highest road score ever recorded in Arkansas program history, but it also set a new record team score for the program. Arkansas is now the #2 team in the SEC! We loved Kalyxta Gamiao’s lead-off beam routine with a LOSO-LOSO series that started the Hogs out on a great beam rotation.

Season Debuts from World Medalists

After returning to competition last week, 2023 World team gold medalist Leanne Wong made her season All-Around debut. She won the All-Around (39.625), bars (9.950) and floor titles (9.950).

Michigan gymnasts and 2023 world medalists Paul Juda and Fred Richard competed for the first time this season at Michigan’s meet against Army. Juda scored a 15.000 for his beautiful vault and Fred Richard posted a 15.000 on pommel horse and a 14.400 on high bar.

For our interview with Paul and Fred, Click Here!

All photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics

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