2024 NCAA Round Up – Week 6

2024 NCAA Round Up – Week 6

By Megan Roth

Gymnast of the Week

Congratulations to Florida junior Leanne Wong and Michigan graduate student Paul Juda, Inside Gymnastics Gymnast of the Week for Week 6!

Leanne Wong had an amazing performance in the All-Around, scoring 49.725, including a 10.0 on bars that helped Florida defeat Arkansas. 

Paul Juda posted a 86.200 in the All-Around in Michigan’s victory against Nebraska. This is currently the highest All-Around score posted in the entire nation this season! Juda’s standout event this week was vault, where he scored 15.100!

Team Rankings

Women’s NCAA Event Leaders:

All-Around: Haleigh Bryant (LSU) – 39.740

Vault: Sage Kellerman (Michigan State) – 9.950

Bars: Jordan Bowers (Oklahoma) – 9.942

Beam: Brooklyn Rowray (Minnesota) – 9.975

Floor: Raena Worley (Kentucky) – 9.958

Men’s NCAA Event Leaders: 

Note: Rankings are now averaging the 3 highest scores 

All-Around: Brandon Ngyuen (Stanford) – 80.767

Floor:Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) – 15.017

Pommel Horse: Ignacio Yockers (Oklahoma) – 15.033

Rings: Javier Alfonso (Michigan) – 14.767

Vault:  Paul Juda (Michigan) – 14.967

Parallel Bars: Josh Karnes (Penn State) – 14.633

High Bar: Kelton Christiansen (Oklahoma) – 14.200

Breakout for the Gators

Up until this week, Florida had not scored higher than a mid-197. This week, the Gators proved they are still rising, scoring 197.850, topping their previous best by almost four tenths!

Freshman Danie Ferris hit a big Yurchenko 1.5 and scored a career high 9.950. This was huge for Florida because Farris had been a bit inconsistent with her landings in previous weeks. It was amazing to see the freshman deliver in such a big moment, showing that she has more to give, as she had a career high 10.0 on vault in Level 10!

All-Arounders Leanne Wong (39.725) and Anya Pilgrim (39.600) were Florida’s MVPs this weekend, both putting up huge uneven bar scores. Pilgrim scored a 9.950 and Wong scored a 10.0, her first of the season as well as the first 10.0 for the Gators in 2024!

Gym Slam for Haleigh Bryant!

On Friday, Haleigh Bryant became the 14th NCAA gymnast (and the first LSU gymnast in program history) to record a Gym Slam – a perfect 10.0 on all four events! The perfect mark posted in the history books when she scored a 10.0 on beam on the road at Georgia, notching the final 10.0 she needed on her resume to complete the storied Gym Slam. See the full list here!

Big Floor Scores

After having to count two scores in the 9.6s on beam, Kentucky came back big in the final rotation of their dual meet against Missouri to score a program record 49.750 on floor!

Oklahoma also scored a program record 49.750 on floor, helping them score a season high 148.450 at their home quad meet against BYU, Utah State, and Texas Woman’s. 

Standout All-Around Performances

Denver senior Jessica Hutchinson posted a massive 39.825 All-Around score. She is now tied with Lynnzee Brown for the highest All-Around score in Denver program history! Her performance included a stuck Yurchenko 1.5 vault (9.975) and a 10.0 on floor. 

Cassie Stevens scored a huge 39.700 in the All-Around, helping Auburn defeat Alabama in a very competitive rivalry dual meet at home.

Oregon State freshman Sophia Esposito made her collegiate All-Around debut, scoring a 39.525, including a 9.950 on floor! Also for Oregon State, Olympic Champion Jade Carey competed in the All-Around for the first time this season and scored 39.625. 

History made for Talladega and Lindenwood

Talladega, one of this year’s brand new programs, won its first meet ever on Friday, defeating Alaska and Centenary College with a score of 192.200. This is close to 4.5 points higher than Talladega scored in its first meet, an amazing accomplishment for just five weeks of competition. Not only is this Talladega’s first win, but this is the first win ever for an HBCU gymnastics team!

In their last ever regular season home meet, Lindenwood broke their home score program record with a score of 196.075! Look for an in-depth story on Lindenwood in the March/April issue of Inside Gymnastics magazine and right here on InsideGym.com

Must-Watch Routines

Ohio State’s Ella Hodges performed a beautiful and unique beam routine, scoring a 9.950. 

Selena Harris scored a perfect 10 on her vault at UCLA’s meet against Oregon State. Haris has now scored two 10.0s in her career, both of them on vault. Because all of her events are so close to perfect, it’s hard to predict which event she will score a 10.0 on next!

All photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics

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