Makenna Merrell and Matthew Giles tied the knot on 14 July. Photograph: Makenna Merrell/Instagram
Utah’s junior Makenna Merrell got married last July and is now known as Makenna Merrell-Giles.
Merrell married boyfriend Matthew Giles on 14 July 2017 in her
home town, Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Merrell announced their engagement
on Instagram last March, when she
posted a picture of herself wearing her new engagement ring and passionately
kissing her fiancé.
Un post condiviso da MaKenna Merrell-Giles (@kenna_merrell) in data:
On her wedding day, Makenna was
wearing a beautiful white lace dress
with a train, while Matthew was wearing a black suit and a pink tie. Makenna’s
flower bouquet was also made of white and pink roses.
Un post condiviso da MaKenna Merrell-Giles (@kenna_merrell) in data:
Makenna Merrell-Giles is entering
her junior year at Utah. She has had
an outstanding career so far. She is a three-time NCAA All-American, a two-time
All-Pac-12 Conference and a NACGC Scholar All-American. She has a career highs
of 9.950 on floor, of 9.900 on beam and vault, and of 9.875 on bars. Her best
all around score is a 39.475, which came against UCLA on 18 February 2017.
Madison Kocian at the Rio Olympics. Photograph: YouTube
Olympic champion Madison Kocian, 20, underwent surgery
in August to repair a torn labrum,
the Daily Bruin reports. The operation was successful and Kocian is now slowly recovering.
Kocian injured her shoulder at the Olympic Trials in July 2016, but
managed it not only for the Olympic
Games in Rio, where she won a gold and a silver medal, but also for an
entire NCAA season with the Bruins,
during which she competed in the all around in twelve of UCLA’s fourteen meets.
In an interview with NBC last month,
Kocian explained that she had a hard time competing with a torn labrum every
week, but that she wanted to avoid surgery if possible.
Kocian competed for UCLA as a freshman during the 2017 season from January to mid-April. She
helped the Bruins finish fourth nationally at the Super Six, and, individually, she gained four All-America honours and became Regional champion on the uneven bars and on floor exercise. Kocian
also scored a perfect 10.o on the
uneven bars on 11 February against Stanford.
She is now starting her sophomore year as a UCLA Bruin. Doctors
cannot estimate the time of recovery at this stage, but Kocian is expected to
make a full recovery.
The BSU freshman class. Photograph: Tessa Otuafi/Twitter
Boise State had an outstanding 2017 season. They finished thirteenth overall in the national
ranking, and posted the highest score in school history, a 197.675 during the regular season against Denver. The Broncos also
had an outstanding academic year,
with fourteen out of their fifteen gymnasts earning scholastic All-American
honours, and with four gymnast finishing the year with a perfect 4.0 GPA. The four women were Mary Frances Bir (health sciences), Sandra Collantes (psychology), Courtney
McGregor (health sciences) and Abby
Webb (biology).
The Broncos said goodbye to three
outstanding seniors: Mackenzie Bennion,
who was the 2016 MRGC vault champion and, in her senior year, competed in all
eleven meets for the Broncos on vault, bars and floor; Diana Mejia, who contributed to the team especially on bars, and
was the 2017 MRGC Event Specialist of the Year and uneven bars champion; and Paige Urguhart, who competed mostly on
beam and floor, and scored a 9.800 or better in eight of her nine beam routines
in 2017.
Boise State has welcomed five new
promising freshmen: Gabriela Bouza-Lazo,
from Rio Rico, Arizona; Tatum Bruden,
from Peoria, Arizona; Emily Muhlenhaupt,
from Castle Rock, Colorado; Rachel
Obmann, from Roseville, California; and Tessa Otuafi, from Reno, Nevada.
GABRIELA
BOUZA-LAZO
Gabriela
Bouza-Lazo
trained first at Gym-Max and later
at Arizona Dynamics Gymnastics. She
is a 2017 Junior Olympic qualifier,
and finished twenty-sixth in the all around. Also in 2017, at the Arizona State
championships she won bronze on vault and bars and was sixth in the all around.
And at the 2017 Region 1 championships, she tied for third place on balance
beam and was seventh in the all around. Her best meet of 2017 was the Long
Beach Open, where Bouza-Lazo won the beam title, as well as bronze on vault and
in the all around.
Bouza-Lazo is strong on all
apparatuses, but she shines particularly on beam, where she presents some very clean, strong and pretty work,
which included a free-walkover into split jump and a BHSO + LOSO series. On floor, another strong apparatus for
her, she competes a double pike, a front layout into front full and a double
tuck. Bouza-Lazo is also good on vault,
where she competes a strong FTY.
TATUM
BRUDEN
Tatum
Bruden
did her club training at Arizona Sunrays.
She is a four-time Junior Olympic
qualifier (2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017). In 2013 she was twentieth in the all
around; in 2015 she was twenty-first; in 2016 she tied for twelfth in the all
around and for ninth on floor; and in 2017 she was thirteenth in the all around
and tied for ninth on bars. Bruden is a two-time Arizona State champion on
floor (2016 and 2017, both times tied), and in 2017 she was also second on
vault and third in the all around. Also in 2017, she had an outstanding
regional competition. At the Region 1 championships, she won gold both in the
all around and on beam, tied for bronze on vault and floor and was fourth on
bars.
Bruden is another strong all arounder. Her best apparatuses
are beam and vault. On beam, she has
a lot of difficulty, including a side somi, a BHSO + BHSO + back layout series,
a switch ring, a sheep jump, and a double twisting dismount. On vault, she competes both a Yurchenko
Arabian, which starts from a 10.0 D-score, and a FTY. Bruden is also strong on
floor and bars. On floor, she
performs a full-in, a half twist into full twist into front pike and a double
pike, and is training a double layout. And on bars, she can perform a full pirouette and a double layout
dismount.
EMILY
MUHLENHAUPT
Emily
Muhlenhaupt
trained at Colorado Aerials Gymnastics
Center. She competed as an elite gymnast at the Secret U.S. Classic in 2013 in
the junior division. As a Level 10 gymnast, she is a two-time Junior Olympic qualifier (2013 and 2015). In 2015 she tied
for bronze on bars and finished eighth in the all around. In 2017 she competed
at the Colorado State championships, where she won the bars title and was
fourteenth in the all around. Her best meet of 2017 was the Denver Winterfest
Classic, where she won gold both on bars and on beam.
Muhlenhaupt is another fantastic all arounder and is clean and
precise on all apparatuses. On bars,
she competes a Jaeger to shoot-over and a double tuck dismount. On floor, she performs a double tuck, a one-and-a-half
twist into front pike and a double twist. On beam, she competes a BHSO + LOSO series, a switch leap into back
tuck, a sheep jump, a free-cartwheel and a double twisting dismount. Finally,
on vault she competes a beautiful
FTY.
RACHEL
OBMANN
Rachel
Obmann
did her club training at Byers
Gymnastics Center II. She is the 2017
Region 1 bronze medallist (tied) on vault, the 2016 bronze medallist on
floor and the 2015 silver medallist on floor. Since she started competing as a
Level 10 in 2015, Obmann has always won at least one medal at the Northern
Californian State championships. In 2015 she tied for gold on floor exercise;
in 2016, by far her best competition, she won gold in the all around, on vault
and on bars, silver on floor and bronze on beam; in 2017 she competed only on
bars and won a bronze medal.
Obmann is also a strong all arounder, but stands out on floor, because she is a real performer. She competes a double
twist into back tuck, a full-in, a double tuck and a double spin, but she
excels in her presentation and choreography. She will become a crowd favourite! Obmann is also very
strong on vault, where she competes
a very high FTY. She also excellent on beam and bars. On beam she competes a BHSO + LOSO series, a free-cartwheel and side full-twisting
dismount. And on bars she performs a
Tkatchev, shoot over and a double tuck dismount in combination. Already during
her club career, she seemed to feel the team
spirit – she will be fun to watch next year!
TESSA
OTUAFI
Tessa
Otuafi
trained at Flip USA Gymnastics, and
started competing as a Level 10 gymnast in 2014. She competed at the Region 1 championships in 2014, 2015
and 2016 and improved steadily every year. In 2014 she was seventeenth on floor
and twenty-fourth in the all around; in 2015 she tied for eleventh on vault and
was twentieth in the all around; and in 2016 she was sixth on vault, tied for
sixth also on floor and was sixteenth in the all around. Otuafi won a silver
medal on vault at the 2014 Nevada State championships and tied for another
silver medal on balance beam at the same competition.
Outafi is very strong on vault, beam
and floor. On vault, she competes a
very high and precise half-twisting Yurchenko. On beam, she performs a free-cartwheel and a BHSO + LOSO +
full-twisting dismount. And on floor,
she performs a double pike, a half twist into full twist and a double tuck.
Oregon State's three freshmen. Photograph: Kaitlyn Yanish/Instagram
The 2018 NCAA season is still
months away, but it is never too early to start knowing the incoming freshman class for each team.
This is both a way to begin thinking of potential
lineups, and a way to get to know
less well-known gymnasts and their routines.
At
the end of last season the Beavers said goodbye to five outstanding seniors: Erika Aufiero, who hit 84 out of 91
routines in her career, and is the 2017 Pac-12 uneven bars champion with a
score of 9.950; Silvia Colussi-Palaez,
who hit 27 out of her 29 routines in her career, and had a career-high of 9.925
on bars; Madeline Gardiner, who is a
four-time NCAA All-American and a two-time Regular Season All-American; Megan Jimenez, who had career-highs of
9.850s on both beam and floor; Kaytianna
McMillan, who is the 2017 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year, a 2017 AAI Award
finalist and scored a perfect 10.0 on the uneven bars; and Taylor Ricci, who hit 48 out of 49 routines in her career and had a
career-high of 9.875 on floor exercise.
Oregon
State is welcoming three new freshmen: Savanna
Force, from Reno, Nevada; Alexis
Gonzales, from Newport Beach, California; and Kaitlyn Yanish, from Chandler, Arizona. They are also welcoming Lacy Dagen, from Pleasanton,
California, who is a junior transfer from Florida.
SAVANNA FORCE
Savanna Force trained at Deltchev Gymnastics Academy. She has
competed as a Level 10 gymnast since 2014. Force is the 2017 Nevada State floor champion, and the 2017 bronze
medallist on floor at the Region 1 Championships. Force’s most successful
competition in 2017 was the Deltchev
Classic, where she won the floor title, was second on vault and in the all
around, third on bars and fourth on beam. Force competed at the Nevada State
championships also in 2015, where she won bronze medals both on vault and on
beam.
Force’s
best apparatus is floor. She
competes a double pike, a full twist into full twist and a one-and-a-half-twist
into front layout, as well as some beautiful splits. She also competes a very
good FTY on vault, a Tkachev on bars and, on beam, she is training a BHSO + LOSO + LOSO.
ALEXIS GONZALES
Alexis Gonzales trained at Gym-Max until 2015 and at Wildfire Gymnastics in 2016 and 2017.
She has been competed as a Level 10 gymnast since 2015. Gonzales competed at
the Southern California State
championships in 2017, where she finished second on vault and beam, fourth
on floor and fifth in the all around. A month later she competed at the 2017 Region 1 championships, where she
tied for bronze on balance beam. In 2017 Gonzales also won two gold medals on
balance beam at the San Diego Classic
in January and at the Daytona Beach
Classic in February.
Gonzales
excels on bars, where she competes a
Jaeger, a Pak salto and a double tuck dismount. She is also very good on beam, where she performs a free-walkover
into back-handspring step-out series and a front full-twisting dismount. On floor, she is a twister. She competes a
two-and-a-half-twist into front pike, a front layout into front pike and a
front full twist. She has a beautiful choreography and presentation.
KAITLYN YANISH
Kaitlyn Yanish trained at Arizona Dynamics Gymnastics. She is a four-consecutive-time Junior Olympic
qualifier (2014-2017). At the 2014 J.O.
National Invitational Tournament, she won bronze in the all around and was
fourth on bars. At the J.O. National Championships in 2015, she won gold on bars, tied for gold on floor and was fourth
in the all around. In 2016, she
finished once again fourth in the all around. And in 2017, she tied for second in the all around, and was fourth on
vault ad floor (tied). In 2017, Yanish also competed at the Arizona State
championships, where she won the all around and the bars beam and floor (tied)
titles. And at the Region 1 championships, she won gold in the all around,
vault and floor, silver on bars and tied for bronze on beam.
Yanish
is an excellent all arounder. On floor, she competes a double layout, a full
twist into front layout and a double tuck. On beam, she performs some original work: a BHSO + LOSO series, a
switch-leap into LOSO and a BHSO into one-and-a-half twisting dismount. On bars, she competes a shoot-over to the
low bars and a double layout dismount. Finally, on vault she performs a high FTY.
*LACY DAGEN
Lacy Dagen did her club training
at San Mateo Gymnastics, and
competed as an elite gymnast in 2012. She spent her first two college season as
a Florida Gator. She sat out her
freshman season (2016) due to a torn ACL
and missed most of last season (2017) due to a torn meniscus, which required
surgery in February. She competed for Florida only once, on vault, in 2017 and scored a very good 9.850. Dagen was released from Florida
on a medical scholarship at the end of last season and soon afterwards she
announced on Twitter her commitment
to the Beavers for her junior year. She wrote: ‘There's another beaver in the
Dagen house!!! I'm excited to announce that I will be continuing my academics
and gymnastics at Oregon State University in the fall. Very grateful for this
opportunity!!’ Lacy’s sisterMadison also competes for Oregon State
and will graduate in 2018.
Dagen’s
best apparatus is beam. During her
club career, she used to compete a free-walkover, a sheep jump, a BHSO + LOSO
series and BHSO + back-handspring + one-and-a-half-twisting dismount. Danger is
however very good also on the other three apparatuses. On bars, she used to compete a Ray and a Pak salto. On floor, she competed a one-and-a-half twist into double tuck, full twist into front layout and a double
pike. Finally, on vault she competes
a high FTY. Due to her recent leg injuries, she may be forced to modify her
routines, but she has plenty of potential to be key to the Beavers.
The 2018 NCAA season is still months away, but it is never too early to
start knowing the incoming freshman
class for each team. This is both a way to begin thinking of potential lineups, and a way to get to know less well-known gymnasts
and their routines.
Stanford had a disappointing 2017 season, ending only twenty-eighth in the national ranking. The Cardinals’ future,
however, looks bright. Stanford just appointed former Cardinal standout Tabitha Yim as new head coach, and is
welcoming one of the most accredited
freshman classes in the nation for the 2018 season.
In honour of Tabitha Yim’s home return, here is a breakdown of the new Cardinal
recruits.
Stanford said goodbye to four great seniors:
Rachel Daum, who was a three-time
Pac-12 All-Academic, and had career highs of 9.900 or better on vault, beam and
floor; Danielle McNair, who has
career-highs of 9.900s on both vault and bars; Nicolette McNair, Danielle’s twin sister and the Pac-12 Freshman of
the Year in 2014, who had career highs of 9.900 or better on vault, beam and
floor; and Hailey Spector, who
missed most of the 2017 season due to injury, but had a floor career-high of
9.925.
Stanford has welcomed seven new
freshmen: Kyla Bryant, from Lake
Oconee, Georgia; Rachel Flam, from
Huston, Texas; Grace Garcia, from
New York City, New York; Taylor Lawson,
from Macungie, Pennsylvania; Lauren
Navarro, from La Verne, California; Catherine
Rogers, from Sandy, Utah; Caroline
Spertus, from Los Angeles, California.
KYLA
BRYANT
Kyla
Bryant
trained at Georgia Elite Gymnastics.
She was a three-time Junior Olympic
qualifier (2014, 2015 and 2016), and won medals at all three of them. In
2014, she was second on floor and eighth in the all around. In 2015, she was
third in the all around and on beam, and fourth on all other three apparatuses.
And in 2016, her best year, she won the all around, bars and floor. In 2016,
Bryant also competed at the Nastia
Liukin Cup, where she won bars and was tenth in the all around.
Bryant is an exceptional all
arounder, and is renowned for her amplitude and difficulty. On vault, she
performs a FTY. On bars, she has pretty lines, good handstands, and competes a Tkachev,
a beautiful Pak salto and a huge full-in dismount. On beam, she competes a BHSO
+ LOSO, a switch ring, a front tuck and a huge dismount, two back-handsprings
into double tuck. Finally, on floor she shows off plenty of power and
personality. She performs a double layout, a front tuck indirectly connected to
a double pike and an open double tuck – wow! She reminds me of a mix between
Alabama’s Aja Sims and Cal’s Toni-Ann Williams!
RACHEL
FLAM
Rachel
Flam
trained at Stars Gymnastics Training
Center. She is a six-time Junior
Olympic qualifier, from 2011 to 2016. In 2012 she was second on vault and
fourth on bars. In 2013 she was first on vault and fifth on beam. In 2014 she
won the bars title. In 2015 she won gold on vault and tied for fourth place on
bars. And in 2016 she won both the all around at the vault titles, and was
third on beam and on floor (tied). She competed twice at the Nastia Liukin Cup, in 2016 and 2017. In
2016 she was third in the all around, second on beam and tied for third on
vault. In 2017 she was tenth in the all around, third on floor and tied for
gold on vault. Flam also competed as an elite
gymnast during the 2014 season, and was both at the Secret U.S. Classic and at the P&G
championships.
Flam is another exceptional power
athelte. On floor, she has plenty of difficulty: a double Arabian, a front pike
indirectly connected to a double pike and a huge double pike to end. On beam,
she performs a BHSO + layout to two feet, a switch leap to switch leap half, a
front tuck and a very difficult double pike dismount. On bars, she competes a
Jaeger and a very hard full-twisting double layout dismount. Finally, her vault
is a Yurchenko half on front pike, which is worth a 10.0 D-score.
GRACE
GARCIA
Grace
Garcia
trained at NYC Elite. She competed
at the J.O. National Championships
in 2015, where she tied for eleventh on floor exercise. Also in 2015, at the
New York State Championships, she was second on vault and sixth in the all
around. And at the Region 6 Championships later that year, she won gold on
vault. In 2016 she competed at the Little Boston Invitational, where she tied
for gold on beam, was second on bars and seventh in the all around and floor.
Garcia is the third power athlete of
the field, and will contribute greatly especially on floor and vault. On floor,
she performs a full-in pike, a one-and-a-half twist into front pike and a
double pike. And on vault, she solidly competed a super difficult Tsukahara
full!
TAYLOR
LAWSON
Taylor
Lawson
trained at Parkettes, one of the
most ancient and well-renowned gyms in the United States. Lawson competed at
the J.O. National Championships in
2016, where she tied for third on floor and was fourth in the all around. In
2016 she was also the Pennsylvania State champion on floor exercise and bronze
medallist on vault, as well as Region 7 champion on floor and bronze medallist
in the all around. In 2017, Lawson competed at the Pink Invitational, where she
won gold in the all around and on all events but beam, where she was second,
and at the Pennsylvania State Meet, where she was second in the all around and
on all apparatuses but bars, where she was third. Lawson also competed as an elite gymnast in 2014 and 2015. In 2014
she competed at both the Secret U.S.
Classic and the P&G
Championships, while in 2015 she competed only at the Secret U.S. Classic,
where she was tenth in the all around and eleventh on beam.
Lawson, as a former elite athlete,
has plenty of skills to choose from on all apparatuses. On floor, she is
capable of competing a full twisting double back, a double Arabian, a one-and-a-half
twist into double tuck and a double pike. On vault, she competes a FTY. On
bars, she performs a Maloney to switch over to the low bar, a Jaeger and a
difficult double Arabian dismount. She has good form and handstands throughout.
Finally, on balance beam, she can compete a stunning and very high standing
Arabian, a switch leap to switch leap half, a front tuck, a back tuck, a Johnson
leap, a BHSLO + LOSO series and a double tuck dismount.
LAUREN
NAVARRO
Lauren
Navarro
trained at Charter Oak Gymnastics. A
member of the 2015 U.S. senior national
team and an alternate to the 2015 Pan American Games team, Navarro competed
four consecutive years both at the Secret
U.S. Classic (2013-2016) and at the P&G
Championships (2013-2016). She finished sixth in the all around at the 2016
Secret U.S. Classic and eighth on beam at the same competition in 2015. She
also won bronze on beam at the 2014
P&G Championships. Navarro competed her 2017 season as a Level 10
gymnast. She qualified to the J.O.
National Championships, where she won the beam title, was second in the all
around, tied for second on floor and for fourth on vault.
Navarro is another exceptional all
arounder with an elite foundation. On floor, she competes a sky-high double
pike, a one-and-a-half twist into front layout and a double tuck. On balance
beam, she competes a BHSO + LOSO + LOSO, a front tucked somersault, a
free-walkover and a double tuck dismount. On bars, she competes a Tkachev into
Pak salto, a Yao transition, and a full-in dismount. On vault, she currently
competes a FTY, but she is capable of a DTY!
CATHERINE
ROGERS
Catherine
Rogers
trained at All American Gymnastics.
She is a three-time J.O. national
qualifier (2014-2016). Her best results came in 2015, when she won bronze
both in the all around and on vault. In 2017 she competed at the Utah State
championships, where she won gold on beam, tied for gold on floor, and won
bronze in the all around and on bars. She later competed at the Region 1
Championships, where she tied for third both on vault and on beam, and was
eighth in the all around.
Rogers, like Caroline Spertus (below),
is not as much a power athlete, but an elegant and poised gymnast. Her best
apparatus is beam, where she competes a BHSO + LOSO, a switch leap half, a full
turn with the leg held horizontal, a free-walkover, a free-cartwheel and a
double twist dismount. Her performance is very poised and her form is beautiful,
she is a real beamer! Rogers is also a good floor worker. She competes a double
tuck, a beautiful switch ring, a one-and-a-half-twist into front layout, a double
twist and a double spin with leg held horizontal. She has excellent
choreography and presentation.
CAROLINE
SPERTUS
Caroline
Spertus
trained at Broadway Gymnastics. In
2013, as a Level 9 gymnast, she won gold on floor at the Region 1 Championships
and silver on beam at the Level 9 Western Gymnastics Championships. Spertus
turned Level 10 in 2014, and competed at the Region 1 Championships, where she
finished seventh on beam. She achieved the same result in 2015, while she
dramatically climbed the rankings in 2015, winning silver on beam. In 2017
Spertus competed at the Lady Luck Invitational, where she won the beam title.
Spertus’s best apparatus is also beam,
where she presents some very original work. She competes a cat leap into switch
ring, a BHSO + LOSO and a switch leap into front layout dismount. On floor, she
performs a double pike, a beautiful switch ring, a front layout into front layout
and a double tuck.
Tabitha Yim is the new Stanford head coach. Photograph: Tabitha Yim/Twitter
Stanford
University
has appointed former Cardinal star Tabitha
Yim as the new head coach of the women’s gymnastics programme. The call
came about twenty days after former head coach Kristen Smyth, who spent sixteen successful years at Stanford,
announced her decision to step down from her position.
Yim competed for Stanford as a college-athlete from 2005 to 2008. She
is the most decorated Cardinal in
history, with 14 All-America honours and placing in the top 10 in the NCAA
all around competition all four years. Yim also twice won Pac-12 and NCAA
Regional all around titles, and was named Pac-12 and Regional Gymnast of the Year
in her senior season.
Prior to joining Stanford in 2004,
Yim was a member of theU.S. national gymnastics team. She was
a member of the U.S. team that won bronze at the 2001 World championships, as
well as U.S. champion on floor in 2001 and on beam in 2002. In 2004 she competed
also at the U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing fourth in the all around.
After graduating in human biology from Stanford in 2008,
Yim spent two years teaching in school. She then moved back to gymnastics as a
coach, first as an assistant coach at
Stanford from 2011 to 2015, and then as head coach at Arizona in 2016 and 2017.
During her years at Stanford as an
assistant coach, she helped the team achieve its two highest scores in NCAA Championship history, a 197.500 at
the 2012 Super Six and a 197.250 at the 2015 Super Six.
‘I want to thank [Director of
Athletics] Bernard Muir and the staff at Stanford for this opportunity’, said
Yim, gostanford.com reports. ‘I am
thrilled to be returning home to The Farm, and am passionate about carrying on
the amazing legacy of this program and university.
‘I had an incredible scholar-athlete
experience at Stanford shaped by the coaches, faculty, and staff who were
committed to my development as a student, athlete and person. I will forever
remain thankful for the support of John Court, David McCreary and the Arizona
staff, and I am grateful to Bernard and the Stanford family for entrusting me
with the responsibility of leading this program towards continued success.’
Bernard
Muir
also had words of praise for Yim: ‘I couldn't be more pleased to welcome
Tabitha back to The Farm. Her credentials as a gymnast and a coach speak for
themselves, and I know she's ready to help our student-athletes reach their
full potential in the gym, in the classroom, and in their lives beyond campus.’
Stanford had a disappointing 2017 season, marred by a lot of injuries, and ended
only twenty-eighth in the national
ranking. The Cardinals’ future, however, looks bright. They are welcoming seven new talented freshmen for the
2018 season, and they are hoping to have their star Elizabeth Price back to full form for her senior season.
Sydney Townsend is one of the four new talented freshmen for Michigan. Photograph: Milton Springers Gymnastics/Instagram
The 2018 NCAA season is still
months away, but it is never too early to start knowing the incoming freshman class for each team.
This is both a way to begin thinking of potential
lineups, and a way to get to know
less well-known gymnasts and their routines.
The Wolverines said goodbye to two outstanding seniors: Talia Chiarelli and Nicole Artz. Artz, an eight-time
All-American and the 2017 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, was an outstanding all
arounder for Michigan, capable of scoring 9.950 or better on all apparatuses.
Her best scores were a 9.950 on vault and beam, a 9.975 on bars and a perfect
10.0 on floor, which came last season against Illinois. Chiarelli, the 2016
Regional champion on floor exercise and the 2017 Big Ten champion on balance
beam, was an asset for the Wolverines on vault, beam and floor. Her best score
on vault was a 9.925, while her best scores on beam and floor were two
outstanding 9.975s.
These two outstanding seniors are
hard to replace, but Michigan will welcome four new equally outstanding freshmen:
Lauren Farley, from Dallas, Texas; Carly Gordon, from New York City, New
York; Samanta Javanbakht, from
Virginia; and Sydney Townsend, from
Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
LAUREN
FARLEY
Lauren
Farley trains
at WOGA, the famous gym that
produced Olympic champions Carly
Patterson, Nastia Liukin and Madison
Kocian, as well as such NCAA stars as UCLA’s Katelyn Ohashi and Oklahoma’s Natalie
Brown.
Farley is a two-time J.O. National qualifier (2015 and 2017). In 2015 she
finished first on bars and second in the all around and on balance beam. In
2017 she was again second on beam, as well as eighth on floor and ninth in the
all around. Farley won an astonishing
number of medals at State and Regional championships. In 2015, at the State championships, she
won both the all around and the uneven bars titles. At Regionals later that
year, she won gold on beam and silver in the all around and on bars. In 2016, at the State championships, she
won bars and beam, and was second in the all around and on floor, while at
Regionals she was third on vault. In 2017,
at the State championships, she was first on bars and beam, second in the all
around and third on vault and floor. Finally, at Regionals this year, she won
gold on bars, silver in the all around and on beam, and bronze on vault and floor.
Farley also competed as a junior elite gymnast in 2013 at the Secret U.S. Classic, where she tied for
ninth place on the uneven bars.
Farley is an incredibly talented all arounder, and will easily
replace Nicole Artz as one of the
best gymnasts on the team. She is very strong and clean on all four apparatuses.
On bars, she performs a Tkachev, a
piked Jaeger and a difficult double front dismount. On beam, she competes a free-walkover into leap jump, a BHSO + LOSO
series, a switch leap into back tuck and a one-and-a-half twisting dismount. On
floor, her tumbling passes are a
double tuck, a one-and-a-half twist into front layout and a double pike, but
she also has potential for some upgrades, and she has beautiful pointed toes
and foot work typical of WOGA gymnasts. Finally, on vault she competes a difficult layout Arabian from a Yurchenko entry, which starts from a 10.0 in
the NCAA. She will be a treat to watch!
CARLY
GORDON
Carly
Gordon trains
at Chelsea Piers Gymnastics. She has
been training as a Level 10 gymnast since 2012.
Gordon competed at the J.O. National Championships in 2014, where she finished fifty-fifth in
the all around. That year at the State championships, she was second on beam,
fourth on bars and fifth in the all around. And later at Regionals she did even
better, finishing third in the all around, second on beam and tied for third on
bars. In 2016, at the State
championships, she finished ninth in the all around and on beam, and tied for
eighth on bars. Later that year at Regionals, she finished third on the uneven
bars and ninth in the all around. In 2017
she competed at the Manhattan Classic,
where she won silver in the all around and on bars, and tied for gold on
balance beam.
Gordon is a solid beam worker. She competes a difficult back-handspring
step-out into layout to two feet, a switch leap into back-handspring step-out
and a very difficult three-quarter leap. On bars, she competes a Pak salto and a double tuck dismount. On vault, she competes a Yurchenko layout.
And on floor her tumbling passes are
a double tuck, a half twist into front layout and a one-and-a-half twist, and
has tons of potential. Overall, she is a very
solid gymnast, exactly what Michigan needs.
SAMANTA
JAVANBAKHT
Samanta
Javanbakht trains
at Capital Gymnastics National Center.
She has competed as a Level 10 gymnast since 2014.
Javanakht is a two-time J.O. National qualifier (2016 and 2017). In 2016 she finished twenty-seventh on
beam and fifty-third in the all around. In 2017
she tied for twenty-sixth on bars, for thirtieth on beam and was forty-fifth in
the all around. In 2016, at the
State championships, she won bronze on floor, and was ninth in the all around.
At Regionals later that year, she was seventh both on bars and in the all
around. In 2017, at the State
champioships, she won silver in the all around and on floor, and was fourth on
bars and beam (tied). At the Region 7 championships, she finished fifth on
floor, tied for seventh in the all around and for tenth on vault, and was tenth
also on bars and beam.
Javanbakht is a very solid performer on all apparatuses, and has great potential
for upgrades and improvement. On vault,
she performs a Yurchenko layout. On bars,
she competes a Jaeger, a full pirouette, a shoot over to low bar and a double
tuck dismount. She lacks a bit of confidence on beam, but she produces some beautiful and unique work, including a BHSO to layout to two feet, a leap jump into
back pike and one-and-a-half-twisting dismount. Finally, on floor, she competes a one-and-a-half twist into front layout, a
front layout into front full and a high double pike. She has exquisite presentation, with beautiful pointed toes and
extended arm work.
SYDNEY
TOWNSEND
Sydney
Townsend trains
at Milton Springers Gymnastics and
is a member of the Canadian national
team.
Townsend made her elite debut as a junior in 2011,
winning silver on vault and placing fourth on beam and seventh in the all
around at the Canadian championships.
In 2014, she represented Canada internationally both at the junior Pan-American Games and at the Youth Olympic Games. At the
Pan-American Games she won gold with the team and finished fourth on balance
beam. At the Youth Olympic Games she placed seventh on vault and floor and
twelfth in the all around. In 2015,
she was selected to represent Canada at the World championships in Glasgow, and helped her team qualify for the
Olympic Games in sixth place. In 2016, she competed at Elite Canada, where she finished fifth on floor and seventeenth in
the all around, and at the International
Gymnix Senior Cup, where she placed third with the team.
Townsend’s best apparatus is vault, as she performs a clean and beautiful
one-and-a-half-twisting Yurchenko. She is also very talented on floor and
balance beam. On floor, she competes
a double Arabian, a double tuck and a two-and-a-half twist. On beam, she is very solid and presents
some unique elements. She competes a beautiful sheep jump, a switch leap half, a
free cartwheel to two feet, BHSO into back tuck series and a front tuck.
Finally, Townsend has potential also on bars,
where she competes a Tkatchev, a Gienger, a full pirouette and a full-in
dismount.
