Hello everyone, and welcome back to Gymnastics Insider!
The big news of the week is that Great American Gymnastics Express (GAGE) has lost its USA Gymnastics member club status. This means any current GAGE athletes are not eligible to compete at USAG events until they transfer to a new, USAG-member club.
According to a letter sent to GAGE parents, USAG revoked the club’s membership because of a failure to comply with the terms of coach suspensions. Al Fong and Armine Barutyan were suspended in December, and coaches Karla Grimes and Tiffany Davenport were suspended this month.
The letter does not specify what terms were violated. But internet sleuths noticed Fong appearing in his gym on local news at one point. The letter also clarifies the issue of gym ownership as completely separate from the suspension. This means that regardless of who owns the gym, if a coach is suspended, they can’t set foot inside the building.
Needless to say, while the suspensions are a welcome development after decades of rumors surrounding the gym, this is still crap for the athletes. They now have a week to find a new gym, as USAG has given them until March 2 to comply. Any registrations they had to compete at events after that date have been canceled.
This impacts a few active elites, including senior Annalisa Milton, who will head to LSU in the fall, and senior Kaylee Sath, both of whom just competed at the Winter Cup. New senior Lavi Crain and her sister, junior elite Vivi Crain, are also GAGE gymnasts, along with junior national team member Aulya Daniels.
Upcoming senior elite meets include the American Classic and U.S. Classic this summer, and nationals in August. There’s time for elites to get started at new gyms, though gymnasts at lower levels aren’t so lucky.
NCAA standings and schedule
After week 8 (NQS):
Oklahoma 197.938
LSU 197.735
Alabama 197.570
Florida 197.480
UCLA 197.450
Our two top-ranked teams met over the weekend, with LSU traveling to Oklahoma for what could be a preview of this year’s Four on the Floor. Oklahoma took the win with a 198.1250 over LSU’s 197.9250, with Kailin Chio earning 10s on vault and floor. Now, she’s just a bars 10 away from a gym slam.
Meanwhile, Morgan Price scored a 10 on vault for Arkansas — the program’s first 10 ever — which tied with Kentucky with a 197.1250.
Yesterday featured Georgia at Kentucky; Auburn at Oklahoma; Arizona State, Fisk, and Florida at Texas Woman’s University; Alabama at LSU; and Iowa, Maryland, and Ohio State at UCLA.
Tonight we’ll see Michigan, Nebraska, and Washington at Penn State; and Sunday we’ll see Arkansas at Missouri; Utah at Denver; Illinois, Michigan State, and Rutgers at Minnesota; and Alabama, Arizona, LSU, and North Carolina.
Full standings and schedule at Road to Nationals, and CollegeGymNews has a recap.
Elite competition news
Winter Cup
Winter Cup happened!
This was a good meet to shake off cobwebs. Nobody was perfect, and that’s probably a good thing (save those ankles, ladies!). Following the competition, the national team was named and some athletes got international assignments.
Olympic gold medalist Hezly Rivera won the all-around with a 56.750, also earning the highest scores on beam and floor. She had a strong DTY with just a bunny hop forward. On bars, she hit a clean routine featuring a Maloney + Tkatchev combination. She missed a couple of connections on beam, but hit, and damn, are her ring positions pretty.
Finally, on floor she hit her lovely, laid-out full-in with just a bit of a pike in a nice routine that could use some cleanup on the landings.
It looks like she’s back to form, and my fingers are crossed we’ll finally see her at worlds this year.
Charleigh Bullock took second in her senior debut with a 55.200, including the top score of the night, a 14.400 for a gorgeous bars set that has a lot of potential for connections. She looked a bit nervous on beam (who isn’t) but hit, and I applaud her for managing to make a side somi look somewhat pretty. Her floor was hit, though she wasn’t solid on any landings, including on her opening full in. She finished with a beautiful FTY that definitely has room for more twisting.
Claire Pease kicked off her second year as a senior with a strong performance, earning a 54.350 to place third all-around and winning the vault title with a 14.250 for her clean DTY and Lopez. Her bars were a bit more timid — she showed off her incredible extension on her straddled skills, but stumbled forward on her double front dismount (Valeri rolled his eyes). She looked a bit rattled on beam as well, but hit, including a gorgeous bhs + loso + loso series. Her floor started off with a tucked double-double landed short. Then, it looked like she was bouncing out of the rest of her landings, perhaps to protect those aforementioned ankles.
Reese Esponda placed fourth with a 54.000, including a 14.300 for a strong DTY. On floor, she opened with a gorgeous whip to double layout. She also does a bizarre (in the best way) front pike half straight into a double tuck, taking second there. I love it.
Bullock, Rivera, and Pease will compete for Team USA at the American Cup. Bullock will also compete in Jesolo at the end of March, along with Esponda, Greta Krob, Caroline Moreau, and Simone Rose.
Cottbus World Cup
The story from Cottbus is the athletes from Russia, who cleaned up. Anna Kalmykova won vault with a 13.816 average, and floor with a 13.333. Milana Kayumova took silver on bars with a 14.133 behind Italy’s Elisa Iorio, and beam bronze with a 13.400.
Kaylia Nemour fell on bars, which is a damn shame. But, she earned an incredible 15.200 — over a point ahead of the next-ranked athlete — in qualifications. So she’s got that on the books.
She had what I assume was an angry beam to earn silver there with a 13.833. Chuso did lower-difficulty vaults to place seventh with a 12.999 average.
The Apparatus World Cup series consists of six events starting in Cottbus, Germany and ending in Doha in mid-April. At the end of the series, the top eight eligible athletes in each apparatus will earn a spot at worlds. Athletes will be ranked by their best four results. Check out the current rankings at The Gymternet.
March 5-8 Baku Apparatus World Cup
Alice D’Amato, Kaylia Nemour, Chusovitina, Kalmykova, and Laila Vasileva are on the nominative roster for the second Apparatus World Cup of the season, but the list is three weeks old at this point, so we’ll see who shows up.
March 7 American Cup
International roster, U.S. roster
The meet previously known as Scam is back. Hezly Rivera is the favorite for an American win, but if they do what they’re capable of, Charleigh Bullock and Claire Pease will be right on her tail.
I’m very excited to see 2025 world all-around bronze medalist and beam winner Zhang Qingying on the roster; if she’s in top form, this will make for a thrilling competition. World floor bronze medalist Abigail Martin from Great Britain will challenge here as well, along with Japan’s Kishi Rina, who took sixth in the all-around.
Five at the IX: Kailin Chio
Kailin Chio talked to ESPN following her all-around win at last weekend’s LSU-Oklahoma matchup.
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports |
| Fridays: Hockey |
| By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden |
| Saturdays: Gymnastics |
| By: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer |