DU’s All-American gymnast junior Lynnzee Brown formally acknowledged on Twitter that she is out for the remainder of the season. A lower-body injury, reportedly an Achilles tendon, was sustained during the final floor exercise at Magness Arena this past weekend. On her final pass of the afternoon during her floor routine she landed awkwardly and was carried from the arena.
Thank you for all the well wishes! I’m excited to cheer on my team the rest of season and work towards a strong recovery! ❤️💛#meraki @ University of Denver https://t.co/rgTn4zgXFp
— Lynnzee Brown (@lynnzeeb4) February 20, 2020
Brown has a number of notable achievements since coming to DU. She was the 2019 NCAA co-Champion on floor exercise – the second NCAA title in program history. She also holds the co-record for Denver’s highest All-Around Score (39.775). Recently, February 10th, she was awarded the Big 12 Gymnast of the Week.
This is a major loss for Denver, ranked 5th in the country, expected to compete for a national team championship. Brown would have been a major threat to defend her individual floor national championship from last season as well.
While head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart has a deep squad, Brown’s loss for the season will be deeply felt by the Pioneer team and fans.
Top photo courtesy of University of Denver Athletics
What a terrible blow for Lynzee. Hope she heals quickly and painlessly.
The best to Lynzee in her recovery. She will be missed. Keep the faith.
I wish DU was a bit more timely and transparent with public injury disclosure and prognosis in all DU sports. I understand there are healthcare privacy rules and regulations around what can be disclosed, but if the NFL can do it each week as well as they do, I think D-I colleges sports should follow that disclosure example to the extent they are able.
Lynnzee Brown was injured Feb 16 and DU announced the injury update two 2 days later on the 18th. That’s a long time for anxious fans to wait, but I’ll cut them some slack since there was President’s Day in-between. In hockey’s case, we’re still waiting on a report on the extent of Bobby Brink and Jaakko Heikenen’s injuries a full week after the injuries happened. I’m sure DU knows what’s up by now, but they are keeping the information to themselves.
I get that the coaches have little to gain by disclosing the injuries as they don’t want to tip the next opponent, an old hockey tradition. But I also believe the fans who buy the tickets, support the program and help to keep the enterprise afloat should be informed about injuries in a reasonable timeframe. They don’t have to be specific (saying upper body/lower body) is fine, but at least let us know how long the player is expected to be out of the lineup…