Led by a perfect 10.0 on the bars from all-American senior Lynzee Brown, #9 Denver Gymnastics shocked #1 University of Oklahoma in Morgantown, West Virginia, 197.350 to 197.125 in the Big XII Championships, marking the first loss at the Big XII Championships for the Sooners in nine years. #22 Iowa State and host West Virginia finished third and fourth, respectively. DU had been tied with OU heading into the final rotation, and now awaits its assignment for the upcoming NCAA regionals.
DU had finished the regular season on an upward swing by defeating BYU on March 11th with the Pioneers’ best road score ever. The momentum carried over to this weekend’s conference title against the heavily-favored Sooners. Today’s win, DU’s first-ever Big XII title, is Denver’s greatest gymnastic achievement since 2019, when Denver finished fourth nationally at the NCAA Championships.
Lynzee Brown led the Pioneer charge with a rare 10.0 score on the bars and a 9.875 on the beam. The DU star is best known for her floor routine. Former DU gymnastics star Maddie Karr had this to say about Brown’s performance in leading coach Melissa Kutcher’s team:
This is what sports are all about. Lynnzee is the BEST gymnast in the country and @DU_Gymnastics are forever 2021 BIG 12 CHAMPS. Congratulations to the amazing senior leadership and the whole teams resiliency. #RollPios https://t.co/IKqOskuK87
— Maddie Wadman (@maddie_karr) March 20, 2021
Congratulations to Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart and Denver gymnastics for a BIG XII title.
This was an epic win for Denver!
Anytime you beat the #1 team in the country in anything, it’s historic. Lynzee Brown may be the greatest DU gymnast of all time when her career ends in a couple of more meets.
Great to see the DU women doing well after a Covid-affected season that really-affected DU’s scores in prior meets due to gymnasts missing from the lineup for Covid protocols. Nice to see the Pios peaking when it matters…
Proud of Mellisa and her staff and all the coaching they do – DU doesn’t get the most sought-after national recruits that some other schools get, so seeing the Pios beating the best with Pioneer recruits is really special.
Wow, had to read the headline twice to process it. Great accomplishment…epic…congrats, Pioneers!!!!
Simply FANTASTIC !!!
Holy cow! What an accomplishment! Hell of a way to enter the NCAA tourney!
Awesome!!!!
Great coach, great program, so very happy for the student athletes in such a tough year!
Joy Burns is applauding from on high
Did a double take on the headline. . Outstanding performance knocking OU off the Championship podium. Could the Pios be headed to another Final Four? Congratulations to all the gymnasts, coaches and staff.
BIG XII CHAMPIONS!
Huge. So happy for the team. Wow.
Lynzee Brown’s bars routine and the Pioneera’ upset of Oklahoma made ESPN’s top 10 last night.
Wow, incredible accomplishment! Congratulations to the gymnastics team. What a fantastic milestone for the program.
I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: if you haven’t seen a DU gymnastics meet in-person, you owe it to yourself to go, as soon as we all can start going to events again. Certainly the talents and abilities of gymnasts can be appreciated on TV, but when you see them in person, it’s a whole new perspective. These ladies are incredible athletes. And it’s a great family outing. I’ve taken my daughters and their friends to several meets in previous years, and everyone has a blast.
There are no better athletes on campus, that’s for sure. Amazing what they do, and they are worthy of all accolades and more. Top four finish in the nation last time around, let’s see what they can do at nationals this year. Beating the #1 team in the country confirms that they at least have a chance to win it all.
Congratulations PIOS!