Junior Jessica Hutchinson achieved perfection on Sunday, scoring a 10.0 on the floor exercise. This is Hutchinson’s first 10 of her NCAA career and the first of the season for DU. It was a great way to cap off an exciting meet for Denver gymnastics in Magness.

The #8 Pioneers won the meet by nearly two points. But their opponents today aren’t even in the national conversation. What is important about today’s team score is that Denver set a new season high of 197.5. Rankings at this point in the season are based on average team scores. DU’s average after this week is 197.155, so it is important to continue increasing team scores to bump averages up.  It looks like they will maintain the #8 spot again this week.

All Around winner of the meet was junior Riley Mundell, who set a career high score of 39.625. This is just one tenth outside of the top 10 all-time DU All Around scores.  Graduate student Lynnzee Brown holds the top  All Around record for DU, but she has still not joined the floor lineup. (We did see Lynnzee doing some simple tumbling in pre-meet warm-ups, so maybe there is still hope.)

Denver started the day on vault and it wasn’t a great day, but was pretty solid. A few form breaks and a few steps show that this team can still improve. For the second week in a row we saw four 10.0 start value vaults.

Second rotation was bars, where the team hit a season high score. Last week’s Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, freshman Kiley Rorich had a major fall on her Jaeger, but was uninjured. Her score was dropped, everyone else hit and DU got a season high team score on bars.

Third rotation was beam. DU had a last minute lineup change, where sophomore Momoko Iwai was substituted for freshman Ava Mabanta. Ava’s older sister is DU junior Bella Mabanta. It was really cool to see the scoreboard list both sisters back to back. Denver had no falls on beam, and all scores were above 9.8.

The final rotation of the meet put DU on floor, where we saw team anchor, Jessica Hutchinson, score her perfect 10.0. Jessica makes this look effortless; her routine is beautiful. What made her 10 even more special is that it is the same music and similar choreography that her mother used in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

For the first time in her career, Jessica Hutchinson (@jesshutch727) scores a perfect 10.0!#GoPios | #NCAAGym pic.twitter.com/u5sPNYn1DW

— Denver Gymnastics (@DU_Gymnastics) February 5, 2023

That’s two weeks in a row that Colorado judges have awarded 10.0 scores. (Last week’s 10 went to Ragan Smith of Oklahoma on beam.) I’m glad to see progress with the judges here. We’ve got to award perfection and be consistent with judging across the country.

Still lacking was support in the student section. What else do these kids have to do on a Sunday afternoon? Our crowd hype guys are getting better, and making the meet environment fun. The crowd that was there showed great support, we just need to get more DU fans and students to come fill Magness.

The next home meet is a Big 12 dual meet versus West Virginia on February 12. Tickets start at only $14, so let’s get out there and Let’s Go DU!