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Denver Gymnastics Reaches Stratospheric Level – Rains 10’s in Epic Performance!

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Welcome to the 198 Club, Denver! Sunday was one of the most memorable meets in DU gymnastics history. Why?

  • ALL TIME TEAM RECORD 198.15!
  • Two perfect 10s at Magness! Junior Jessica Hutchinson on beam and graduate student Lynnzee Brown on floor.
  • FLOOR TEAM SCORE OF 49.825! Highest event total for any NCAA team this season, and DU all-time highest event score.

It was a historic afternoon for DU Gymnastics in Magness on March 5. Many new records were set as DU topped Towson 198.15 to 195.95. And all in spite of a so-so start on vault. There is still more this Pioneers team can accomplish!

Hands down, this is the best gymnastics team DU has ever had.  Week by week we are seeing things come together. If DU can hit all four events in the same meet, they have a chance to make it to the NCAA finals.

The record-breaking day started off slowly. In fact, the Pioneers’ vault score is the lowest we’ve seen since the season opener back on January 8th. It was a disappointing 49.075. Towson started off really strong on bars and was leading Denver after the first rotation.

The vault score of 49.075 came after the previous week’s season-high score of 49.6. If the Pioneers had those vault scores at Magness on March 5, the team score would have been a whopping 198. 675. That would be a NCAA-high score for the season. That’s what I meant when I say Denver has a shot at the finals.

As usual at a home meet, Denver was on bars in the second rotation. They shook off the extra steps from vault and put up a season-high 49.6, which was also the second highest team bars score in DU history. Graduate student Alexandria Ruiz hit a career-high 9.95 to start the phenomenal rotation. After that, the Pioneers pulled away from Towson and never looked back. All five Pioneers scores counted on bars were a 9.9 or higher.

Third rotation was beam and Denver continued to hit their routines. They tied the DU beam record with a 49.65. Sophomore Momoko Iwai brought back her triple series (back handspring, layout step-out, layout step-out), which we haven’t seen since week 4. She tied her career-high of 9.95. But the highlight of the beam rotation was junior Jessica Hutchinson’s beautiful 10.0 routine. This was Jessica’s second perfect 10 this season and first on beam.

While excitement was in the air after beam, no one could have predicted what happened next. DU moved to floor, which has been their lowest-ranked event this season. All six DU gymnasts posted a 9.9 or higher! All. Six. Denver’s sixth competitor didn’t even need to compete for the team to hit a season record on the event. But that sixth competitor did compete. Lynnzee Brown stepped onto the floor to thunderous cheers from the crowd. And she scored a perfect 10! Her new two-tumbling pass routine officially reached perfection. Queen Zee has taken her throne.

The Queen puts on her crown

DU’s floor score of 49.825 is yet another school record. The previous record was a 49.625 set two decades ago. Their power, poise, and perfection on the floor opened the door wide for the team to step over the 198 threshold for the first time in program history.

I cannot get enough of watching Lynnzee’s floor routine. I mean, nothing is better than this. And no one is more deserving of the 10 than her.

Hello gymnastics world, Denver has arrived. Watch out. They’re coming for you!

But even with a record-setting day, DU’s ranking actually decreased to #11 this week. They increased their National Qualifying (NQS) again to a 197.41, but unfortunately, this meet’s team score isn’t counted in their NQS. The NQS is calculated by dropping the highest team score and averaging the next 5 highest scores (as long as at least 3 of the top 6 scores are from away meets, which Denver’s are). Sadly, the amazing score of 198.15 gets dropped in calculating the NQS. So Denver needs a big score in week 10 to bump up the NQS to earn a favorable regional seed.

6 thoughts on “Denver Gymnastics Reaches Stratospheric Level – Rains 10’s in Epic Performance!”

  1. It was an incredible afternoon to watch DU gymnastics. Combined with the women’s lacrosse victory in Maryland, historic day for DU women’s sports.

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  4. Seeing a gymnastics match in person is a great experience. I especially love the hype guys!

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    1. The hype guys have improved a lot as the season progressed. They have even traveled to away meets to hype DU! In the beginning of the season I harped on them for being amateurs. Now I’ve come to love them! They’ve gotten the crowd into it really well. Even a CollegeGymNews.com blogger commented on the cheers before Lynnzee Brown’s floor routine.

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      1. I completely agree about the hype guys. I was not a fan of it at the beginning of the season. They seemed like no one quite knew what to do with them, kind of like how the cheerleading team used to be at anything other than basketball games. But I’m really glad they found there “place” in the atmosphere/continuity of the meet. I’m glad that they are traveling a little bit to away meets and hopefully they will head to West Virginia in a couple weeks for the Big 12 Championships.

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