March 3rd was senior night in Magness for DU gymnastics. The team honored its five seniors: Rosie Casali, Jessica Hutchinson, Bella Mabanta, Rylie Mundell, and Abbie Thompson. These five women have all been at DU for four years and have all been huge contributors to the team since day one. It’s been incredible to watch them soar into the DU record books, and they’ve got the potential to go deep into the 2024 post season.

March 3rd scores:

1.  Denver 198.025
2. San Jose State 196.675
3. Lindenwood 195.4
4. Air Force 194.05

The competition was a quad meet win for DU over SJSU, USAF, and Lindenwood. Denver’s team score of 198.025 is the highest score this season, and the second highest score in program history. This is the first season in DU history that the team has hit a score of 198+ more than once. The team scores on every event were at least two tenths higher than in their previous meet on February 23, where many of their starters were rested.

On March 3rd, the team hit season high scores on beam and floor. Team bars and vault scores were right around their season averages on those events. These are great scores to see at this point in the season where consistency is key. There were no hero moments, but just athletes putting up the scores they know they can achieve.

Junior Momoko Iwai hit a career high scores on beam (9.975) and floor (9.95). The 9.975 score means one judge gave her a 10. Eventually she’ll get both judges to give that 10.

Floor was the highlight of the meet for DU.  Freshman standout Madison Ulrich debuted a double layout in her first tumbling pass (which explains why her previous routines’ double backs were so open: she was building up to the double layout). Ulrich is the first DU gymnast we’ve seen do a double layout since Lynnzee Brown. It was magnificent and hopefully a sign of good things to come. Her 9.925 matched a career high. Her NQS on floor is a 9.915, so we’re seeing some great consistency too.

Senior Rosie Casali had an amazing floor performance that deserved a 9.95, which she got from one judge. However, I’m not sure what the second judge saw, giving a 9.85. She walked away with a 9.9 average. I think we’ll see more 9.95s for her if she continues as strong as we saw her perform on senior night.

Senior Abbie Thompson was in the floor lineup for the first time in 2024. She always showcases ’80s rock routines on floor, and this year’s music did not disappoint. Her triple twisting layout looked better than ever with a solid landing. Her 9.9 was well deserved and yet again showed the depth in DU’s floor lineup since this was her first time in the lineup all season.

Denver has had seven gymnasts hit a 9.9 or higher on floor this year. All six competitors in this meet were at or above 9.9! One of those is obviously senior star Jessica Hutchinson, who has a floor NQS of 9.935. She notched her second perfect 10 on floor this season at the March 3 meet. However, it was a gift from the judges on senior night. Jessica had a large step and was off balance on the landing of her first tumbling pass. The crowd uttered an audible “D’oh.” Judges still gave a 10. Perhaps both judges blinked and missed it. So Denver fans will take the 10 because we know Jessica will be perfect again.

In a classy move to end the meet, Denver gymnasts gave flowers to the athletes from Lindenwood. In December, Lindenwood announced that this would be the last year of their gymnastics program. This season will be Lindenwood’s first and last season in Division 1 gymnastics. Even a huge fan campaign with $450,000 in pledges could not save the program. In total, Lindenwood is cutting ten sports teams from its athletics program. Denver’s small gesture to the visiting team acknowledges their loss. I wish all of Lindenwood’s athletes success in whatever the future holds.

Denver Gymnastics In the Rankings:

This meet was only the third time DU has ever had a 198+ score. This allowed DU to drop a 197.15 home score in their NQS calculation, raising the NQS score to 197.435. Although DU ranks #11 in NQS, their season average is the 8th highest average in the NCAA.

Denver’s three away meets that are currently being used in the NQS calculation had team scores that are lower than the top three scoring home meets. This means potential for DU to continue raising their NQS in the next two regular season meets, both of which are away. Anything above 196.9 will result in an increase to the NQS and potential rise in national rank.

Big 12 Conference rival #1 Oklahoma has a 198.42 NQS, which is an all time NCAA record. They had two meets last weekend (one at home on Friday, one at Texas Women’s on Sunday), both increasing the team’s NQS. There are now 11 teams who have hit 198 this year. The only team in the top 10 who has not hit 198 is #7 Michigan.

While Oklahoma has separated itself from the pack, there are six teams within two tenths above or below Denver, so movement in rankings is entirely possible. The top 16 teams get seeded into regional competitions, and those seeds are ultimately why NQS matters. The next 16 teams get assigned to regional competitions based on geography, or other wishy washy rationale the NCAA makes up. To be safe, we want to see Denver continue to increase its NQS and move up a few spots in ranking if possible.

Denver’s next chance is this Sunday, March 10 at Missouri. It will be streaming on SECN+, so I guess you need to live in the South and subscribe to ESPN+ to get it. It will be Denver’s closest competition of the season, with Missouri ranked at #13. This writer will have to rely on live blogs and replay clips on social media. But I’ll be wishing DU Gymnastics a great outing! Let’s Go DU!