Denver fell to Cal and Stanford in gymnastics’ sweet 16 and doesn’t advance to Nationals. Although DU didn’t have to count a miss, you can’t fall four times and hope to make up enough tenths to advance. They join Kentucky as the biggest losers of the regionals weekend; these two teams were the only two teams ranked in the top 8 that didn’t advance to the National Championship.

Berkeley Regional Results:

1. California 198.275
2. Stanford 197.575
3. Denver 197.45
4. ASU 196.75

It was a great weekend for #10 Arkansas and #19 Stanford who both advanced in their respective regional competitions. Joining them at Nationals are #1 Oklahoma, #2 LSU, #3 California, #4 Florida, #5 Utah, and #8 Alabama.

Denver alumni Lynnzee Brown, who is now an assistant coach at Penn State, helped lead her team to an upset of their own to reach the sweet 16 for their highest season rank since 2014. They also bowed out in their regional finals, but it was a strong season for the Nittany Lions.

In the Berkeley Regional Finals, Denver hit team scores right at their season averages. Unfortunately, the upward trend in scores that we’d seen in the final 4 weeks of the regular season ended when the Pios got to Berkeley. The pressure clearly got to them, even the seasoned athletes who have been to nationals before seemed rattled.  On the plus side, Denver ended their season not having counted a single miss. (Remember, the lowest score in each rotation gets dropped from the team score.) Only a handful of teams can say that they achieved that this year.

The problem is, when one gymnast falls, the rest of the team needs to hit 9.9 or higher to end up in the top 8. Denver just wasn’t able to hit those marks on Sunday. They had one fall on bars, two falls (in one routine) on beam, and one fall on floor. They struggled to find sticks on vault as they had all year. Even with that, it came down to the last Stanford routine to determine the outcome of the meet.

Cal ran away with first place, so the battle was for second place. It was neck and neck between Denver and Stanford all evening. ASU was in the mix for a while as well. The last Stanford gymnast needed to hit a 9.875 or higher to beat Denver and she got a perfect 10. Anyone watching (even 5BWest, who writes basketball blogs) knew that routine was not a 10. But it was certainly higher than a 9.875. Stanford earned their place in the elite 8. They brought their game when they needed to. In the regional finals, Stanford hit 24 for 24 routines. The Cardinal earned their spot and advance.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any individuals from DU will advance to nationals either. Only the top finisher (not from a qualifying team) on each event and All Around gets to advance as an individual.  The scores for qualifying were taken from the regional semi-final round. Although Jessica Hutchinson had the top scores on both beam and floor, there were many 9.95s on both events. If the NCAA follows their published tie breaker rules, Jessica will not advance. Bella Mabanta also shared the top score on beam with Jessica, but if we follow published tie breaker rules, she will not advance either.  Official individual qualifiers will be announced on 4/8.

And that wraps up the gymnastics season. It was a record-breaking season with so many wonderful moments. The 2024 group of seniors were a really special bunch for Denver. They elevated the team in every way. This group does get the opportunity for one more COVID season, and a couple of them have hinted they are coming back. Sadly, Jessica Hutchinson is not one of them.

Jessi, we at Let’s Go DU will miss you greatly. You’re truly one of the best and were an absolute joy to watch. No one has lines like you do, and no one makes gymnastics look so easy or so fun. You brought confidence and consistency to the team for four years. Thank you for elevating the sport at DU.

Signing off with a heavy heart,

-Jill

Cartoon from guyandrodd.com.