Welcome back gym fans!! It’s the most wonderful time of the year! DU Gymnastics season! Denver gymnastics started the year with a win over Michigan (195.7 to 194.975). Although it was a win, Denver certainly wishes they could get a do over on beam.

DU was at home for the season opener, and eked out a win even though they didn’t put up championship worthy scores. The season is long and there is time to get everything up to snuff, but DU didn’t look ready. They  scored the 11th highest team total in the country  opening week…but only 37 teams started their season this week.  DU’s team score of 195.7 is over a point lower than their season opener last year.  (DU’s lowest score in 2024 was a 196.85 on January 5.)

DU returned 20 of 24 routines from last year. Of last year’s seniors, only Jessica Hutchinson did not return for her 5th (and last of the COVID extra season) year.  Given the experience in this roster, I expected a lot more consistency, and for the team to, you know, stay on the beam.

Michigan had their own struggles, and fortunately for DU, were even less ready to start their season. Michigan looked inexperienced and nervous. They didn’t have to count any falls in their team score, but had small mistakes that added up. Denver had to count two falls on beam and still beat Michigan by over seven tenths.

Meet Recap

The meet was broadcast on EPSN 2 with some big names in gymnastics in Magness for the live broadcast. (Yes, I got photos of my daughter with John, Trinity, and Sam, thanks for asking.)

Denver started the meet on vault. Although 5th year Rosie Casali was on the pre-meet linup, she did not compete on vault or floor. LetsGoDU hopes she is not injured! The Denver vault lineup competed three Yurchenko full twisting layouts, which are 9.95 start value vaults.  And Denver had three 10.0 start value vaults. The highlight of the rotation was sophomore Maddison Reidenbach’s first ever Yurchenko 1.5 twist with a stuck landing! Filling in for Casali was grad student Rylie Mundell with another stuck Yurchenko 1.5. It was a strong start for DU, but the vault team score of 49.05 shows they have a long way to go this season as no one scored a 9.9 or higher.

Second rotation for DU was bars where the team looked the best. Three team members scored 9.9 on the event for the highest score of the meet. Highlight on bars is senior Mia Hebinck’s release combo of a Ricna to Pak salto. The Ricna is a stalder to straddle Tkatchev, an E difficulty same-bar release move that isn’t common in college gymnastics. And Hebinck elevates it by connecting it directly to the Pak salto which is a high to low bar release move. Denver’s bars team score was right about average for 2024, so this was a great start to the season.

Third rotation was beam. And the beam won.
DU had three athletes fall off the apparatus, so the team score had to count two falls, which is a point off. (For reference, Missouri scored exactly one point higher than Denver in week 1 and they sit in 5th place.) DU’s falls started with normally solid lead-off senior Momoko Iwai, who fell on her aerial cartwheel. Cooley got up next with one small balance check, but stuck. The crowd shared a sigh of relief. Then Casali and Mundell both fell on layout step-outs.  Last up on beam was graduate student Bella Mabanta, who stayed on the beam with just one bobble on her switch leap half turn. The highlight of the meet for this fan was Mabanta’s new tucked gainer full twist dismount off the end of the beam. It was a gorgeous upgrade with a stuck landing. That one will be fun to see all season! But the team’s 47.975 on beam is one they will want to forget. Even with the falls, DU managed to stay ahead of Michigan after three rotations.

Last rotation was floor. Denver put up decent scores, but nothing 9.9 or higher. It was great to see the new routines for this season, and hype guy, Tom, kept up the tradition of putting in a whistle-prompted “Let’s Go DU!” in every routine to get fans involved. Routines were mostly clean, with small errors that will need to be cleaned up. The 49.25 team floor score shows there are things to work on.  But it is always fun to end home meets with a floor party and Denver delivered.

Denver is home again for a quad meet on 1/12/25. Georgia will be in the house with new head coach Cecile Canqueteau-Landi, former head coach of World Champions Centre, a.k.a. Simone Biles’ gym. (So yes, I’ll get a photo of Cecile with my daughter, thanks for asking.) Missouri will also be there, so it will be a good match up if Denver can avoid falls. Rounding out the quad will be Long Island University. Both Georgia and LIU will be kicking off their seasons next week. Denver has never gone head to head with LIU (in their 5th season as a team). Exciting times in Magness for gym fans! See you Sunday!