Denver Gymnastics traveled to Arkansas for a Monday meet on January 20th. National rankings come out on Monday mornings, so results from  this meet don’t factor into the Week 3 rankings. But the team score of 196. 325 would not have helped. Denver sits at #16 nationally and got beat by #17 Arkansas with a 197.00.

Arkansas has improved each week through their first three competitions. The Razorbacks finished 2024 in the #7 spot, their highest ranking since 2012. If they keep up at this pace, they will pass Denver in next week’s rankings.

Denver, on the other hand, continues to struggle to hit the high scores that would earn them a top ten ranking. Although they didn’t have any misses on Monday, they only had two scores of 9.9 or higher all evening. Junior Mila Brusch hit her Yurchenko full vault for a 9.9 and fifth year Bella Mabanta scored a 9.925 on beam.

Denver’s overall team score was two tenths below their week 2 score. Multiple team members made their 2025 debuts at Arkansas, and didn’t prove to be heavy hitters out of the gate. Denver has nothing to be ashamed of in what they accomplished in Arkansas, but they have continued to show they are not consistent enough in their lineup or individual routines to be a part of the national conversation.

On the road to nationals, eleven teams have already hit 197 or higher. No one has gotten the coveted 198, but Oklahoma was oh-so-close with a 197.95 on January 11th. The accountability of college judges promises to be higher this year, so overall we should see (and have seen) less 10.0 scores than last year. But looking around the country, Denver still isn’t keeping up with their closest rivals and not near top 10. Given that all but one team member from 2024 returned for this season, I’m surprised at DU’s difficulty with consistency and ability to score in the 9.9 range.