On a technicality, DU has a National Qualifying Score (NQS) of zero, putting them in last place in the rankings, despite pulling off four wins and two season high scores in the last two weeks.
This year, the official ranking site of NCAA women’s gymnastics, RoadToNationals.com, moved the rankings from average score to NQS in week 7 instead of the usual move in week 8. Because Denver has only two away meets in the first 7 weeks, they cannot count the required three away meets in calculating their NQS, and so have a zero.
For the uninitiated, or those who forgot, NQS is a calculation used to determine rankings. According to RoadToNationals.com, it is based on a team’s “six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain the national qualifying score (NQS), the high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged.”
If we got rid of the three away meet rule to calculate NQS, and calculate the five meet average as otherwise described above. DU would have a score of 195.967. In the week 7 rankings, that would put DU at #20. But as it stands, DU doesn’t have an NQS, so is officially in 79th place. It will be an unprecedented rise in ranking next week after DU’s meet at Utah on Friday.
For recaps of the last two home meets, see the official Denver Pioneer’s articles. They have continued to do a great job reporting on results of the gymnastics meets.
Keep reading here for this author’s take on the rise of DU’s athletes, and the start of a positive trend in performances and scores.
2/8/25 Win over BYU at Magness
This was Denver’s annual Pink meet for breast cancer awareness. DU debuted new pink-themed leotards that were stunners. I liked these even better than the all black sparklers they brought out a few weeks ago. For the past few years, Denver has not had pink uniforms, so it was really nice to see them sporting the new themed attire. See them in action here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGMXhO5KP3B/
Denver started off the meet strong on vault. The judges didn’t want to give any 9.9s out and we saw pileups in the standings in the 9.85 range all evening. Graduate student Bella Mabanta put up the only 9.9 of the meet on vault. Denver hit a season high on the vault.
In the second rotation on bars, Denver hit six routines, but small errors meant they recorded the lowest bars score of the season. Through half the meet, Denver looked good and were doing their jobs to maintain standings.
And then the beam. DU has struggled on beam this year. The nervousness heading to beam was palpable. The first two competitors, Junior Cecilia Cooley and senior Momoko Iwai hit strong routines. Then Bella Mabanta fell on her switch leap half. The following athletes all stayed on the beam, but nerves showed in some small wobbles. Denver did not have to count a fall!
A note on beam routine composition: I hate the beat jump and think it should be removed from the code. It’s the simplest jump up and flutter kick the feet to get an A level skill. Multiple DU athletes use that as a connection requirement or bonus in their routines, and it just illustrates the ways teams can do the bare minimum to get 10.0 start values. But it’s certainly not what top level NCAA gymnastics should be.
While Denver was on beam, BYU was on floor and they had great choreography, entertaining music choices, and wonderful performances. This is something Denver has been lacking in the floor lineup. Our routines are good, but not memorable.
Last rotation, Denver headed to floor, where they had major issues the prior week in Arizona. They seemed to lack the confidence a team should have six weeks into the season.
Most of Denver’s floor lineup opts for routines with only two tumbling passes. These routines are less physically demanding than routines with three tumbling passes. But they require the gymnasts to pack all required elements, bonus elements and connections into the two passes. So much hinges on making no mistakes in these routines in order to earn 10.0 start values. Unfortunately this squad is making mistakes. Certainly this showing wasn’t as bad as the previous outing, but there was still room for improvement.
Denver beat BYU 196.625 to 195.825. This was a season high for Denver, showing that although they weren’t perfect, they were making improvements.
2/16/25 Triple Win over OSU, Ball State, and Texas Women’s at Magness
Olympic gold medalist, Jade Carey, was in the house for the third and final time of her NCAA career. She earned the all around title, as well as event titles on beam and floor. But two DU athletes got to walk away knowing they beat the #1 ranked NCAA gymnast this year. Sophomore Maddison Reidenbach hit a career high of 9.975 on vault to earn the vault title. This is also the highest individual score on any event all season for DU. Junior Cecilia Cooley also hit a career high to beat Carey with a 9.925 on bars. Hold your head high, Pioneers!
Denver needed a season high team score to beat the Beavers, and even Ball state and Texas Women’s have hit team scores higher than Denver’s bad days this year. A win wasn’t guaranteed, and I wouldn’t have been shocked if Denver took 3rd in this meet. Luckily, for the second week in a row, Denver did not have to count a miss on any event, and hit 23 of 24 routines with just one fall on beam.
Many lineup changes were made for this meet. We saw the successful return of Bella Mabanta and Momoko Iwai on floor, which also brought back two crowd pleasing performances. Hopefully the team is settling into their season and gaining confidence in their abilities. In this league consistency is key, especially when the pressure is high.
Denver hit a new season high of 197.125, as well as season high scores on bars and beam, and tied the season high on vault. And to make the day even sweeter, head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart recorded her 500th career win. Only two active NCAA gymnastics coaches have more wins (Oklahoma’s KJ Kindler and Michigan’s Bev Plocki).
So this is two weeks in a row of new season highs. Regularly scoring 197 or higher would move DU to a top ten ranking. But in the first 7 weeks, Denver has shown consistency only two weeks in a row (twice from week 2 to 3, and again week 6 to 7). Hopefully they will buck this trend in week 8 heading to Utah on Friday, February 21 and hit a third meet in a row. The meet in Utah will earn DU a non-zero NQS, but won’t yet allow them to drop the abysmal 194.6 from Arizona. Look for DU to climb up in ranking every week for the next month if they continue to put together good team scores and drop their major misses from the NQS calculation. But anything is better than the zero they have now, so they will have a huge jump for week 8 even if they lose in Utah.