Denver ended the regular season with a loss at #13 Stanford. Under-rotation was the word of the day as DU continued to struggle with consistency. Denver’s score of 196.475 did increase their NQS very slightly going into post-season seedings, but their rank stays at #18. Stanford had two meets this weekend to gear up for championship gymnastics, which is either a great strategy or a path to burnout before the wins count. One thing that can be said for Denver gymnastics is that their fans travel well. We could hear the Denver cheer section, including hype guy Tom (sorry Taylor, Toms’ voice is just louder), on every event via the live stream.

DU started the meet on bars, while Stanford was on vault. The scores on bars were lower than Denver is used to this season, and it wasn’t due to any major faults. In fact, Denver did not have any falls or major faults the entire meet. The bars routines weren’t perfect, but I think the judges were being pretty strict on taking deductions. The team bars score of 49.25 was the lowest since Feb. 8, but the team has nothing to worry about there as they go into head to head competition in the postseason and scores will all come from the same set of judges, not compared to scores around the country. Highlight of the bars rotation was graduate student, Rylie Mundell’s stuck 9.95. Rylie puts on a handstand clinic on bars and always scores well when she can stick the landing. Second highlight was Sophomore Maddison Reidenbach’s exhibition routine for a 9.8. She gives us hope for next year when DU says goodbye to six regular competitors. Maddison had a nice Jaeger and a stuck double layout.

Second rotation was vault where under-rotated vaults, squatted landings, and hops resulted in the lowest team vault score of the season. Interestingly, sophomore Madison Ulrich’s front-handspring pike-half was the highest scoring vault of Denver’s rotation. Her score of a 9.8 made me wonder, would she have scored a 10 with a stick? Ulrich often gets dinged for landing with her chest low, but this 9.8  is perhaps a good sign of progress towards higher scores to come. Stanford took the lead after the 2^nd rotation and Denver couldn’t catch them from there.

Third rotation had Denver on Floor where overall they had a pretty good rotation. They continued taking steps on landings at the end of their tumbling passes and had a few landings with chests low, due to under-rotation. All those minor deductions added up while Stanford recorded three 9.9s on beam.

Finally, Denver headed to beam, while Stanford was on Floor. Denver gymnastics has illustrated how difficult beam really is this year, and that’s not a good thing. Consistency is hard. But Denver finished the Stanford meet strong with their 2nd highest beam score of the year. Highlight of the beam rotation was graduate student, Abbie Thompson’s 9.925 for a season high. Abbie reworked her routine this year, changing her leap pass into a combination pass of a switch leap to side somi. She has not always landed it cleanly, but it was great at Stanford.

Next weekend Denver heads to the Big 12 Championships. They are ranked 3^rd in the Big 12 with a 4-2 conference record. Top in the Big 12 is #5 overall ranked Utah. Second in the Big 12 is Arizona, although they are ranked lower than DU nationally, but their conference record is 5-1. Denver sits in 3^rd with a 4-2 conference record. Utah is almost unreachable by all the other Big 12 teams, but Denver has a chance at some individual titles if they hit their routines.

Going into regional competition, which start April 2^nd, there is no predicting where Denver will go. The top 16 ranked teams will get seeded regional assignments. Denver has a chance to move up in ranking ahead of regional seeding if they can score in the upper 197s for a season high at Big 12s. Otherwise Denver is just outside the top 16, so it’ll be up to the whim of the NCAA where they get assigned.

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