Denver brought back their new all black sparkly leotards, but the leotards weren’t the only things that sparkled! The Pioneers hit a new season high score in Utah to take second in the regional semifinal and will advance to the regional final on Saturday.
The session’s final team scores were:
- Utah 197.85
- Denver 197.625
- Stanford 196.5
- BYU 196.0
UCLA and Minnesota advanced from the regional semifinals in the early session on 4/3. In the evening session Utah and Denver also advanced. A year after Stanford upset Denver in regional finals, Denver returned the favor in the 2025 regional semifinals. The Pioneers will advance to the Utah regional finals on Saturday!
The meet was streamed on ESPN+, who did a great job ensuring every routine from every school was showed on the broadcast.
The Denver fans traveled in force and could be heard throughout the meet, bolstering their favorite team. Hats off to hype men, Tom and Taylor, whose voices could be heard over the home town crowd in Utah!
Denver started the meet on bars, which has been their strongest event all season. Madison Ulrich, Kiley Rorich, and Rylie Mundell all hit 9.9s! Throughout the rotation, viewers could hear chants in the crowd of “Denver! Denver!”
Stanford started on vault and had trouble getting any sticks. Utah was on floor hitting their routines with four scores of 9.9 or higher. After one rotation the scores were Utah 49.575, Denver 49.4, Stanford 49.25, BYU 49.15.
In the second rotation, the host team, Utah, headed to vault. They have six athletes who compete 10.0 start value vaults. They got two stuck vaults on the rotation, but didn’t pull out of reach of the other teams. Stanford was on bars. They were strong and kept pace with Denver’s bars scores.
Denver went to beam. Beam, the event that has been such a struggle this year. But, they put all those struggles behind them and put up a solid rotation. The team showed their experience and looked like their old selves. The crowd chanted, “Denver! Denver! Denver!” Hype guy, Tom, called, “Dennn-verrr” and the crowd responded “Go DU!” and they lifted the team to tie their season high on the event. Was this Magness? Wow! DU fans came out strong to support their favorite team on their toughest event.
At the halfway point, Denver was squarely in second place with a 98.8, but still within reach of Utah. Stanford stayed in third with 98.575. BYU in fourth with a 98.
In the third rotation, it was floor for Denver. The crowd was already chanting “Denver!” before the rotation even started. The lead off for Stanford on beam took a fall to start the rotation, and they had a second fall later in the rotation. That meant Stanford had to count a fall in their team score, which created a huge opportunity for Denver to advance.
Utah was on bars and continued to be strong. The home team Utah crowd thought Avery Neff deserved a 10 and let the judges know they were not happy with the 9.9 they gave her. The crowd’s boos were louder than the chants for Denver! Those boos are something you’d never hear at Magness!
Denver’s Madison Ulrich was the highlight of the floor rotation. She started with one of her best double layouts ever. She scored a 9.9. Meanwhile, Utah’s Grace McCallum found perfection on bars. She was in the anchor spot for Utah on bars earned every bit of a 10.0 on her routine to keep them in first place. This is the only 10 awarded through two rounds of this Utah regional competition. Watching the broadcast, we could still hear “Let’s Go DU!” over the crowd cheers for Grace’s 10.
Denver hit a 49.325 on floor, which was the second highest event score of the season.
BYU overtook Stanford after their two falls. Denver had a comfortable lead over third place to all but assure they advance to regional finals. Just vault was left. After three: Utah 148.475, Denver 148.125, BYU 147.45, Stanford 148.475.
The Pioneers finished the meet on vault. All they needed was to do their normal. BYU’s lead off on bars took a fall to start the last rotation. Their anchor also fell, meaning BYU had to count a fall in the final rotation. Utah ended on their best event, beam. But this was not their night. They didn’t take a fall, but weren’t in top performance.
For Denver, Madison Ulrich had an outstanding front handspring piked half vault for a career high 9.925! That performance also rounded out a career high All Around for Ulrich of 39.575. Rosie Casali stuck her Yurchenko 1.5 for a 9.95! The Pioneers put up four scores of 9.9 or higher on vault! Denver’s 49.5 vault score was another season high event score on the evening!
So, with this great upset, I will gladly eat crow. Denver Gymnastics advances to the Regional Finals on April 5th! They will face off against #4 Utah, #5 UCLA, and #10 Minnesota. It’ll be a tough competition, where the top two teams advance to the National Semifinals. Let’s Go DU!
Photo Courtesy @denver_gymnastics
no time like the present to live up to expectations. keep it going!
if you wow them in the end nothing else matters.
Way to go women!
Great to see them peaking at the right time. After the slow start to the season, it looked like a lost cause. Go Pios.
Even better news, Pio fans! It was late last night as I wrote this blog, and I missed an updated floor score for Denver; and I also didn’t properly add up Utah’s beam performance (which as I stated, wasn’t great). Denver actually TIED Utah for first place in this round. Way to go Pios!