Denver gymnastics upset #13 Stanford to advance to Regional Finals, but the team’s run ended there. They placed third out of four teams, with another upset of a seeded team, #10 Minnesota. But only the top two teams advance to National Semifinals from each of the four Regional Finals. The silver lining for Pio fans is that three athletes will advance as individuals to the NCAA Finals: Sophomore Madison Ulrich earned an individual All Around spot, along two of our stellar fifth-year athletes: Rylie Mundell on Bars, and Rosie Casali on Vault.

The regional final competition was action packed and kept fans on the edges of their seats. The meet was again streamed on ESPN+ and the broadcast quality was good, again showing every performance from every team.

Denver started the meet on beam, and continued right where they left off on the event from the Regional Semifinals. They looked like the experienced team they are and pulled off six hit routines! Sophomore Ashley Gallen earned a career high 9.925 in just her sixth appearance in the beam lineup. The team hit a season high 49.55 on the event. Utah began the meet on bars with a fall from Freshman Avery Neff, but were kept afloat by Senior Grace McCallum’s second perfect 10 on bars in this regional competition. UCLA started the meet on floor, where they are the #1 ranked team in the country, but failed to reach their normal high scores. Minnesota also had only a so-so start on vault, an event that would prove troublesome to many at this meet. After the first rotation the Pioneers were in first place! UCLA was in second, Utah in third, and Minnesota in 4th. I thought to myself, “We are in this!”

Denver rotated to floor second and hit another season high event score. This time it was a 49.5. Denver maintained the lead at the halfway point!

Then in the third rotation, Denver went to vault. And the winning stopped. The Pioneers were hopping and stepping on every landing. Their team vault score of 48.9 was the second lowest vault score of the season. This was the rotation that the #4 ranked Utah proved why they were the top seed, and they took the lead. Denver dropped to 3rd after UCLA. Minnesota stayed in fourth even after a strong performance on beam.

In the final rotation of the meet, Denver went to their highest ranking event, bars. They still had a shot at second place as UCLA went to beam. Utah was nearly out of reach by the other teams, but they also had trouble sticking vaults, getting only one of six stuck vaults. But the fact that Utah has six 10.0 start value vaults helped them pull away from the pack.

Denver had a strong bars rotation, but did give away a few tenths on steps on landing. Their team score was a respectable 49.4. UCLA started off on beam a little wobbly, but hit six routines. UCLA gave away some tenths on wobbles, but maintained their lead over Denver to advance to Nationals. Minnesota on floor had all their wheels fall off. One competitor went for her last tumbling pass and her arms just buckled in her round off. Uninjured, her face looked as surprised as everyone watching. So Denver maintained third place to end the meet.

Final scores were:

1. Utah 197.825
2. UCLA 197.625
3. Denver 197.350
4. Minnesota 196.825

However, this isn’t the end of the season for all Pioneer gymnasts. As I stated at the top, three athletes qualified for Nationals as individuals. The individual qualification was based on Regional Semifinal performances from April 3rd. This was in the second round of the regional competition, and the individual qualifiers were ranked from the two semifinal sessions combined.  The individual qualifiers are selected after the athletes from advancing teams are removed from the leader board, in the Utah regional that was Utah and UCLA. Then the athletes at the top of each event and in the All Around remaining are awarded individual births to Nationals. One individual from each region goes as the All Around qualifier, and one individual from each regions qualifies on each event.

There were many ties with the scores that Casali had on vault and Mundell had on bars. The NCAA applied a multi-layered tie breaking protocol to allow them both to advance. This is also why Denver’s Bella Mabanta did not qualify on beam, even though her 9.9 matched the individual score that did qualify. She lost out on the tie breaker.

Madison Ulrich had the third highest All Around score from the Utah regional round 2 with a career high 39.575. She was bested by Utah’s Avery Neff (39.650) and Olympian UCLA’s Jordan Chiles (39.600). Since both Utah and UCLA qualified for nationals as teams, Ulrich earned the individual All Around qualification.

These three Pioneers will compete in the NCAA National semifinal round session 1 on April 17th.

Teams who qualified for Nationals are: #1 LSU, #2 Oklahoma, #3 Florida, #4 Utah, #5 UCLA,  #7 Missouri, #8 Michigan State, and #12 Alabama.

Photo courtesy of @Denver_Gymnastics and @DenverPioneers