Tag: gymnastics

PHOTOS: Looking at Trinity Thomas’ fantastic final gymnastics campaign

Check out some of the best highlights from the greatest gymnast to ever wear orange and blue.

Florida Gators gymnast [autotag]Trinity Thomas[/autotag] is without question one of the greatest collegiate athletes to ever wear the beloved Orange and Blue — much less the best UF gymnast ever — and it appears that she is saving some of her best for last as her time in Gainesville comes to a close.

The graduate student missed out on the Olympics last time around due to injury, and combined with the loss of time due to the COVID pandemic, things were looking rough for her. However, Thomas persevered, earning the Honda Sport Award winner for the best overall gymnast in 2022.

She returned to her team in 2023 for one last as a graduate student and has not let down the Gator Nation. She continues to post perfect 10s at a frenetic pace and is on course to set the all-time NCAA record for that distinction. Thomas’ opportunities are dwindling with just the NCAA regionals and championships remaining, but given her track record, there is a good chance she break the old record.

In the meantime, take a look at highlights from Thomas’ 2023 season with Florida gymnastics.

Women’s History Month Spotlight: Fisk University women’s gymnastics head coach Corrinne Tarver

Continuing our series on spotlighting women in sports, we have Corrinne Tarver of Fisk University.

This Women’s History Month, I will be spotlighting women athletes and their achievements in college, after college, and beyond. Athletes are humans first and while I want to highlight their athletic ability and achievements, I also want to point a spotlight on what they are doing off their field of play.

Fisk University Women’s Gymnastics team made history in 2023 as the first-ever HBCU gymnastics team to compete at the NCAA level. Head coach Corrinne Tarver knew she wanted to make history again and went about it just 14 months before the team competed in their first meet.

Tarver understands what it is like to be the first and make history. In 1989, she became the first Black gymnast to win an NCAA all-around championship when she did so for the University of Georgia. She is just as impressive off of the mat. She has a Juris Doctorate from New York Law School and was named the Athletic Director of Fisk University in July of 2022.

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If you have followed gymnastics for a while you also remember the name, Dominique Dawes. Dawes was the first black gymnast to win an individual medal in Olympic gymnastics. As per Dawes’ LinkedIn, she recently went to meet the Fisk gymnasts, the next generation of gymnastics history-makers.

“Talk about a rewarding weekend! Speaking to The Fisk Univ. Gymnastics Team, and hearing about my impact on them, in front of my own children, made my athletic/Olympic journey come full circle.

As Black History Month comes to an end and as we enter into Women’s History Month, let’s realize the impact that we make on others, is essential to living a life of fulfillment. This is why I’ve started my own academies, empowering the next generation.
#Dawesgymnasticsacademy

I’m proud of the courage and poise these young women displayed on and off the gym floor. Trailblazers are what they are!”

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The past and future of the sport of gymnastics are coming together to create an even stronger foundation for generations to come.

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Dooley’s Dozen: 12 things to get Gators gymnastics over the hump in 2023

Take a look at what Pat Dooley thinks Jenny Rowland and the Gators need to do to finally get that national title.

Coaching records in gymnastics are a funny thing. Because the sport is so focused on the postseason, it is rare when fans even know what the overall record is going into a big meet.

For example, I give you Florida coach Jenny Rowland.

She stepped into big shoes when she was hired to replace three-time national champion Rhonda Faehn. And when it comes to winning percentages, her 83.7 percent in seven seasons is better than Faehn’s during her time at UF.

Of course, you win an SEC championship, and it counts as multiple wins. Just a quad meet – which Florida has Friday night to start the season – likely will count as a 3-0 beginning.

Rowland has come close to winning Florida’s fourth national title, losing to Oklahoma by .1125 a year ago and missing out with an undefeated team because of COVID.

This might be her best team and starts the season ranked second… behind Oklahoma.

What does this team have to do to get over the hump? Dooley’s Dozen looks at 12 things that would help.

Auburn Morning Rush: Football players nominated for awards, gymnastics sells out

Check out what’s new for Wednesday’s Morning Rush:

It’s another Wednesday in football season, Auburn fans.

It’s also the first game week without head coach Bryan Harsin at the helm, but that doesn’t mean that all Auburn football news this week has to be bad optics and gloomy futures. In fact, two Auburn football players have been nominated for awards amidst the chaos of the week. On top of that, Auburn gymnastics should expect full crowds for the 2022-23 season and the Auburn cross country team is being recognized for its SEC-best athletes.

Check out the newest Auburn news for this edition of the Morning Rush below on Auburn Tigers Wire:

Suni Lee threw in an effortless flip on her first pitch for the Twins because she can

Of COURSE, an Olympian would do that on the mound.

Before the Twins and Blue Jays played a little game of baseball on Friday night, Minnesota welcomed a special guest to the stadium — Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Suni Lee.

With the 19-year-old world-class gymnast in a relative break before any major competitions, the Twins had the St. Paul native Lee come and throw out the first pitch. And you might think otherwise, Dearest Readers, but this was no ordinary first pitch.

Lee is, you know, one of the most athletic people on the planet. So instead of just throwing the ball across home plate, she did a complete front flip on her pitch windup. Why? Because she could!

Oh, wait, this was the plan the whole time? And this was the equivalent of a warmup???

Oh sweet heavens, look at that angle. Why don’t more MLB teams invite Olympians to throw out first pitches? If cool things like this happen when they’re on the mound, they have no excuse.

For what it’s worth, the Twins went on to win 6-5 with a thrilling walk-off play at the plate:

Huh. Maybe Minnesota should bring Lee and her effortless front flips in more often if these are the results.

Oklahoma edges out Florida for NCAA Gymnastics Championship

Florida came up just 0.112 points away from a fourth national championship. It finished in second place behind Oklahoma.

Oklahoma ignited a furious rally in the second and third rotation after emerging in last place after the first rotation to grab the NCAA title. Florida almost overcame a two-tenths deficit in the final rotation, using a senior [autotag]Trinity Thomas[/autotag] 10 and four other scores 9.9s or better but still fell just 0.112 short. The Sooners defeated the Gators, Utah and Auburn for the 2022 NCAA gymnastics championships on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas.

Florida dug itself a hole on Friday after struggling on the vault during the semifinals. The Gators’ adventure forced them to emerge from the first rotation dead last. On Saturday, they fared a little bit better.

Head coach [autotag]Jenny Rowland[/autotag] and her team recorded a score of 49.35, putting itself in third place recorded a team score of 49.35, putting itself in third place ahead of Oklahoma but behind first-place Utah and second-place Auburn. The Gators also only found themselves 0.163 behind the Utes.

Thomas and freshman [autotag]Leanne Wong[/autotag] both delivered scores greater than 9.9s.

The Gators had a fall on the uneven bars just like they did during the semifinals. Freshman [autotag]Riley McCusker[/autotag] sailed through her routine but fell on the dismount, putting Florida in immediate danger of being eliminated if it suffered another fall on bars. But once again, the rest of the Gators lineup came to her rescue.

Thomas just missed perfection with a 9.975 while senior [autotag]Savannah Schoenherr[/autotag] scored a 9.925 and super senior [autotag]Megan Skaggs[/autotag] recorded a 9.9125. However, they still trailed Utah by a measly tenth, heading into the final two rotations.

Oklahoma made some serious ground up after struggling on the floor to start the meet. The Sooners used five scores of 9.9 or greater to take a two-tenths lead over the second-place Gators.

Florida wasn’t too shabby in the third rotation, either. Skaggs, Thomas, super senior [autotag]Alyssa Baumann[/autotag] and senior Leah Clapper all recorded scores of 9.9 or better.

The Gators then headed to the floor exercise, arguably their best rotation. Florida posted all 9.9s or better, including a 10 from Thomas but Oklahoma’s massive comeback in the second and third rotations helped them edge the Gators 198.2 to 198.0875.

Rowland and Co. will have to say goodbye to Skaggs and Baumann, but Clapper, Reed, Schoenherr, Thomas, seniors Halley Taylor and Sydney Johnson-Scharpf could all elect to return for a fifth year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Arkansas Gymnastics: Hambrick, Shaffer qualify for Nationals

Arkansas Gymnastics will be well represented at the NCAA Gymnastics Championships as Kennedy Hambrick and Sarah Shaffer compete for an individual national title!

For the second consecutive season, the Arkansas Gymbacks’ season concluded with a trip to the Sweet 16. The season ended Saturday by placing 4th in the regional final, finishing behind No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 8 Minnesota, and No. 9 Cal in Norman, Okla.

Arkansas scored record-highs in beam (49.475), and vault (49.500), and finished with a record of 10-18, which is a program-best since the hire of head coach [autotag]Jordyn Wieber[/autotag] prior to the 2020 season.

Despite the team’s season coming to a close, two members of the Arkansas Gymnastics squad will continue to compete for individual National Championships.

Graduate Senior [autotag]Sarah Shafer[/autotag] and senior [autotag]Kennedy Hambrick [/autotag] will represent Arkansas Gymnastics as National Qualifiers in the Individual National Championship held April 14 at Dickies Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hambrick will compete as an all-around contestant for the second season in a row.

Last season, Hambrick finished sixth on vault (9.8875), and beam (9.9125), and fifth place on bars (9.900), en route to a fifth-place overall finish in all-around competition. Hambrick set a personal record on bars this season by scoring 9.975 in a meet with Southeast Missouri. She earned an event title in beam against Auburn on January 14 by scoring 9.950, and won an all-around crown in the meet with Ohio State on January 7 by scoring 39.350.

Graduate senior Sarah Shaffer will compete as a National Qualifier by representing Arkansas Gymnastics on bars.

The Tyler, Texas native returns to her home state to compete in the the Individual National Championships for the first time. She was a key component to Arkansas’ 2018 team that advanced to nationals by earning SEC Freshman of the Year, as well as spots on the All-SEC team and All-SEC Freshman Team.

The NCAA Gymnastics Championships begin Thursday, April 14 and will conclude Saturday, April 16. This year’s event will be held in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Gators gymnastics wins 11th SEC Championship meet trophy

The Gators win the SEC! Next up, NCAAs.

The second-ranked Florida gymnastics team earned its 11th SEC Championship meet trophy on Saturday in Birmingham, Alabama, with the second-highest team total in the event’s 41-year history. The Gators’ 198.20 score was the best team total in 26 SEC Championship meets and overcame second-place Alabama’s 197.825 by less than a full point, adding to their regular-season crown earned for the 2022 campaign.

The Orange and Blue seized four event titles, with senior Trinity Thomas taking the all-around event with a 39.825 score, as well as the vault (9.975) and floor exercise (9.975). Freshman Lean Wong’s near-perfect 9.975 on the balance beam clinched the fourth event for Florida.

The other schools participating included Auburn (197.225), Missouri (196.875), LSU (196.725), Arkansas (196.45), Kentucky (196.35) and Georgia (195.80). Alabama won the championship title for the 2021 season.

Florida is the only program to earn at least a single individual event title in each of the past 11 SEC Championship meets, with 13 Gators collecting 30 total event titles since 2011. Thomas’s three wins on Saturday extends her Gator career events record total to just under the century mark at 99, and her all-around total of 39.825 this year was the second only to Alabama Jeana Rice’s 39.85 back in 2004 as the best score ever.

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Trinity Thomas is back and ready for Florida’s postseason competition

Pat Dooley caught up with Florida’s standout gymnast Trinity Thomas, who is amped for this year’s SEC Championships.

Trinity Thomas and ankle tape are not close friends.

“I don’t like ankle tape,” said the Florida gymnast.

But she had no choice this past summer. One bad landing in Tuscaloosa changed so many of her plans that instead became workouts and physical therapy with heavy tape on both ankles.

All of that, of course, is in the past and she is about as ready as you could ask for an elite college gymnast to be heading into Saturday’s SEC Championships.

“I’m super excited for the postseason,” she said. “Super duper.”

Thomas was peaking at the right time a year ago headed into the last regular season meet of the year against Alabama. But during warmups, she landed awkwardly on bars and sprained not one but both ankles.

She knew it was bad.

“I couldn’t walk,” she said.

Thomas sat out that meet and competed in only one event at the SECs and in the NCAA Regionals. She tried them all in the NCAA Championships, struggling with all of that tape and the confidence that gymnasts must have to do backflips on a four-inch-wide balance beam.

Florida finished a disappointing fourth in the country.

More than that, Thomas knew that the only way she would get better was with rest. As a result, in May she retired from elite gymnastics and passed up a chance to qualify for the Olympics.

“I had plans with my team and plans for the summer as well,” she said. “It was something I wasn’t ready for but I tried to work with the cards I was dealt.”

Gymnastics is one of those sports where what you do early isn’t the point. It’s how you build your routines as a season goes along and peaking at the right time.

Thomas was one meet away when her ankles changed everything.

But rather than sulk about the way her junior season ended and her lost chance to be an Olympian, she threw herself into rehab with personal trainers.

The result has been an incredible season where Thomas has become the all-time events winner in UF history and completed the “Gym Slam”, scoring a 10 in all four events.

One of the best to ever compete at Florida blew people away with how smoothly she came back. She even surprised herself… a little.

“Yes and no,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect because I never hurt my ankles before. I was a little hesitant.”

Hesitancy gave way to confidence which gave way to enthusiasm on a team that just finished an unbeaten regular season and certainly has a chance to win it all in April.

That postseason begins with the SECs in Birmingham where Auburn, the only team to tie Florida this season, will be a hill to climb.

But Thomas is just happy to be where she is — at full strength.

“I’ve enjoyed it so much,” she said. “This team has been awesome and I am so happy to be back on all four events.

“I had to be smart, taking care of my body in general, listening to my body about what I can do to be ready for the postseason. To not be able to do that last year to the best of my ability was tough, especially coming off a season where I was really building up to post(season).”

She still wears a little tape on the left ankle but was able to toss off the heavy tape before the season began. The results have been overwhelming as she broke the record for event wins with her 96th in the last meet of the season and is now up to 14 perfect 10s in her career.

She started slowly in 2022 with just two events in the opening quad meet but by the time Florida faced Alabama two weeks later she was ready to put on a show with a pair of 10s and became the 12th gymnast ever to pull off the Slam.

Now, the postseason. Trinity Time.

“I’m just excited for Trinity and to see her have the ability to contribute to the team,” said Florida coach Jenny Rowland. “I know that she felt that she wasn’t capable of doing that last season. So, for her to have that ability to go in and compete for the team is just going to bring her a lot of joy.”

But hold the tape.

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Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Grace McCallum all scored perfect 10s within 24 hours

These young Olympians continue to push a standard of excellence.

While gymnasts are known for having impeccable balance, grace, and attention to detail with their routines that demand perfection, this weekend was one for the record books. It was an all-timer.

Three separate Tokyo Olympians and college gymnasts — Auburn’s Suni Lee, UCLA’s Jordan Chiles, and Utah’s Grace McCallum — all scored a perfect 10 within less than a day of each other. It was the first perfect 10 for each young athlete, if that wasn’t enough.

A perfect score, for the first time, for one person — which again, the word perfect means mistake-free — is excellent. But three times, for the first time for each person, in a matter of hours? That’s absolutely bananas—an unquestioned concurrence of success in athletic excellence. The Great Gymnastics Conjunction happened, and we were all witnesses.

First, to reach perfection were Chiles and McCallum, who were competing in the same meet against each other.

After capturing silver together in Tokyo a little under two years ago, the 20-year-old Chiles is considered one of the brighter names in gymnastics. She showed as much on Friday with a relatively new floor routine.

Please, note the emotion, the pure delight. That’s what it feels like to be one of the very best at what you do. That’s what feels like to be perfect for the first time. Make no mistake: Chiles is one of the best.

Of course, in a competitive meet, the fellow silver medalist McCallum had to answer, right? Competition not only brings out excellence in all of us, sometimes it manifests perfection. That was especially true for the 19-year-old McCallum.

What a moment. What a performance between two stars. Seriously, take a bow.

If Chiles and McCallum being perfect on the same evening wasn’t enough, another accomplished gymnast had the cherry to add on top the next day. Or, should we say the following afternoon.

With the 2020 all-around Tokyo gold medal to her name, Suni Lee has nothing to prove to anyone in terms of her prowess. But, for good measure, she is considered the best in the world on the bars. And that is something to brag about every chance you get.

Why not show it, show off, and do it in a meet, no less?

In recording her first 10 ever, Lee captured just the sixth perfect score in Auburn history and the first since 2004. An elite club for an elite gymnast, to be sure.

There’s pushing for perfection; then there’s actually obtaining it.

But why should anyone be surprised? Chiles, McCallum, and Lee are incredible gymnasts and premier world-class athletes at the respective tops of their game. Their individual, and combined, flawlessness was an inevitability.

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