Tag: Jordyn Wieber

Arkansas Gymnastics adds three-time All-American to roster

Norah Flatley, a three-time All-American at UCLA, will be spending her final eligible season in Fayetteville.

Arkansas Gymnastics Head Coach [autotag]Jordyn Wieber[/autotag] knows what it takes to get to the top of the gymnastics world. Now, as a head coach, she is using recruiting to get the Arkansas gym team to that point.

[autotag]Norah Flatley[/autotag], a three-time All-American at UCLA and a member of the U.S. National Team, has announced that she will spend her super-senior season in Fayetteville, competing for the University of Arkansas.

“I could not be more thrilled that Norah has chosen Arkansas for the upcoming season, to continue her academic and athletic career. Norah brings so much to the table, including her performance quality, difficulty, and experience,” head coach Jordyn Wieber said in a press release. “She has already had incredible success and I have no doubt she will bring her competitive spirit and leadership to this program.”

Flatley, a native of West Des Moines, Iowa, comes to Arkansas after earning a spot on the 2022 first-team for balance beam, and second-team all-around honors. She posted her highest career scores in vault, balance beam, floor, and all-around during her senior season in Westwood, which led her to being named “Comeback Gymnast of the Year” by College Gym News.

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Arkansas Gymnastics: Postseason roster moves begin to take shape

Two gymnasts who were a part of the 2022 roster have made decisions regarding their futures with the program.

The early stages of the offseason mean the same for Gymnastics as it does for every other sport. It’s now time to play “are they staying? Or are they going?”

Arkansas Gymnastics’ team season concluded on April 2, with two members of the Gymbacks’ squad competing for individual national titles on April 14. Since then, two athletes have announced their decisions on their future with the program.

One of the individual national competitors, [autotag]Kennedy Hambrick[/autotag], announced Monday that she will be returning for her 5th season.

Hambrick joined Sarah Shaffer at the National Championships in Dallas, Texas by competing in the All-Around event, while Shaffer competed in bars. According to Arkansas Athletics, her score of 39.575 in the regional semifinal was a season high, and featured no scores lower than 9.875.

While at nationals, Hambrick was named all-around All-American after placing in the top-8, grabbing the 52nd All-American honor for Arkansas Gymnastics.

Hambrick joins [autotag]Bailey Lovett[/autotag] in returning for one more season. Lovett announced her decision in February.

While one members returns, one will be leaving the program to focus on academics and her future career.

[autotag]Amanda Elswick[/autotag], a four-year competitor for Arkansas, has announced her plans to continue her academic career at another institution.

Elswick saw action in all four years that she was a Razorback, but participated in every meet on vault and beam for Arkansas during her senior year. Some of the highlights of her season include a career-best 9.950 on beam against SEMO on February 6, and winning the beam title in the meet with Georgia on February 25.

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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No. 11 Arkansas loses Weaver for season with torn ACL

An Arkansas freshman was lost for the season her first-ever appearance as a collegian.

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No. 11 Arkansas gymnast Cami Weaver will miss the rest of the season after tearing her ACL in Friday’s meet against Auburn.

The meet was the first-ever gymnastics event inside Bud Walton Arena. A school-record 10,345 people attended in the one-off event as Hogs gymnastics normally meets in Barnhill Arena. The record is the second the Gymbacks have set since Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber has been coach as her home debut as coach in 2020 set the attendance record that was then broke Friday.

Weaver, a freshman from Alabama, was injured on her landing off the vault in her first-ever collegiate meet in her first-ever collegiate rotation.

“She tore her ACL, which is super unfortunate and a huge loss for us,” Wieber said. “My heart goes out to her. She’s still going to be an important team member for us. … It was just kind of a fluky vault for her and just the reality of our sport sometimes.”

Arkansas next takes the floor Friday at No. 5 LSU. The Tigers were off last week after being forced to postpone against Missouri because of COVID. Arkansas is dealing with its own such issues, too, Wieber said.

“I think every program is dealing with that a little bit right now,” Wieber said.