Future NCAA Stars Shine at J.O. Nationals

By Emily Howell-Forbes

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The annual event of “we shall try not to die so that colleges will tell us ‘I choose you,’” also more commonly known as J.O. Level 10 Nationals, was held in Indianapolis this weekend. Those who mainly follow elite will have been watching the little Junior As and Bs with rapt attention, while those who follow NCAA gymnastics will have been focused on the Senior D, E and F groups that contain next year’s future freshman stars. And those of us who follow both are just exhausted after a weekend of trying to watch a extremely difficult to follow stream.

There were twelve age group categories, each spanning about four months. This made for 12 individual event winners for each event and 12 AA winners, which fits right into the NCAA theme of “you get a medal, and you get a medal, and you get a medal!”

​The main freshmen standouts from each school were as follows, ranked by score within the 2018 incoming class:
Place
Gymnast
School
Score
1
Nia Dennis
UCLA
38.8
2
Lynnzee Brown
Denver
38.7
3
Kyana George
California
38.65
T-4
Rachael Flam
Stanford
38.625
T-4
Lexi Graber
Alabama
38.625
T-6
Lauren Navarro
Stanford
38.6
​T-6
Evy Schoepfer
Oklahoma
38.6
T-6
Kaitlyn Yanish
Oregon State
38.6
9
Lea Mitchell
Michigan State
38.55
10
Alonza Klopfer
Alabama
38.375
So it was most of the big-name schools you’d expect. Dennis had one of the most consistent meets ever with 9.675s on bars, beam, and floor and a 9.775 on vault (which tends to score around 0.1–0.2 higher than other JO events). She vaults a Yurchenko full right now, so UCLA will be looking to build that back up.

Brown posted huge scores (and was gorgeous) on vault, bars and floor. Beam was fine, just a little “knees” on all the acro skills. Denver getting one of the best recruits of this class is big for them. Also in this class is Sundstrom who, based on scores, apparently took a crash on bars and didn’t finish her meet. Her standout event is usually floor, with high, clean skills and pretty lines. We will be watching closely this year to see how Denver will do with these freshmen combined with Karr.

An incoming Cal freshman, George’s highlight event is her floor, where she had huge amplitude on everything and gorgeous leaps. Her weakest event was bars where little things like knees and handstands ate away at tenths here and there.

Stanford has two gymnasts in the top ten. Navarro tied with Yanish (OSU) and Schoepfer (OU), but she would have placed higher if not for an uncharacteristically lower (9.45) bar score from her. Flam contributes huge scoring routines on at least three of the four events, as bars tends to be her lowest scoring but still has the potential to score well. These two with the addition of Taylor Lawson’s floor and Kyla Bryant’s everything ever will mean heads rolling if Stanford is not a team in the conversation about top teams next year.

Oregon State is desperately in need of routines after losing key scores on all events at the end of last season, and Yanish will help fill those gaps. Her skills on all events are clean and polished and the error that caused the deductions in her beam routine was just an iffy switch side. Everything else was lovely.

Schoepfer was a Nastia Liukin Cup competitor a few years back and has performed consistently well at J.O. Nationals over the past several years, always finishing within the top seven in her age group. Her standout event is floor, where her opening floor pass is a double layout. She also has a giant Yurchenko full on vault.

Mitchell is a MSU recruit that has had consistent all around scores all year and had lovely vault and floor at nationals.

Vault

Place
Gymnast
School
Score
1
Lexi Graber
Alabama
10.0
T-2
Rachael Flam
Stanford
9.9
T-2
Anastasia Webb
Oklahoma
9.9
4
Lauren Bridgens
Penn State
9.875
T-5
Payton Bellows
Arizona
9.85
T-5
Lynnzee Brown
Denver
9.85
T-5
Drew Watson
Auburn
9.85
T-8
Kylie Dickson
Alabama
9.8
T-8
Mikaela Meyer
Utah State
9.8
T-8
Lea Mitchell
Michigan State
9.8
​T-8
Geneva Thompson
Washington
9.8
This list contains several teams you wouldn’t necessarily expect to have individuals at the top of the vault rankings, but all their respective teams will take these scores in a heartbeat. Bridgens’s vault is a clean Yurchenko 1.5 that has gone as high as 9.95 in J.O.  In terms of 10.0 start values, Graber, Brown, Watson, and Bellows all also boast Yurchenko 1.5s. Watson has clean pretty lines that translate well to the other events, and she’s typically a solid scorer on the other events, as well as boasting a huge Yurchenko 1.5. Flam has a gorgeously high and clean Omelianchik. Webb, who will be going to Oklahoma, has a Omelianchik as well, which is nice and clean. She would have been up in the all around rankings, if not for a fluky looking mistake on a pak salto during her bars routine. Farley of Michigan also has an Omelianchik that she added this year (but it frequently lacks block and height which results in a low landing). Watson, Flam, and now Graber have all posted 10.0s on their vaults in J.O. this year. Finally, Dickson vaults a DTY.

Mitchell and Thompson both vault Yurchenko fulls that are nice and clean, most of them flared out with the potential to upgrade with a year or so of NCAA. Thompson’s in particular is huge, and Washington will take that in its lineup any day of the week. It looks like she even has the potential to upgrade. Her other standout event is generally floor, where she has a huge full in as her opening tumbling pass. Meyer of Utah State vaults a Yurchenko layout half and has scored well on it all year.

Dickson’s double twisting Yurchenko looked about 300 times better than the last time I saw her do it in elite, while she might not immediately compete it while she transitions into NCAA, it would be a viable option in the near future . The addition of the two 10.0 starts from Dickson and Graberto Desch’s and Guerrero’s Yurchenko 1.5s will make for four potential 10.0 start value vaults in Alabama’s lineup. In addition, Brannan also vaulted a Yurchenko 1.5 before she was injured last year, and there is the potential that Bailie Key could bring some form of 10.0 start value vault if she is healthy next season.

Bars

Place
Gymnast
School
Score
1
Nina Schank
California
9.75
T-2
Lynnzee Brown
Denver
9.725
T-2
Kylie Dickson
Alabama
9.725
T-2
Emma Hartzler
Iowa
9.725
T-2
Kennedy Johnson
Central Michigan
9.725
T-6
Lauren Diggan
New Hampshire
9.7
T-6
Tra’Vanni Jacobs
Kentucky
9.7
T-6
Anne Maxim
Michigan State
​9.7
​T-6
Haley Pitou
BYU
9.7
T-10
Nia Dennis
UCLA
9.675
T-10
Karrie Thomas
Maryland
9.675
T-10
Drew Watson
Auburn
9.675
T-10
Kaitlyn Yanish
Oregon State
9.675
Another Cal recruit, Schank has a gorgeous piked Jaeger and generally just nice clean lines and form on bars. She typically posts solid vault and floor scores as well.

Then there are a few smaller teams sitting in the middle of this ranking with CMU, New Hampshire, and BYU. CMU’s recruit is Kennedy Johnson, whose 9.725 was her highest score on bars of the year. Her handstands seemed a little short upon closer inspection, but in general her lines were pretty and her Gienger was gorgeous with legs glued together.

Diggan (New Hampshire) has a hop full to double tuck dismount in her routine, which is cool and unique. Maxim (MSU) has a bar set with clean lines and looks very NCAA ready.  Pitou is committed to BYU next year and has a nice Jaeger on bars with a full in dismount. She also has a Yurchenko 1.5 as her vault

Jacobs is Kentucky’s ninja recruit of the year, in that hardly anyone knew she was committed there until she came in and placed seventh in her nationals group (tying with Ramler). She didn’t compete vault or floor part of last year and most of the 2016-17 season. Then she suddenly appeared at the Texas state meet this year, made regionals, qualified to nationals, and then placed seventh in her age group, tied for 14th in the all around of the 2018 class, and tied for sixth on bars of the 2018 class.

Beam

Place
Gymnast
School
Score
1
Lexy Ramler
Minnesota
9.8
T-2
Nia Dennis
UCLA
9.675
T-2
Lauren Navarro
Stanford
9.675
T-4
Charlotte Cooperman
Maryland
9.6
T-4
Kyana George
California
9.6
T-4
Belle Huang
Rutgers
9.6
T-7
Lex Burch
Utah
9.575
T-7
Lauren Farley
Michigan
9.575
T-7
Kelley Hebert
UC Davis
9.575
T-10
Sophia Carter
Arkansas
​9.55
T-10
Autumn DeHarde
Utah State
9.55
T-10
Lexi Graber
Alabama
9.55
T-10
Ashley Smith
Auburn
9.55
Ramler is another gymnast who would have been in the running for that top ten all around list if not for a bars fall. Ramler’s beam score was the highest of the entire meet! Her fall on bars came on her first attempt at her shaposh full on bars, which she then reattempted and nailed. Her score (9.1) included the 0.5 deduction for the fall, which means she would have likely scored above a 9.6 had she hit. Even with the fall, she still scored 38.275 in the all around. The additional 0.5 had she not fallen would have put her at least at a 38.775, just barely behind Dennis. Her difficulty is not confined to bars either, as she has a full in on floor, a Yurchenko 1.5 on vault, and a back handspring-layout stepout-layout stepout triple series that she showcased to win beam.

Farley boasts the rare credential of being a consistent beamer in JO. She regularly posts high scores and only had one low score, a 9.1, during the entire year. Michigan could certainly use a good beamer right about now and her floor routine is also super engaging and fun.

The U.C. Davis commit in this list, Hebert, also posted an all-around score of 38.15. That’s unusual for an incoming freshman to a school that was ranked 42nd in the NCAA last year. It’s very likely she’ll do AA for the Aggies regularly. An interesting fact: Hebert was originally committed to UW but switched her commitment to UC Davis in 2016.

Burch is a consistent Level 10 who has qualified to four J.O. national championships, as well as the Nastia Liukin Cup in 2015. While Utah isn’t desperately hurting for routines, with only one senior leaving and two athletes returning this year from injuries, it can use the depth that it was lacking this year when the two went down. Burch’s best scores are typically on vault, beam, and floor.

Carter is a solid all around gymnast whose best events are likely beam and floor, but is arguably evenly spread across all four.

Floor

Place
Gymnast
1
Kyana George
California
9.825
T-2
Rachael Flam
Stanford
9.725
T-2
Taylor Lawson
Stanford
9.725
T-2
Ona Loper
Minnesota
9.725
T-2
Lauren Navarro
Stanford
9.725
T-2
Evy Schoepfer
Oklahoma
9.725
T-7
Lynnzee Brown
Denver
9.7
T-7
Lea Mitchell
Michigan State
9.7
T-7
Anastasia Webb
Oklahoma
9.7
T-7
Kaitlyn Yanish
Oregon State
9.7
Floor is Lawson’s main event, and Stanford would love to time travel backwards to put it in last year’s lineups. Her opening pass in J.O. this year was a double Arabian, and she has great amplitude on all her skills.

In contrast to Ramler, the other Minnesota commit at nationals this year, who just had an off meet on bars, Loper typically posts her highest scores on vault, beam, and floor. She vaults just a Yurchenko full but typically scores well on it and posts high scores on floor on a regular basis.

Notably missing from any of these lists are gymnasts from several teams who qualified to NCAA nationals this year: Georgia, LSU, and Florida.

One athlete currently committed to Georgia qualified to J.O. nationals: Samantha Durante. Durante (whose status as a Georgia commit may be up in the air) had somewhat of a rough meet which finished with an 8.5 on floor. Bars is typically her strongest event, and she did manage to post a 9.65 which ranks her 14th among those coming to college this fall.

LSU’s commits (Reagan Campbell, Bridget Dean, and Gracen Standley) either didn’t compete this season or stopped partway through. All three did well at J.O. nationals in 2016.

Florida lost very few routines last year and they do have incoming freshmen, but they are almost all former elites. The main recruit who would have competed at nationals is Megan Skaggs, who had an ACL scare before the Nastia Liukin Cup and didn’t compete floor the rest of the season, and so couldn’t qualify to nationals.

In addition, a few gymnasts qualified or would have qualified to nationals but didn’t end up competing. Arkansas’s top beam worker of this incoming class Sydney Laird, former Canadian elite, and current level 10 in the the U.S. actually did not compete at U.S. JO Nationals. She was one of the top beam workers this year of the 2018 class. A Washington freshmen, Rachel Kaplan, qualified to nationals but is presumably injured as she scratched all her events. Another of Washington’s freshmen, Jennifer Oh, who has qualified to nationals in the past, is currently rehabbing from a rotator cuff and labrum surgery.

Also noteworthy is a gymnast from the Senior B division, Sekai Wright (a 2018 grad). She is currently uncommitted, but as she vaulted a DTY and scored a 38.075 in all-around, she probably won’t be uncommitted much longer.

​Other top finishes by future commits include:

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