Who Won J.O. Nationals Based on Various Random Metrics

As we continue to bask in the excitement of J.O. nationals, we’re trying to break down the results for you in as many ways as possible. Before the meet, we reported Auburn qualified the most recruits to the meet. This got us thinking: While there were many winners on paper, we thought we’d break it down College Gym News style and see which states, clubs and future NCAA teams “won” nationals based on their gymnasts’ performances. Sometimes even random metrics can yield information and truth about potential future trends.

First, we decided to take a look at the top three overall scores on each event, which school they plan to compete for in the future and which gym and state they each represent. From there, we tallied the “winners.”

Vault

Place:	Score:	Gymnast:	Club Gym:	State:
No. 1	9.900	Soraya Hawthorne (Georgia) Haleigh Bryant (LSU)	Gymstars Everest	Tennessee North Carolina
No. 2	9.875	Rachael Lukacs (Georgia)	North Stars	New Jersey
No. 3	9.850	Makarri Doggette (Alabama) Gabryel Wilson (Michigan) Natalie Wojcik (Michigan) Jaedyn Rucker (Utah) Sekai Wright (UCLA) Hallie Thompson (North Carolina)	Buckeye Olympia Stallone Desert Devils American Gym Academy Southeastern	Ohio Michigan Pennsylvania Arizona California North Carolina

Bars

Place:	Score:	Gymnast:	Club Gym:	State:
No. 1	9.800	Andrea Li (California)	Legacy Elite	Illinois
No. 2	9.750	Makarri Doggette (Alabama) Savannah Schoenherr (Florida) Helen Hu (Missouri) Colbi Flory (UCLA) Derrian Gobourne (Auburn) Carly Bauman (Michigan) Alexis Jeffrey (Uncommitted)	Buckeye Georgia Elite IK Gym Texas Dreams Lakewood Ranch Chow’s Gage	Ohio Georgia Illinois Texas Florida Iowa Missouri
No. 3	9.725	Kai Rivers (LSU) Raegan Walker (Kentucky)	Twistars SCEGA	Michigan California

Beam

Place:	Score:	Gymnast:	Club Gym:	State:
No. 1	9.775	Helen Hu (Missouri)	IK Gym	Illinois
No. 2	9.750	Carly Bauman (Michigan)	Chow’s	Iowa
No. 3	9.725	Faith Torrez (Uncommitted) Lillian Lewis (Uncommitted)	Legacy Elite San Mateo	Illinois California

Floor

Place:	Score:	Gymnast:	Club Gym:	State:
No. 1	9.725	Andrea Li (California) Gabryel Wilson (Michigan) Olivia Trautman (Oklahoma)	Legacy Elite Olympia Twin City Twisters	Illinois Michigan Minnesota
No. 2	9.700	Makarri Doggette (Alabama) Taralyn Nguyen (Uncommitted) Kaylee Quinn (Nebraska)	Buckeye Technique North Stars	Ohio California New Jersey
No. 3	9.675	Helen Hu (Missouri) Rachael Lukacs (Georgia) Ariel Posen (Uncommitted)	IK Gym North Stars MG Elite	Illinois New Jersey New Jersey

All Around

Place:	Score:	Gymnast:	Club Gym:	State:
No. 1	38.925	Makarri Doggette (Alabama)	Buckeye	Ohio
No. 2	38.900	Gabryel Wilson (Michigan)	Olympia	Michigan
No. 3	38.875	Helen Hu (Missouri)	IK Gym	Illinois

College Gym News Winners

We assigned a point to each top-three finisher and came up with our winners. Some gymnasts obviously earned multiple points for their NCAA team, club gym and school. Here are the podium finishers.

Place	NCAA Team	Club Gym	Club State
No. 1	Michigan (6)	IK Gym and Buckeye (4)	Illinois (7)
No. 2	Uncommitted (5)	Legacy Elite and Olympia (3)	California (4)
No. 3	Alabama and Missouri (4)	Chow’s (2)	Iowa (2)

NCAA Team: You’ll notice Alabama’s and Missouri’s points were each earned by one gymnast (Makarri Doggette and Helen Hu, respectively). While both athletes still have one more year before they join their college teams, look for them to make a big splash in the NCAA. It’s also interesting to note that the second place group went to athletes who haven’t announced their college decision yet. From a recruiting perspective, this is quite exciting as it means there is plenty of talent still out there to recruit. Some of these athletes are still very young (and we want to stress that they still have PLENTY of time to make a college decision), but it will certainly make for an exciting next few years if these athletes are already performing this well among the top senior athletes.  

Additionally, many teams that had a high number of athletes competing didn’t factor into the top three as often. Most notably: Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon State and Auburn. Here are the number of athletes that the top schools had competing at this meet.

Club Gym: Once again, Doggette and Hu both notched multiple points for their gyms, single-handedly helping Buckeye and IK Gym secure the “win.” Andrea Li and Gabryel Wilson carried both the Legacy Elite and Olympia teams, respectively, to a second place finish while Rachael Lukacs and Kaylee Quinn teamed up for North Stars. Carly Bauman helped Chow’s sneak into the No. 3 spot. For J.O. nationals, quantity didn’t necessarily equal numerous top finishes. Metroplex had 13 gymnasts competing and Texas Dreams had 12, but Metroplex didn’t break into the top three while Texas Dreams did only once thanks to Colbi Flory.

Club State: Illinois ran away with the newly invented Club State title. Texas, typically a gymnastics powerhouse state, is notably absent from the “podium.”

College Gym News Team Finals

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about individuals, but we all know NCAA is a team sport. We thought it would be fitting to simulate “team finals” data with each gymnasts’ score counting towards the score of her future school.

To get the total score, we took the top three scores of each schools’ recruit, averaged them and then multiplied that by three to get the score for the event.

Breaking it down: While we know many of the top recruits weren’t at this meet (i.e. elite athletes, injuries) this list does make us think about some potential new trends in the future of NCAA gymnastics. Given the parity in college gymnastics, particularly in recent seasons, there is always a potential for some drastic ranking shifts, and it will be interesting to see if these numbers are any indication of what’s to come.

Teams that outdid themselves: Pitt, which finished the 2018 season ranked 30th, finished fifth in our team final, marking the most noticeable jump in the standings. Another surprise was UNC, who disappointingly finished out of the top 36 in 2018. Its performance at J.O. nationals indicates the strength of its future recruits. California and Michigan finished commandingly in front of the rest of the teams here, which suggests their recruiting classes are indeed as strong as they have appeared on paper.

Surprisingly low finishes: UCLA, Florida and LSU—who finished the 2018 seasons ranked first, third, and fourth, respectively—are noticeably absent from our team finals standings. Oklahoma, who finished 2018 in second, is in 10th place. These are teams who typically recruit more elite athletes than other teams, so their low finish is not a red flag but still something to note.

Looking Forward: There is typically a big recruiting boom after nationals, and we thought it might be fun to see how the “uncommitted” gymnasts did, especially since they factored so heavily into the overall rankings.

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Article by Luci Lantos and Tara Graeve