It’s been a few months since we’ve published an elite recap, but with the American elite summer looming, it’s the perfect time to catch up.
Birmingham World Cup
UCLA signee Margzetta Frazier traveled to the UK in March to compete in the Birmingham World Cup, bringing home silver in her first international assignment. She scored 53.932 after a shaky beam routine took her out of title contention.
Keeping Up With The Academy
The Academy of Gymnastics (GBR) continues to develop as a leading international NCAA pipeline, with the recent verbal of Zoe Simmons to Pittsburgh bringing its total to seven current or future NCAA gymnasts.
Junior stars Amelie Morgan (California) and Phoebe Jakubczyk (Oregon State) recently competed in the 2018 European Youth Olympic Qualifier, finishing sixth and 10th with scores of 51.433 and 50.432, respectively. These marks are only average for the talented pair, but they succeeded in qualifying Great Britain a spot to the Youth Olympics in October.
Meanwhile, the duo were also selected to the Junior European Championships in August, where they will be in reasonable contention for team and individual medals.
Danusia Francis Is Her Own Category
Since our last update, UCLA alumna Danusia Francis traveled to Mallorca to compete as a guest in several friendly meets for which we unfortunately couldn’t find results.
She’s also been working to upgrade her trademark collegiate dismount, aiming to compete a transverse side aerial connected to a back 1.5 twist.
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Canadian Championships
For NCAA fans, Canadian nationals is an annual sneak peek into Georgia’s future lineups. This year, the Bulldogs were represented by signee Megan Roberts, who finished 13th with a two-day total of 97.565, and Haley de Jong, who finished seventh with an impressive 101.756 and picked up a bronze medal on vault.
Alabama signee Shallon Olsen also competed, sitting out of bars but winning national titles on both vault and floor.
Commonwealth Games
Alabama signee Shallon Olsen shone at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, picking up the vault title in convincing fashion, as well as contributing the highest individual score of the whole meet to help Canada defeat a hampered England squad for the team title. Olsen also grabbed a bronze on floor with a tidy and elegant routine that looks increasingly NCAA-ready.
Georgia alumna Brittany Rogers showed she’s still not done by claiming silver on bars, hilariously completing an ‘all-Georgia podium’ between Georgia-Mae Fenton and Georgia Godwin. (Even better, the fourth-place gymnast was also a Georgia.) She also contributed three scores to Canada’s team gold.
Icelandic Action
Seattle Pacific signee Lilja Olafsdottir represents Iceland internationally, and her last competitive season before college has been a busy one. She finished sixth at the Icelandic championships, picking up a silver on floor. She then collected a silver medal at the GK championships with a career high 49.321. She was part of the Icelandic team at the Nordic championships as well, finishing sixth in the all around and fourth in the team event. Those results helped her get selected to the European championships team.
Pacific Rim Championships
Utah commit Grace McCallum was the story of Pac Rims, upsetting reigning world champion and Florida commit Morgan Hurd (who had a beam catastrophe) to win the senior title and establish herself in the U.S. senior landscape. Canadian Georgia commit Haley de Jong joined McCallum and Hurd on an all-NCAA all around podium.
UCLA’s Jordan Chiles didn’t compete all around, but she did pick up the vault title in a final that also featured McCallum and de Jong. She also won floor while de Jong claimed gold on bars.
In the juniors, Jordan Bowers kicked off her dominant season with an all around win while future Auburn gymnast Sunisa Lee picked up fourth after struggling on bars. Lee redeemed herself with silver on every other event, and Bowers nabbed the floor title.
Junior Pan Ams
The United States had a strong showing at Junior Pan Ams in early June, led by Oklahoma commit Jordan Bowers who claimed the all around title with a 54.75 and picked up wins on bars and floor. LSU commit Tori Tatum also excelled, winning the vault title with two great Yurchenkos—a double and a 1.5—both of which would make a college lineup immediately.
National Qualifier Action
Since March, three national elite qualifiers have taken place in the U.S., hosted by KPAC (March), Auburn (May) and Brestyan’s (June). These future NCAA gymnasts each received qualifying scores.
(Note that some of these gymnasts have qualified and competed elite in the past. Gymnasts who qualified multiple times in this three month period have only been listed once with their higher score.)
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KPAC National Qualifier |
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| Isabel Mabanta | SR | Denton | 51.10 | Denver | 2021 |
| Sunisa Lee | JR | Midwest | 56.0 | Auburn | 2021 |
| Jordan Bowers | JR | Solid Rock | 50.95 | Oklahoma | 2021 |
| Maeve Hahn | JR | First in Flight | 50.75 | Georgia | 2021 |
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Auburn National Qualifier |
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| Sloane Blakely | SR | WOGA | 53.75 | Florida | 2021 |
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Brestyan’s National Qualifier |
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| Jaylene Gilstrap | SR | Metroplex | 39.25 | Utah | 2020 |
| Riley McCusker | SR | MG Elite | 26.5 | Florida | 2019 |
| Aleah Finnegan | JR | GAGE | 53.3 | LSU | 2021 |
| Emma Boyd | H13 | Orlando Metro | 51.1 | Georgia | 2023 |
Coming Up Soon
American elites who haven’t yet gotten their U.S. Classic qualifying score (plus some who have) will be competing at the American Classic in Salt Lake City this weekend. The biggest name at this meet is Oregon State signee Jade Carey, who might be making her elite all around debut. We’ll have more coverage of that meet and of the U.S. elite summer.
Carey isn’t the only incoming freshman competing elite in the U.S. this summer: Trinity Thomas of Florida recently announced her intent to compete at nationals despite already arriving in Gainesville. For more insight into the elites of the 2018 signing class, make sure to check out our upcoming most anticipated elite freshman routines series.
Article by Rebecca Scally
