Golden Eagles Golden at NCGA National Championships

Though Brockport winning the NCGA Championship title after coming in ranked first makes this look like one of the most basic and predictable meets of the weekend, it was anything but.

Despite the competition lasting over five hours from national anthem to the champion being crowned, the meet was a thrilling competition of ups and downs for nearly all six programs fighting for the national championship. Brockport came in with an unideal rotation order, starting on beam and ending on bars. However, the starting lineup was cool, calm and collected after Alexis Frankowski led them off with an incredibly confident and solid set that set the tone for the rest of the night.

Two other teams shined in the first rotation. The first was UW-Oshkosh, which started off its night on vault with what was probably one of its rotations on the event all year, hitting big vault after big vault. UW-Whitewater also shined, looking like a totally different group on floor than it started the year like.

The second rotation brought in the real challengers to Brockport in UW-Stout and Ithaca. UW-Stout knocked it out of the park on bars while Ithaca did well on floor, indicating a fairly status quo competition.

But not for long.

Things went awry in the third rotation, with lineups acting like yo-yos, going from a missed routine to a hit and back to another miss. But in the middle of this DIII rollercoaster, it was Brockport that remained steady, hitting a huge floor rotation that some called a “religious experience,” as well as a fantastic vault lineup that featured three Yurchenko fulls and a jaw-dropping front handspring front pike that was stuck cold.

Meanwhile, the other teams continued to struggle. Nerve-filled beam and floor rotations from Stout opened the door a bit while Ithaca’s downfall was bars. Oshkosh also fell victim to the bars and beam, which allowed an ever-improving and confident Whitewater to slide into a top spot.

In the final rotation, Stout wrangled in its nervous energy to score big on vault, highlighted by Shadae Boone’s stuck Yurchenko 1.5 for a 9.825. Oshkosh also went all out on floor, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the mistakes that were made in the previous rotations.

Brockport rounded out its night with a complete six-for-six hit on bars—and 24-for-24 overall—to take home its first national title since 2012.

For complete results, click here. Otherwise, take a look at the winners of the NCGA awards and titles below:

Team Scores

  1. Brockport – 191.050
  2. UW-Stout – 190.275
  3. UW-Whitewater – 190.150
  4. UW-Oshkosh – 189.400
  5. Ithaca – 187.975
  6. Cortland – 185.500

Individual

Vault – Shadae Boone (Stout) 9.825
Bars – Courtney Christoforo (Ithaca) 9.675
Beam – Franchesca Hutton (Whitewater) 9.775
Floor – Emma Schulz (Cortland) 9.825
AA – Candis Kowalik (Brockport) 38.400

NCGA Coach of the Year

Lauren Karnitz (Oshkosh)

NCGA Senior Athlete of the Year

Rachel Lee (Ithaca)


Article by Rachel Riesterer

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