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Last Week in College Gym: September 23

During the offseason, it can be difficult to keep up with all the news and training updates happening across the country. So each week, we will provide a curation of the most exciting upgrades, as well as other important news happening in the college gym world. Note the majority of the training updates highlighted will feature new skills and not, for example, someone training their same routine from the past season.

Of course, even with eight editors scouring social media for clips, we’ll still miss updates from time to time. Let us know in the comments or on social media if we didn’t include a new skill, injury comeback or more from someone on your favorite team!

Training Updates

  • UCLA sophomore Norah Flatley, who has already shown several potential upgrades this offseason, is training yet another, working a full-twisting double layout dismount off bars on UCLA’s Instagram Story.
  • Nebraska’s Clara Colombo, a freshman from Italy, is training a blind change + front giant + double front half-out bar dismount. Huskers assistant coach Mike Heredia posted it to his Instagram Story.
  • Kylie Piringer, a freshman at Nebraska, is training a Maloney on bars. The upgrade, seen on the Huskers’ Instagram Story, would replace the toe shoot she competed in J.O.
  • Penn freshman McCaleigh Marr is training a double layout on bars, which is a new dismount for her, while classmate Rebekah Lashley is training a Yurchenko one and a half into the pit.
  • Centenary senior Cami Bea Austin is training a double layout as shown on her Instagram Story this week, which would be an exciting upgrade from her double pike. 
  • Mallory Mizuki was working beam in clips on Illinois’ Instagram Story this week; the sophomore missed her entire freshman season with an ACL injury. This is the first gymnastics we’ve seen from her in almost a year.
  • Nebraska sophomore Kaylee Quinn continues to impress this preseason; though she hasn’t shown big upgrades, her gymnastics appears transformed. She has a presence and finish she lacked during her first year. 
  • Per Yale’s Instagram, freshman Aimee Titche is training a Yurchenko one and a half. She competed a Yurchenko full in J.O.
  • Oklahoma senior Jade Degouveia has been working hard on bars for 2020. She previously served primarily as a vault and floor specialist.
  • Adnerys de Jesus has been training a double layout on bars, as seen on the Nebraska Instagram Story. The sophomore competed a double Arabian last year.
  • Lindenwood freshman Gayla Griswold is training a Yurchenko one and a half into the pit. If she can compete it, we believe it would be only the second 10.0 start value on the event in program history.
  • Denver junior Mia Sundstrom is training a Yurchenko one and a half onto the resi per her Instagram Story.
  • Arizona State posted an Instagram Story showcasing three Sun Devils training Yurchenko one and a halfs. Freshman Juliette Boyer and junior Cairo Leonard-Baker both performed the laid-out versions while freshman Gracie Reeves stuck her tucked version.
  • Towson sophomore Emerson Hurst, who is known for her stellar beam routines, is training a new series: a front aerial to back handspring layout step-out.
  • Denver senior Maddie Karr is training a round off + layout one and a half + front double full per the team’s Instagram Story. She was shown performing it on Tumbl Trak to a stack of mats as part of the team’s air awareness practice.
  • Oklahoma always seems to pull “new” events out of its returning competitors; junior Jordan Draper posted a clip of herself training a piked Jaeger on her Instagram Story.
  • Arkansas freshman Kiara Gianfagna is working a Yurchenko one and a half vault. It would be the second 10.0 start in the Razorbacks’ lineup.
  • Missouri freshman Helen Hu is training a front double full on floor.

Elite News

  • Illinois 2021 commit Amelia Knight won floor gold for non-squad gymnasts in the British Team Championships with a very clean set. She also took second on bars and third in the all around, helping her team, the Academy, to a first place finish. 

Coaching Changes

  • Illinois State hired Chris Muras as an assistant coach. Muras had previously been a volunteer at Minnesota.
  • Longtime Michigan assistant coach Scott Sherman was promoted to associate head coach.

What Else

  • Penn State head coach Sarah Shire Brown announced that she will give birth to a second baby boy in March.
  • 2021 commit Lucy Stanhope of Great Britain changed her verbal commitment from Arkansas to Utah.

Article by the editors of College Gym News

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