Summer at College Gym News means it’s time to welcome new contributors into the fold. We have a whopping 18 new faces on board, and it’s time for you to meet them! From interns to data editors and feature writers, they’ll be helping out with everything we do at CGN, and we’re so excited to have them!
First, introduce yourselves! Who are you and what is your role at CGN?
Katie C: I’m an editor for elite and recruiting. I follow the elite competitions that current NCAA athletes, recruits, and potential recruits compete in.
Jessica: I’m a beat intern. This season I’m helping cover ACC and EAGL gymnastics.
Aaron: I am also one of the beat interns. I will be covering the Big 12, MPSF, and Mountain West gymnastics conferences.
Lela: I’m a feature writer. You’ll see my byline on profiles, informational pieces, data dives, and the like. I interview lots of people, and I love getting to tell people’s stories.
Daniel: I’m really excited to be a beat intern this year. I will be covering Pac-12 gymnastics.
Jackie: I’m an administrative assistant.
Bailey: I’m a data editor.
Naomi: I’m Naomi, another beat intern. I will help cover the Big Ten this season.
Julianna: I am one of the new feature writers for College Gym News! I competed in the NCAA at Bridgeport for two years and finished out my career at Temple for the past three. I am so excited to be here!
Jill: I’m another data editor.
Tia: I am a feature writer.
Rebekah: I’m a copy editor. I’m really excited to get to help work with all the incredible writers at CGN on the tone and flow of their pieces.
Mary: I am a beat intern and am so excited to be covering the SEC.
Ashley: I’m one of the new feature writers!
How did you become interested in gymnastics? What is your first memory of following college gymnastics?
Katie C: I trained gymnastics at a national development level in Northern Ireland before dropping down to recreational gymnastics as a teenager. My first memory of college gymnastics was when I watched it for the first time due to Ruby Harrold competing at LSU, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Jessica: I started doing gymnastics when I was 7 and competed until level 8. I’d always dreamed of being a gymnast for a Division I university, but after a change of plans, I ended up diving in college. My love of college gymnastics began after stumbling upon an LSU gymnastics meet on ESPN in 2014.
Aaron: I went to a birthday party at a gym when I was in third grade, and shortly after that, I was enrolled in classes. My first memory of college gymnastics was seeing Sophina DeJesus’ viral floor routine in 2016.
Lela: I did a lot of rec gymnastics as a kid until I was politely told I was too tall to continue. (For what it’s worth, I’m now 5’10” and I can still do a back tuck off a diving board, so I sure showed them.) I got interested in college gymnastics after the 2016 Olympics when Madison Kocian, Maggie Nichols, and MyKayla Skinner began their NCAA careers. They were three very different gymnasts, and I wondered what made NCAA so appealing to them. I found out!
Daniel: I fell in love with gymnastics when I was 9 years old after going to a friend’s gymnastics birthday party. I begged my parents to sign me up and continued doing gymnastics until I became a mediocre level 10. I followed elite gymnastics very closely, but I didn’t start following college gymnastics until the 2017 season when some of my favorite elite gymnasts (Kyla Ross, Madison Kocian, and Maggie Nichols) began their collegiate careers. Besides seeing YouTube videos, my first memory of college gymnastics was watching a thrilling collegiate mens’ competition at the Naval Academy right before the session I was about to compete in.
Jackie: I became interested in gymnastics after watching the 1992 Olympics. I started doing gymnastics shortly after and competed until level 8. My first college gymnastics memory was watching Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian compete in their first meet at UCLA.
Bailey: My mom and I watched all of the 2008 Beijing Olympics together, and I fell in love with gymnastics watching Shawn Johnson. In 2012 and 2016, I learned everything I could about the teams and fell in love again watching the McKayla Maroney vault and Simone Biles tumble. When I started grad school in a new city in 2018, gymnastics was really comforting, and I watched every competition and YouTube video I could find, including lots of UCLA.
Naomi: I was introduced to gymnastics by a school friend and was immediately hooked. I have a background in classical dance, and the two disciplines have a lot of crossover. I initially followed elite gymnastics before being introduced to college gymnastics after the 2016 Olympics. My first memory of college gymnastics is watching Peng Peng Lee’s balance beam routine that clinched the 2018 NCAA championship for UCLA.
Julianna: My mom put me in Mommy & Me gymnastics classes when I was 2! I have done gymnastics since then and recently just ended my career at Temple, so truly gymnastics is all I’ve known. I can remember following college gymnastics as early as seventh or eighth grade when my older teammates started graduating and when I was starting the recruitment process.
Jill: I started following elite after the Beijing Olympics but didn’t get into NCAA gymnastics until the 2020 Olympics were postponed. I started watching college meets on Youtube to fill the void and have been hooked ever since.
Tia: I grew up doing gymnastics recreationally and for fun starting at age 3. Although I played too many other sports to ever try to join a competitive team, I still enjoyed it and loved watching it on TV. Once I saw Gabby Douglas compete in the London Olympics, I was hooked. My first memory of college gymnastics is from 2016 when Sophina DeJesus’ floor routine went viral. I loved the dance moves added in and the songs she used for her music. It was a perfect example of personality, fun, and athletic prowess.
Rebekah: I did gymnastics (poorly) when I was growing up, and despite my lack of talent, I absolutely loved everything that went into it. I really started watching gymnastics around the time Vanessa Atler was competing and mostly watched elite until around 2012-13 when I realized I was missing out on so many exciting competitions! I started watching Florida when Bridget Sloan was on the team and have been an overall college gym fan ever since.
Mary: I have been doing gymnastics since I could walk and have grown up inside of the gym. Living outside of Los Angeles, I have grown up watching UCLA gymnastics meets and fell in love with college gymnastics watching college standouts Peng-Peng Lee, Sophina DeJesus, and JaNay Honest. I started to grow as a gymnastics fan during the lockdown as I was missing gymnastics and I rewatched every single Visa Championships. When I ran out of those, I started watching college meets.
Ashley: I grew up in Gainesville and started going to Gator meets when I was 6 or 7. For a lot of my childhood I was a score flasher for the Gators, so I don’t really remember a time in my life where I didn’t follow college gymnastics.
When did you start reading CGN? What made you want to join the team?
Katie C: I came across CGN for the first time when I started playing fantasy gym. I followed the hints and tips religiously for managing my team! Being based in the UK, I thought that I might be able to offer some coverage of the increasing number of British and international athletes choosing NCAA.
Jessica: From 2014-16, I was really active in the gymternet community on Instagram and Twitter, making gym edits and tracking elite gymnastics. I saw on Twitter one day some accounts talking about the upcoming fantasy gym season, and I was intrigued to try it since I played fantasy football and baseball. I’ve been getting CGN emails ever since. I wanted to join the team because I’m still very active in the gymnastics community and miss the sport a lot. Also, I think graduating college made me want to keep pursuing my journalism dreams, and being a part of CGN allows me to do both.
Aaron: I always saw CGN while scrolling through my feed, but like Katie, I officially started reading CGN when I first started playing fantasy gym last year. I used resources like the recruit ratings and injury list while picking gymnasts for my team. I wanted to join the CGN team because I am a die hard college gymnastics fan and wanted to try something new!
Lela: I started reading CGN weekly recaps during that first season I really began watching NCAA, in 2017. Was always really impressed with the quality of writing and research on the site and used it for my own research whenever I was writing about the sport. When I saw CGN was looking for feature writers, I thought it would be a great way to get my name out there as a gymnastics journalist.
Daniel: I started reading CGN when I first got into NCAA gymnastics and wanted to learn more about routine construction and composition. The resources tab was really helpful to me to learn more about routine requirements and difficulty values. I wanted to join the CGN team to contribute some of my own knowledge and expertise. I also think this internship is a great opportunity to learn how to cover sports more professionally.
Jackie: I started to watch college gymnastics meets beginning in 2016. I started following college gymnastics online in 2021, and this is also the time I started reading CGN. I wanted to join the team because gymnastics brings me so much joy, and I wanted to give back in whatever small way I could.
Bailey: I first followed CGN on Twitter when I made a new account in grad school and wanted to keep up with what was going on with gymnastics. When the Data Deep Dive series took off, I read every article that came across my feed. I wanted to join the team to combine my love of data analysis with gymnastics, as well as work with a really passionate, like-minded team.
Naomi: I started reading CGN during the 2021 season when I realized I still had a limited idea of how the NCAA gym season worked. The live blogs and weekly recaps quickly became my lifeline for the season. I joined the team because I don’t know many other people who are fans of college gymnastics, and I wanted to be able to join a community of college gym nerds like me. I’m also a student journalist and wanted to broaden my writing experience, especially in sports journalism.
Julianna: I started reading College Gym News when I first started competing in college. I started off my collegiate career at the University of Bridgeport in 2018, and when the ‘Potential Lineups’ articles for the ECAC-II came out, I started following the site as I was becoming a part of the college gym world.
Jill: I started reading CGN in 2021, which was the first season that I started following NCAA closely. I wanted to join the team because I love how CGN treats gymnastics like other sports—with lots of data and analysis—and I wanted to be a part of it.
Tia: I started reading CGN in late 2021. I started covering Arizona State’s gymnastics team for a student publication and wanted to make sure I had a resource to learn more about the national scope of NCAA college gymnastics. All of the recruiting ratings and Data Deep Dives helped me provide the best beat coverage I could for the past couple of years. CGN helped me out so much that I wanted to be a part of it to help continue to produce great content and be a resource for other student journalists around the country.
Rebekah: I’m not sure exactly when I found CGN, but it’s changed the way I engage with college gymnastics. I find it so helpful to have a site that covers gymnastics seriously and that engages with the gymnasts as the true athletes that they are. As for joining the team, no one in my life is really interested in gymnastics, so when I saw an opportunity to get involved, I thought what better way to continue to learn and to build community with other gym fans.
Mary: I started reading CGN when I discovered their weekly leotard rankings when I joined Twitter and immediately fell down a rabbit hole. I thought it was so cool to see gymnastics being given the media coverage it deserved as I have grown up seeing gymnastics only being covered as a mainstream sport every four years. I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it because it meant so much to me to see even smaller teams being recognized for their amazing gymnastics.
Ashley: I started reading CGN regularly when I was in undergrad. I worked for the Sports Video Department at Pitt and covered gymnastics at all its home meets. I was able to travel with the team my sophomore year (and a few times sporadically after that), and realized how many great teams I’d never had exposure to. CGN has helped me discover so many gymnasts I never would have followed otherwise and I’m excited about the opportunity to write stories that help people discover new things to love about college gym!
What is one thing you hope to accomplish or are excited to tackle for the site this year?
Katie C: I really want to bring more awareness to the international athletes in NCAA programs and bring more coverage of international elite meets that feature current athletes or future recruits.
Aaron: I am really excited to write about smaller, lesser known conferences to highlight the really unique and amazing gymnastics that often gets overlooked because of how popular the Power Five conferences are!
Jessica: I’m excited to cover the up and coming programs in the EAGL, like New Hampshire and Temple, and watch the new ACC gymnastics conference grow and flourish. I’m looking forward to watching Clemson in its inaugural season and see what its future holds!
Lela: I hope to profile more athletes who are working on cool NIL deals and projects; I think NIL is changing the game in smaller sports like gymnastics, and it’s fascinating to hear about it. I also hope to continue speaking with athletes in every step of the transfer process to continue CGN’s great work in demystifying the transfer portal in gymnastics.
Daniel: I’m really excited to work alongside my fellow interns! I don’t usually have the opportunity to work alongside people who share the same level of enthusiasm toward college gymnastics as I do, so working on a team with people who share the same love and respect for gymnastics is something I’m looking forward to.
Jackie: As an administrative assistant, my goal is to assist wherever needed. This includes scheduling, deadline reminders, site updates, database maintenance, and more.
Bailey: I’m hoping to dig into some interesting data questions and share exciting data visualizations that further showcase gymnastics as a serious, mainstream sport.
Naomi: I’m excited to continue making college gymnastics accessible to new fans and people who don’t come from a gymnastics background.
Julianna: This is my first year in five years (but also in my life) that I have not physically been a part of the gymnastics world, but I knew when my final season was over that I wasn’t ready to let go of that piece of me quite yet. Although I am no longer competing, I am so excited to be on the other side, experiencing NCAA gymnastics from a completely different perspective! This upcoming season I am excited to hopefully do some live blogging and offer my experience as a former athlete turned fan when it comes to writing features and shedding light on stories that may not have been told yet.
Jill: I’m looking forward to bringing a geographic lens to the table—get ready for maps and location analysis around meet schedules, for example.
Tia: My favorite things to write about are stories I relate to. For me at CGN this year that means shedding light on some underrated or less hyped Pac-12 squads. This also means telling stories about diverse gymnasts. I’m excited to get the chance to uplift gymnasts who have expanded the model of who college gymnasts are and what they are “supposed to” look like.
Rebekah: I’m looking forward to helping brainstorm some new and creative ideas to cover gymnastics and to help with the overall flow of the articles. I really love collaborating with people on their pieces to make sure that all the hard work everyone does gets the engagement it deserves.
Mary: I am so excited to see SEC gymnastics and “Friday Night Heights” grow even further as a mainstream sport for people to follow. We have seen an enormous rise in viewership in the last few years and I hope to see “Friday Night Heights” grow into a sports bar staple the way “Monday Night Football” has.
Ashley: I’ve always really loved profiles that show the personal side of athletes outside of the gym. I’m excited to be able to interview gymnasts and tell their stories beyond what we see on the competition floor.
What is your No. 1 favorite moment in all of college gymnastics? The one YouTube clip you would show someone if they asked you, “so what is gymnastics about, anyway?”
Katie C: UCLA winning the national championship with Peng-Peng Lee’s perfect 10 on beam. I had been following UCLA in previous seasons due to Danusia Francis and Jennifer Pinches, and it was just amazing to watch a team you support win in such dramatic fashion!
Jessica: In episode seven of LSU’s docuseries “The Climb,” Kai Rivers embraces Alyona Shchennikova after her floor routine on senior night. Alyona looks at Kai and says “I need you right now. Our class is hanging on by a thread,” and Kai says “You’re representing us well right now.” The whole episode brought me to tears and showed that there is more to gymnastics than the gymnastics itself.
Aaron: Although this moment was not especially significant, Kyla Ross sticking her vault at the 2019 NCAA national championships is one my favorite college gymnastics moments of all of time. Vault is my favorite event to watch, and a stuck Yurchenko one and a half just does something for me.
Lela: The video that Maryland made about Tasha Brozowski doing her bar routine at regionals this year after finding out that her father was dying. It shows both the sheer drive that gymnasts have to succeed under pressure, as well as the amazing community atmosphere of her team and their unwavering support of her as she went through the unthinkable.
Daniel: I find myself going back to Ariana Berlin’s floor routines. As a person who also loves breakdancing, I was able to appreciate the choreography and performance of this floor routine. I also show this routine to my friends who aren’t gymnastics fans because I think a casual fan may have this perception that floor routines need to be balletic and accompanied by classical music, but this floor routine stands out to me because it challenges those misconceptions head on.
Jackie: Derrian Gobourne’s perfect 10 on floor on senior night in 2022. I loved seeing Auburn around the floor cheering her on and doing the routine with her. Florida was cheering almost as much as Auburn and showed great sportsmanship. Neville Arena went wild when the score came up. It was a magical college gymnastics moment for me.
Bailey: Peng-Peng Lee’s perfect 10 on beam to clinch UCLA as national champion. You don’t get a better performance or sports moment than that!
Naomi: It may be basic, but Katelyn Ohashi’s viral 2019 perfect 10 floor routine. I don’t think anything exemplifies the joy and talent in college gymnastics quite the way that routine does.
Julianna: This one is hard for me coming from being a college gymnast myself, so for this question, I think I would have to answer with two; the first in 2020, in the last rotation of the evening session of the EAGL championship in 2021 at Pittsburgh when I stuck my vault. Temple went on to win in its first year in the conference. From the other side, one of my most favorite moments was Norah Flately’s final beam routine at nationals when she lands and kisses the beam. That emotion for me is what college gymnastics is all about. It shows truly how much goes into this sport and how much it is a part of us, especially in those final moments of our careers.
Jill: I’m going with the 2022 meet at Rutgers when Michigan scored four 10s in a row. I thought I was lucky seeing Gabby Wilson’s 10 on floor, and then vault started. The excitement of watching amazing gymnastics and the suspense before the scores flashed was too much fun.
Tia: One of my favorite moments was one I was able to witness in person. In 2022 Arizona State took down UCLA for the first time in 20 years. During Hannah Scharf’s floor routine (the last routine of the meet), the energy in the arena was electric, and some of Scharf’s biggest supporters down on the competition floor were the Bruins who had migrated over from beam to watch her and cheer her on. Despite the result of the meet, it was all love between the two teams, and it perfectly exemplified the unity and unconditional support that is routinely practiced among college gymnasts.
Rebekah: For me it was every single time Lloimincia Hall competed floor for LSU. The energy, the seat drop, the form on her double tuck—I honestly don’t know how someone could watch her show off that routine and not be hooked.
Ashley: I have to go with Florida vs Alabama in 2022. Trinity Thomas scored her first perfect 10 on vault (and first career gym slam), and then she and Nya Reed scored back to back 10’s on floor. It was early in the season and neither team had a perfect meet, but the energy in the O’Dome that night was electric.
Mary: After lots of thought, I have finally settled on Haleigh Bryant’s three 10s in one night. After the battle LSU fought with injuries this season, their all-arounders had to step up, especially Haleigh Bryant, and I loved to see her get the recognition she deserves.
Finally, where can our readers find you on social media?
KC: I’m on Twitter and Instagram at @cgnkatie.
Jessica: You can find me on Instagram at @jessicanicolebrock and on Twitter at @jessicanbrock.
Aaron: I’m on Instagram at @cgn_aaron and on Twitter at @aarondoylepf.
Lela: Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @runlelarun.
Daniel: I’m on Twitter at @whoisdanie1.
Bailey: My Twitter is @BaileySutton_.
Naomi: On Instagram I am @naomi_mayura. Twitter scares me too much.
Julianna: On social media, you can find my instagram at @juliannaroland, and on Twitter I am @julianna_roland.
Tia: On Twitter you can find me at @TiaReid65.
Rebekah: I don’t have any public-facing social media accounts at the moment.
Mary: You can find me on instagram @maryycollier.
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Article by the editors of College Gym News
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