Up until two years ago Allison Cucci didn’t think she would ever be an NCAA gymnast. She was training at Victors, a small gym in Rochester, New York, which taught her strong basics but wasn’t equipped for the highest levels of the sport. Cucci was the only level 10 gymnast there, trained on her own, and lacked a competitive bar routine.
When Victors underwent some changes in the summer of 2021, the Cucci family realized that if Allison wanted to become a DI student-athlete, it was time for a change. They considered their options and decided on their top choice: Twin City Twisters in Minnesota. The second week of August, Cucci was invited to a one-week trial at the gym. She passed and was subsequently invited back for a second week. If the second week went well, she would be accepted at the club. “After that second week I was terrified that I wasn’t going to make it,” Cucci said. “When [club owner] Steve [Hafeman] told me that I made it, I about screamed—I was so excited.”
The weeks that followed were chaotic and sad. With only two weeks to go before the new school year started, Cucci rushed back to Rochester, packed her belongings, and moved to Minnesota. “It was the hardest saying goodbye to the people who supported me with this decision, the people I called my second mom, second dad, and brothers,” she said. “The first few months in Minnesota were awful for me. It was the hardest I had ever trained in my life.”
Then, one day, things started coming together. Cucci became more consistent on beam and floor, learned a Yurchenko full on vault, and developed a competitive bar routine. After only a few months at TCT, Cucci posted career highs on all events, qualified to the Nastia Liukin Cup, and finished third on floor at nationals.
The inexperienced gymnast who, according to a conversation the coaches at TCT had with Cucci’s father upon her arrival in Minnesota, would have been a level 9 if she was training there, quickly proved them wrong. She belonged with the best gymnasts in the class of 2025.
The 2023 season was Cucci’s breakthrough year. She began competing a Yurchenko one and a half on vault and posted new career highs on all events, including a 9.975 on vault and a 9.925 on bars. She became Minnesota State and Region 4 all-around champion. And at nationals, she finished first on vault, third on bars, and fourth in the all around.
While Cucci made notable improvements at TCT, she also credits her focus on her mental work that’s enabled her recent success. “I have been working on [my mental toughness] for over six years,” she explained. “I went into every meet [this season] with the thought of let loose [and] have fun just like you do in practice,” she elaborated. “I told myself, ‘You put so much hard work into the gym day in and day out and now you get to show it off.’ I don’t think I ever walked into one meet this past year without the biggest smile on my face.”
Her mental preparation, Cucci believes, is what enabled her to have such a successful nationals in May. “I started on beam, I was shaky and nervous but did not give up,” she recalled. “After beam I used a lot of my mental toughness training that I have had for years. That helped me with my nervousness and just letting loose and having fun the rest of the meet. The last three events for me were just about having fun, no worries, no stresses—it was smooth sailing.”
The following month, Cucci entered the recruiting process as a five-star recruit. It was an accomplishment that, even after moving to TCT, she never thought possible. “My goal last season was to work hard, have fun and support my team,” she said. “Never in a million years would I have thought that I would be named a five-star recruit. I was overwhelmed with joy and very humbled. Knowing that everything I did truly paid off and that others could see that made me so proud of myself.”
On June 15th, Cucci began receiving phone calls from some of the best colleges in the country. Since she didn’t have a dream school, she kept an open mind. Soon enough she started narrowing down her options. “Early on, a lot came down to my conversations and how I felt about the school and their program,” she explained. “Did I connect with the coach? What type of program did I want to be a part of? One that was building? One that has a tradition of success? Could I see myself there? If not, I personally contacted each coach to let them know how much I appreciated their interest and learning about their program, and that I was going in a different direction.”
She paid four official visits to Oklahoma, Arkansas, UCLA and Alabama. During each of them, she tried to understand what the every-day life on campus would be like. Once her official visits were over, she returned to each university on unofficial visits with her parents, in order to experience a normal day there. Some of the questions that she asked herself, Cucci explained, were: “Where would I live? What was the academic support like? Where would I go for meals? Did they have a football team? Being a football fan, that [was] a must.”
In the end, what made the difference was the connection that Cucci felt from the beginning with Arkansas Head Coach Jordyn Wieber. “I remember my first call with Jordyn well, it was my second call on June 15th,” Cucci said. “She asked me what my goal was [and] I replied, ‘I want to be a national champion.’ She had the biggest smile on her face. We know everyone wants to be a national champion but when I told Jordyn, she let me know that was her goal as well. I knew it wasn’t just words and she was committed to achieving that goal.”
The connection that Cucci felt with Wieber during that first phone call corroborated a feeling she’d had at nationals the previous month during her floor routine. “[Wieber] was watching me and after my turn we made eye contact and I smiled at her,” Cucci recalled. “That is something I will never forget. So I can say [that] I felt that connection early.”
Cucci made her decision only at the very end of her recruiting process. It was difficult because every school offered equal opportunities, but only Arkansas felt like home. “In the end it all came down to what my heart wanted,” she said. “When my family and I sat down to confirm how I was feeling and to confirm my decision, I couldn’t wait to tell Jordyn. I called her very late that same day and told her my decision. I felt so accomplished.”
During her official visit, Cucci developed a natural connection with the team and loved “the fun and happy” atmosphere in the gym. She also appreciated that the coaching staff valued her as a person over her gymnastics achievements. “From my first call with Jordyn I recognized this, and the more I got to know the staff and the program, the more I valued this aspect of their culture,” she said.
Ultimately, the school’s drive towards building a winning legacy swung the balance for Cucci. “What impressed me the most [of Arkansas] is that the coaches, [the] team, [the] staff and [the] entire school are committed to the team and the goal they are all reaching for—to win,” she said. “They are on a journey together to build a winning program and to make history, and that is a journey I want to be part of.”
As Cucci now reflects on how far she’s come in the past two years, she’s moved by how much her parents have sacrificed for her to accomplish her dreams. They moved away from their parents and their life-long friends to give her the chance to develop her full gymnastics potential. They stood by her side every step of her recruiting process and continue to be there for her now that her college journey is about to begin.
If her aspiration to be a DI athlete has come true, Cucci concluded, it’s because ever since she was young, she’s lived by the motto “Trust the process.” “My journey through gymnastics was more than one meet or one season—it was about my goals,” she explained. “And that’s how I approached recruiting. Looking back, I would remind myself to never give up on [my] dreams even if they seem too big.”
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Article by Talitha Ilacqua
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