The ESPN Invitational was announced a year before it was set to debut, making it one of the most hyped regular-season meets of the year. It did not disappoint. In only week two of the season, 12 of the top 36 teams competed over three sessions, resulting in hours of highly competitive gymnastics. At the end of the competition, the first ever ‘crown’ was awarded to Oklahoma after it scored a huge 197.9 during the second session.
When the event was first publicly announced in 2023, there were a lot of questions surrounding its creation, the participating teams, and the expectations for such a large, new event. These were addressed in advance of the meet by Kristen Shaver, a director of events for ESPN, as well as Dan Margulis, senior director of programming and acquisitions at ESPN.
This idea came to fruition less than a year ago when a slot opened up on ABC Network, which expressed its interest in becoming more involved with NCAA Gymnastics. “It has been a priority of ours to grow in the women’s owned and operated event space,” said Shaver, who has successfully managed several other events involving women’s sports. “(After having this success with others) you start to look at what other sports are out there that are taking off and gymnastics was one of them.”
This invitational originally started as a quad, featuring the reigning national champions, the Oklahoma Sooners, joined by the Utah Red Rocks, the LSU Tigers, and the UCLA Bruins. At first, the idea was to specifically target these four teams. However, the event grew quickly when Shaver and Margulis realized how many teams wanted to be involved. Utah was already set to host another competition at the Maverik Center and had invited teams to its meet. As more teams expressed interest in the opportunity, it made sense to expand the meet to three quads and the event evolved into the Sprout Farmers Market Collegiate Quad
The success of the inaugural event has already led ESPN to make plans for the 2025 season. The meet will be hosted by the 2024 Sprout Farmers Market Collegiate Quad champion Sooners and, as of this writing, will include the Red Rocks.
While the other participants for the 2025 meet are not yet already determined, one of the main goals moving forward is diversity. “We want this to be a premium regular season event,” said Margulis, “(and this comes from) creating a broader group of teams; you want viewership, but you also want diversity from around the country.” Shaver added that having a variety of teams represented within other sports has in the past created more success for an event. “We have a relationship with the SEC and the ACC Network, so to have some schools within those conferences makes sense. With that said, we are (also) interested in schools we might not get to see as frequently on our air.”
In creating the meet, one of the goals was to create a ‘marquee event’ that, along with the national championships at the end of the year, bookended the season. During the event itself, the goal shifted to making this a memorable, enjoyable experience that teams would want to return to. “I’m fairly confident viewership will be there,” said Margulis, “But, at the end of the day, [what we want] is for the students to have a great memory of it. We want them to come out of there saying, ‘That was a lot of fun, I’m glad I did it.’”
Session One:
The first session featured No. 16 Nebraska, No. 28 Boise State, and No. 33 North Carolina as well as Arizona. Based on these rankings alone, Nebraska should have come away with the win in this first session. However, the Cornhuskers suffered an injury in the beginning of the meet, losing Lucy Stanhope who, in previous competition, put up some big numbers. Nebraska struggled on beam during its first rotation, but picked it up for the remainder of the meet, scoring over 49 on the other three events. The athletes leaned on one another as a team all the way to the end, encapsulated by Kinsey Davis, who finished the meet with a stuck double layout off bars, and mouthed, “That was for Lucy.” Although it might have not been the way Nebraska wanted the meet to go, it still came away with a 195.875.
Boise State ended this meet scoring almost two full points above its opening score, totaling a 196.25. This was a good meet for Boise State, but with scores under 49 on both vault and beam, it still has room to grow. The highlight for the Broncos was Emma Loyim scoring a career–high 9.950 on floor and taking the win on this event for this first session.
For North Carolina, this was a much better showing of the true talent it has on its team; it scored over a point and a half higher than its first meet, ending with a 195.150 and a fourth-place finish, an immense improvement from the first meet of the season. Moving forward, the Tar Heels will be looking to break that magic 49; their highest event total was close, at a 48.950 on bars.
Coming away with the first session win were the Arizona Wildcats, which started their season at this quad scoring a 196.475, placing them at No. 17 at the end of week two. “Our goal for our first meet out was to come out and make a statement,” said senior Caroline Herry, one of the three Arizona team captains. “One of our goals throughout the year is to start where we ended (last season), and I think we did a great job of that tonight.” Arizona certainly made this statement, tallying four 49 event totals, most notably a 49.4 on floor. With one big score on each event, the rest of the lineup consistently pulled in scores between 9.750 and 9.850, something this team is undoubtedly capable of improving on throughout the season.
This session, taking into account injuries, minor details, and it only being week two, was a great and much-improved outing for each of these four teams, if not only in scores, but in confidence and showing their depth as well.
Session Two:
Session two. Wow.
Shaver and Margulis, when determining the four original teams to compete in this meet, wanted this to feel like a ‘rematch’ of nationals last season, and this competition did not disappoint.
Reigning national champions the Oklahoma Sooners came into this invitational the favorite to win not only this session but the entire competition. In only the second meet of the season, they put up a huge 197.9 to take this win home. Oklahoma showed attention to detail with every athlete up, tallying over a 49.450 on each event. Led by four all-arounders – Jordan Bowers, Audrey Davis, Katherine LeVasseur, and Faith Torrez – who made up 16 of the 24 counting routines, this competition showed just why Oklahoma came into this season ranked No. 1.
The LSU Tigers scored their first 197 of the 2024 season and came in only eight tenths behind the Sooners, with a 197.150. LSU scored over 49 on every event except beam, where it has struggled in both meets this season. Counting a low, uncharacteristic 9.375 from Kiya Johnson, made this meet much less close than it could have been. However, this session saw the first, and only, 10 of the night, awarded to Konnor McClain on bars in just the second meet of her NCAA career. Even though LSU is missing senior Alyona Shchennikova who has been a consistent all-arounder her past four years, it was able to adjust and come away with a good performance. With the talent on this team, expect improvements on this score throughout the remainder of the season.
Originally ranked at No. 12 coming into this competition, UCLA moved up two spots at the end of week two, only coming up short a half of a tenth of LSU, and scoring a 197.10. An improvement of five tenths from its first meet, UCLA had a much better showing on beam, notching a team score of 49.250, led by Selena Harris who was nearly perfect with a 9.950. Although there were major highlights for this team, bars and beam did not go as well as the team might have hoped for. “We have to get back in the gym and really detail some things and find what lineups are going to work best for us,” said second-year head coach, Janelle McDonald. “In the end, a 197 on not our best day, I’m pretty happy with how we are starting our season, and really excited for where we are going to go.” UCLA, unfortunately, suffered the loss of Sara Ulias on bars but made the necessary adjustments to come away with one of the strongest team scores of week two. “I feel like we had a lot of wins today,” said McDonald. “We had a lot of people step into different roles in this competition and really show their resilience and determination to always show up for their team.”
Rounding out this last session was Utah which had some uncharacteristic falters but still came away with a 196.975. Utah notched over a 49 on each event, and had strong performances throughout, but lacked the polish it’s known for. Beam struggles aside, this was one of the strongest meets in the past few seasons for Utah on vault, an event where it has struggled in recent years. The Utes were able to count four scores over a 9.850, led by the freshman Camie Winger, who scored a 9.925 to win the event title. Chalking the little mistakes up to it being only the second meet of the year and a chance at redemption in just a couple of days, with the ‘Best of Utah’ competition, this team undoubtedly will find its rhythm in this new season.
Session Three:
Session three was electric, to say the least. Coming in just one tenth behind Oklahoma was California, which gave a lights-out performance for a team total of 197.875, more than a full point higher than the total of its first meet at the Super 16 Invitational. The Golden Bears scored over a 49.5 on three events, which was highlighted by perfection, and near perfection, several times throughout the night. Mya Lauzon scored two 9.975s–one to start the night on vault, and one to cap off the meet on floor. eMjae Frazier also scored a perfect 10 on beam for Cal, and her other scores of the night were all above a 9.9. To top it off, the Golden Bears broke the vault program record with a 49.525. Coming into week two, Cal sat at No. 6, tied with Minnesota and Denver. Coming into week three, Cal now comes in at No. 2, right behind Oklahoma. This Cal team looks determined, poised, but most of all, like the athletes are enjoying the journey. “I think they picked up where we left off last year at regionals,” said Head Coach Justin Howell.
Michigan State, which finished in second at a full point behind Cal, had a good competition, but it has more to prove with a team as talented as this one. The Spartans improved four tenths on their overall team score from their first meet, but, with a lower score on beam, did not have the all-around competition they are so capable of. The team looked a little unsure of itself on beam, but showed the strength and consistency it has become known for on the other three. Coming off a 10 last week, Sage Kellerman scored another huge vault score with a 9.925, but the highlight of the meet for the team was its floor rotation, with all six of its athletes scoring above a 9.85.
BYU mirrored its performance in its first meet where it scored at 195.9. This time around, with a slightly higher score of 196.1, BYU seemed to just be looking for consistency. There was only one score over 9.9 for the Cougars, but also no real major mistakes that had to be counted toward the team total. If BYU wants to stay in contention for regionals later in the year, it will be looking for these bigger scores as it now sits at No. 26 after week two.
N.C. State, the fourth and final team in this session, improved over a point from its opening meet score. Led by seniors Chloe Negrete, Alexis Ortega, and Emily Shepard, this team is strong, and it showed. Its meet started with a fall on floor, but this team was able to rally and still put up a 49 on the event. Even with the overall improvement in its final score, this team has so much more potential and has not had its truly complete meet yet. However, when that comes, it will be clear why the Wolfpack were ranked in the top 36 in the preseason poll.
Final Thoughts:
Considering this was only the first year of this invitational, everything seemed to run relatively smoothly. Shaver and Margulis spoke about a “new format” for this competition, with the goal of preparing the athletes for nationals. The format included strategically staggering when the athletes competed, to ensure every routine was shown. Rather than having the quad box that the TV audience has gotten accustomed to, the broadcast only showed two routines at a time, ensuring all the athletes were shown on the channel.
The general consensus among participants was that this was an incredibly exciting event to participate in, especially for the inaugural year. “The Maverik Center, ESPN Events, and Sprouts, everybody did a great job and we were thrilled to be a part of it,” said Howell. Likewise, McDonald shared how excited she and her team were to be a part of this competition. “I really think it’s an honor that we are here. To be able to showcase our sport to a wider audience, … is a really exciting thing. To be included in the teams that get to be represented (here) is something really special.”
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Article by Julianna Roland
I enjoyed the meet. There are some kinks that they can fix, but I look forward to more competitions in the future.