‘Tis the season for turkey comas and fantasy drafts. If you’re spending your post-meal downtime tomorrow cooking up your draft strategy, here are a few secret ingredients to consider. Sure, the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes of any team is that star all-arounder you nab in the first round, a stellar three-eventer and that 10.0-able specialist, but don’t count out the importance of a little gravy, or that all-important rosemary. An A-plus draft relies on finding hidden gems to add to your list, and we have some recipe tips for your consideration.
Breakout Seasons This Way Come
It’s hard to predict a breakout year, but there’s no better feeling than when you’re ahead of the curve and draft a gymnast who ends up having a stellar season seemingly out of the blue. Some general tips: Look for gymnasts who are suddenly featured in a lot of intrasquad lineups where they weren’t before, or cheeky posts from teams about improvement (Oklahoma and Ohio State love to drop hints!).
Take a peek, too, at transfers. Did a gymnast transfer to a school known for developing big vaults (Michigan, Illinois State, Maryland), or did a DII bar specialist head to a program that has a hole there? Chances are there’s a reason, and they might just have a big year.
The Always-Improving Vets
To get you started, we took a look at non-freshmen who have improved their scores throughout their careers. Some of these athletes are well-known while others are quite the up-and-comers. All have proven that sometimes slow and steady improvement really does win the race.
Hannah Appleget, Central Michigan
Appleget is a Lindenwood transfer who added vault to her program to compete in the all-around last year. She’s especially strong on bars, where she has improved her season average all three years of her career.
Sydney Beers, Cornell
All-arounder Beers quickly became a hot vault and floor waiver wire pickup with multiple 9.900s on both pieces in 2024. She improved on her vault, bars, and floor averages last year and upped all four of her event NQS numbers.
Rosie Casali, Denver
Casali has consistently added to her repertoire over her three seasons at Denver, becoming a vault and floor regular in 2023 and often appearing in the all-around last year. She improved significantly on vault and floor, and if she can become more consistent on bars and beam, 2025 could be her headlining season.
Lauren Thomas, Iowa State
Thomas is a bars and beam specialist who improved both averages in her sophomore campaign, regularly notching 9.850-plus on beam throughout the year while improving her bars top-end scores.
Makenzie Wilson, Kentucky
Wilson is certainly already a name on most draft radars, but it’s worth noting that after being a vault specialist as a freshman, she added floor in 2023 and then improved on both of those averages last year, notching a 10.0 on vault along the way. She should be one of your first stops for two-event stars this year.
Rhea Leblanc, Maryland
A bars and floor specialist (isn’t that already a key fantasy gymnast: a bars star who can add to your floor depth?), Leblanc had a very solid 2024, improving both averages into that fantasy-ideal 9.8-range. She also added a few vaults to her resume. At a program known for developing vaulters, look out for her in 2025.
Nya Kraus, Nebraska
Another former Lindenwood athlete, Kraus is coming off qualifying to USAG nationals event finals on her best pieces, bars and beam. She also competed vault and floor sporadically last year and improved her averages over her freshman season. Heading to a Husker team looking to fill holes on bars in particular, she could have a breakout season there.
Tory Vetter, Ohio State
After spending most of her freshman year injured, Vetter has been the picture of steady improvement. She competed in the all-around in every meet for the Buckeyes last year after dabbling on bars in 2023. Her averages improved on vault, bars, and floor last year, and on a squad with lofty goals, she’s projected to perform even better in 2025.
Skyelar Kerico, Penn
An all-arounder, Kerico had a great 2024 on beam and floor, scoring her first 9.900s on both and moving her averages into the 9.800s there. Don’t be scared away by her lower bars average; that was due to one very big hiccup. She’s a regular 9.8-plus on that event as well and is poised for a big season.
Katherine Weyhmiller, San Jose State
Weyhmiller has always been capable of big scores on her three events, but in 2024 she found consistency, both in the number of routines she was called upon to compete and in her scores. She got herself into individual competition on beam at the California regional, where she posted a 9.875 with the four-judge panel. Her fifth year might just be her best.
The Sneaky Specialists
We all know the top specialists on each event. Those can-go-10-any-week, consistent superstars. What sometimes gets lost are the gymnasts who compete in the all-around or on two or three pieces and have one event that shines brighter than the others. Maybe the gymnast is really consistent across two pieces but isn’t knocking your fantasy socks off, yet she hits 9.850 on beam every week. Who doesn’t need a little consistency on each event, even if there may not be a 9.900 in the cards?
The Road to Nationals individual regular season result page is so useful for this. Choose your event, sort by average, and find those gems hiding among the superstars who have been on your draft list since last April. Think Ella Chemotti, Emily Lee, Emmalise Nock, or Reyna Garvey.
Ella Tashjian at Yale competes three events, vault and beam solidly, but especially shines on floor. Washington’s Taylor Ruson shines on bars and beam, and will put up a solid floor number as well. Elena Deets competes bars, beam, and floor for Arizona, with exceptional scores on beam. Air Force all-arounder Maggie Slife sets herself apart on bars.
What could be better than a week-in-week-out great score on one event with some backup routines on others in your pocket?
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Article by Emily Minehart and Emma Hammerstrom
