Everyone’s expecting a very different-looking Georgia this year, with a new coaching staff, a big freshman class, and three important transfers. 2025 could go many different ways for the never-predictable Gymdogs, but based on what little training footage we’ve seen and the fact that the 2024 seniors were limited by injury, one underrated possibility is that this team’s lineups are actually quite similar to last year’s.
2024 Rewind
No. 18 overall | No. 8 at SECs | No. 23 in regular season | Regional Semifinals
This season was an improvement over the last two for Georgia, which was one of the best teams to miss the regional final after coming within a tenth of upsetting Missouri in round two.
Losses & Gains
| Returning | In |
| Juniors Sidney Fitzgerald Naya Howard Nicole King Ja’Free Scott Eryn Williams Sophomores Jaydah Battle Kelsey Lee Zora Morgan Lily Smith Holly Snyder Anya Turner Ady Wahl | Freshmen Nyla Aquino Sadie Jane Berry Alexis Czarrunchick Brooke Gliechowski Emma Mason Aberdeen O’Driscoll Harley Tomlin Transfers Csenge Bácskay (Nebraska) Kara Eaker (Utah) Anaya Smith (Arizona State) |
| Out | |
| Graduated Haley de Jong (AA) Amanda Cashman (VT, UB, FX) Vanessa Deniz Katie Finnegan (VT, UB) Ashlyn LaClair (VT, FX) Transferred Heather Parker | |
| Injury Update | |
| Jaydah Battle tore her Achilles in July and likely will be unavailable for at least the beginning of the season if not longer. | |
Apparatus Deep Dive
Vault
2024 Event Ranking: No. 28 | NQS: 49.165 | Average: 49.020
| Event Overview: Vault hasn’t been a strength for Georgia recently; this is a team that tends to lose difficulty to both injury and inconsistency as the season goes on and ends up with a fairly lukewarm lineup of Yurchenko fulls. The best vaulter is transfer Anaya Smith, who finished 2024 in the top 20 nationwide. Freshman Nyla Aquino’s beautiful Tsuk full has gotten lots of play in training clips. A lineup of six 10.0 SV vaults is just about possible, but we’re more likely to see four on a weekly basis, which is still much better than last year. | ||
| Locks: Nyla Aquino, Anaya Smith, Ady Wahl | ||
| Contenders: Csenge Bácskay, Naya Howard, JaFree Scott, Lily Smith, Harlyn Tomlin | ||
| Wildcards: Jaydah Battle, Kara Eaker, Nicole King |
Bars
2024 Event Ranking: No. 13 | NQS: 49.375 | Average: 49.243
| Event Overview: Bars was Georgia’s strongest in 2024, and most of that lineup returns. There are some great freshman options here, and transfer Bacskay will definitely be in the mix, but the core should stay the same. | ||
| Locks: JaFree Scott, Lily Smith, Holly Snyder | ||
| Contenders: Csenge Bacskay, Sadie Jane Berry, Sidney Fitzgerald, Naya Howard, Emma Mason, Harlyn Tomlin, Ady Wahl | ||
| Wildcards: Alexis Czarrunchick, Eryn Williams |
Beam
2024 Event Ranking: No. 17 | NQS: 49.340 | Average: 49.225
| Event Overview: Georgia beam has already recovered significantly from the nightmarish inconsistency of just a few years ago. Most of the freshmen are strong here, so there’s a wealth of options. As on bars, though, last year’s battle-tested lineup returns almost fully intact. The question mark is transfer Kara Eaker, who ought to anchor if she competes at all. But her presence in training footage has been very limited, so there’s some uncertainty about her readiness. | ||
| Locks: Kara Eaker, JaFree Scott, Lily Smith, Anya Turner | ||
| Contenders: Sadie Jane Berry, Brooke Gleichowski, Naya Howard, Zora Morgan, Harlyn Tomlin, Ady Wahl | ||
| Wildcards: Nyla Aquino, Csenge Bacskay, Sidney Fitzgerald, Emma Mason, Aberdeen O’Driscoll |
Floor
2024 Event Ranking: No. 23 | NQS: 49.395 | Average: 49.236
| Event Overview: Georgia’s floor lineup has defied projection in recent years, becoming a place where under-the-radar prospects find a home and thrive while big names struggle with injuries and landings. That might change this year, but with limited training footage, it’s hard to tell for sure. | ||
| Locks: Ady Wahl, Lily Smith | ||
| Contenders: Csenge Bacskay, Sidney Fitzgerald, Holly Snyder, Harlyn Tomlin, Eryn Williams | ||
| Wildcards: Nyla Aquino, Sadie Jane Berry, Kara Eaker, Naya Howard, Nicole King, Aberdeen O’Driscoll, JaFree Scott |
Records Watch
Team: 198.575 | AA: 40.000 | VT: 49.925/10.000 | UB: 49.775/10.000 | BB: 49.650/10.000 | FX: 49.850/10.000
These records all date from before even the 2004 scoring peak. The only team record that is halfway achievable is beam, and that’s still a big ask. There are a handful of routines that could get a 10.0 and tie an individual record, most notably Lily Smith’s bars, where she has been perfect before.
The Big Picture
Georgia, under new leadership and with more depth to play with, might be a whole new team in 2025. Then again, it might not. With relatively little training footage to examine, we’re only guessing about freshman utilization. It’s easy to denigrate the past as part of the excitement for a new era, but don’t forget that this is already an up-trending team that brings a solid, experienced base of routine options from 2024 and has the luxury of working newcomers in slowly if necessary.
READ THIS NEXT: Roberts Aims to Do Right by Georgia Gymnastics in New Role
Article by Rebecca Scally
