With the season almost coming to a close, we’re getting ready to say goodbye to some of our all-time favorites. Each year seniors who stole our hearts with their gymnastics throughout their careers perform their final routine before hanging up their grips and graduating from their respective universities. Some of these seniors started off with a bang as impressive freshmen who wowed us all four (or five or six) years. But today, we’re going to focus on those who maybe got a slower start but steadily improved to become the strong gymnasts they are today.
Methodology
To determine the seniors who improved the most over their careers, we compiled scores for all 334 of the current Division I seniors, fifth years, and sixth years. We decided to limit the analysis to just Division I for a fairer comparison of score increases. We then took each gymnast’s average score on every event and their lineup frequency and calculated the increase each year from the previous. Years where the gymnast performed 0 routines were ignored, as we can’t easily differentiate not making lineups from injuries or other outside factors. Finally, we normalized the values and took a weighted average of the increases each year to get our final ranking.
Check out the gymnasts who ranked in the top 5!
Most Improved Seniors
Brooklyn Moors – UCLA
It’s no surprise to see Brooklyn Moors at the top of this list as she has emerged as a solid three-eventer in her senior year. While she competed all three events occasionally her freshman year, she averaged just a 9.79, 9.62, and 9.74 on VT, BB, and FX, respectively. Through her sophomore and junior years, we saw Brooklyn become more consistent on her primary event floor, but it wasn’t until this year that she found her groove on her other two events. As a senior, she has been in 100% of lineups and is averaging a 9.8 or higher on all three events.
Alana Fisher – Eastern Michigan
Alana Fisher is another 3-event gymnast who has really found her groove as a senior. She started her first two seasons as a vault specialist, averaging below a 9.7 on her one event. But as a junior, Fisher finally found consistency on her key event, making it to regionals as an individual (giving her a lineup percentage above 100%), and also began consistently competing floor averaging a 9.74 and occasionally entering the beam lineup. As a senior, Fisher has been in 100% of lineups on all three events
Sophia McClelland – Nebraska
Sophia McClelland has been a steady contributor on beam all five years, but we’ve seen her impact increase across her other three events over the years. Her junior year she was in the all-around in every meet, but her scores showed inconsistency across the events. After competing all-around less consistently as a true senior, we have seen Sophia return to the all-around in every meet as a fifth year, with average scores of 9.8 or higher on three of her four events, helping lead Nebraska to their highest rankings since McClelland arrived on campus.
Taylor Russon – Washington
Taylor Russon is a clear example of improvement over a career. Not only did she add a new event each year for her first three years, she also improved her scores and her lineup frequency on those events as well. Now as a fifth year, she is competing in all three events in 100% of lineups with average scores above a 9.75.
Montana Fairbairn – Alaska
Alaska may not be topping the rankings as a team, but the improvement that true senior Montana Fairbairn has shown over her career landed her fifth on our most improved seniors list. Montana is another three-eventer (although she dabbled as an all-around as a junior) who has been in 100% of lineups this year. Her average scores have increased over her career from the 9.4-9.5 range to having a floor average of 9.81.
Honorable Mentions
Jaye Mack (Illinois State), Emma Simpton (Nebraska), Lauren Pearl (Minnesota), Jenna Eagles (Utah State), and Rhea LeBlanc (Maryland)
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Article by Claire Harmon
