The holiday season is upon us, and that means one thing—college gymnastics season is almost here. Intrasquads are ramping up, and teams are in the final preseason push before January; meanwhile, fans are busy drafting fantasy teams. Whether you’re prepping for a live draft, are looking for a pick in a deep league, or simply want to make sure you don’t miss a gymnast on your Gymlytics draft list, this set of hidden gems has you covered.
The Ever-Improving Veterans
Some gymnasts are stars the second they hit college, but some need time to reach their full potential. The athletes below have all made significant improvements to their scores on multiple events over their careers.
Alea Byrne, Illinois
Byrne was injured and didn’t compete last season, but had a breakout season in 2024, increasing her average on vault and floor and adding a handful of beam routines into the mix.
Sienna Robinson, Stanford
Robinson broke out on bars and floor last year, setting career highs over 9.900 on each event. Though she didn’t compete bars the whole season, she was a consistent member of the Cardinal’s late regular season and postseason bars lineup.
Paige Zancan, Auburn
Largely a beam specialist previously, Zancan established herself as a steady member of the Tigers’ vault, beam, and floor lineups in 2025. With an Ilg on vault, she’s sure to continue impressing.
Skyelar Kerico, Penn
Not to sound like a broken record from last season’s edition of this article, but Kerico is legit. Last season, she became the first Penn gymnast to compete a Yurchenko one and a half on vault. She qualified as an individual to regionals, where she placed third in her session on beam with a 9.925.
Morgan Price, Arkansas
Price was a star at Fisk, and she had her best season yet in 2025, sweeping the event titles at the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics National Invitational Championships (WCGNIC) and becoming the first HBCU gymnast to score a perfect 10. After three seasons pioneering HBCU gymnastics with Fisk, the former five-star recruit will make her debut for Arkansas, the college she was originally committed to alongside her sister Frankie.
Cecilia Cooley, Denver
After making limited appearances on bars her freshman year, Cooley missed 2024 with a knee injury. Last season, she broke out as a junior, becoming an essential contributor on bars, beam, and floor, including notching career highs over 9.9 on each and only fell once across all three events. She appears to be pushing for all-around time in 2026, as she has been seen training vault.
Elle Hadrick, NC State
Hadrick saw limited competition time in her freshman year but emerged as a consistent competitor last season. In addition to increasing her competition time, her scores on her two events (bars and floor) increased as well.
All-Star Specialists
A great fantasy team has a mix of strong all-arounders and three-event gymnasts with excellent specialists to fill the gaps. Having those X-factor routines on each event elevates a fantasy team’s potential. Whether it’s a consistently excellent beam worker, a vault specialist with a 10.0 start value, a bars worker to balance out the gymnasts who dropped bars in college, a showstopping floor worker, or some combination of the four, these gymnasts are essential to filling out a fantasy team.
Here are a handful of specialists to consider drafting this season:
- Maddison Reidenbach, Denver (vault and floor)
- Nyla Aquino, Georgia (vault and floor)
- Sarah Moraw, Minnesota (vault and beam)
- Haylee Hardin, Iowa State (vault and floor)
- Sophia Rice, West Virginia (vault and floor)
- Sophia Bell, Auburn (floor)
- Kiley Rorich, Denver (bars and floor)
- Annalise Newman-Achee, California (bars)
- Kristina Shchennikova, Boise State (bars and beam)
- Maddie Komorowski, Maryland (beam and floor)
- Sharon Lee, Kentucky (beam)
- Cady Duplissis, Michigan State (vault and beam)
READ THIS NEXT: Class of 2026 Signing Class Rankings
Article by Tara Graeve
Thank you for these articles! I am playing on gymlytics for the fourth time and CGN lists have helped me so much. I’m curious if there is going to be a freshman dataset or a Consistency Queens sample draft this year, those helped me immensely with my draft in past seasons as someone that doesn’t have time to do a lot of research (but still wants a competitive team!)
Sample drafts are scheduled for tomorrow (subject to change)! And we believe they will be available directly in Gymlytics as well for easy drafting.