Re-rating recruits is one of the most important facets of a recruit rating system, as it rewards young, developing gymnasts for the progress they make throughout their pre-college careers. Whether they add new skills, finesse their form, or demonstrate newfound confidence, gymnasts are always trying to up their game for college coaches. With another level 10 season behind us, it’s time to take a look at 10 recruits from the class of 2027 who made some significant gains over the past year.
Kiari Sparks
Rating: 
College commitment: LSU
Improvement: 67 to 84
Reason for improvement: Tangible improvements to Sparks’ bars, beam, and floor scores are responsible for her promotion to a five-star recruit. Sparks now boasts a near-perfect event total of 24 on beam, an achievement bolstered by her confident style and precise form on the apparatus. She is also a back-to-back national champion on the event, indicating her ability to hit reliably when it matters most. A similarly impressive spike in execution on bars boosted her as well, with her new career best of 9.700 both set and matched repeatedly throughout the 2026 season.
Where she can get even better: While Sparks did improve on bars, consistency emerged as a potential lingering issue throughout 2026. With a season of improved bars work already complete, Sparks certainly has the potential to improve further on the event throughout her final year of level 10. While she already has near-perfect totals on the other three events, cleaning up any residual fine details could surely result in more added points for the future Tiger.
Erin Davis
Rating:
College commitment: Florida
Improvement: 59 to 81
Reason for improvement: With a commendable jump from three to five stars, Davis is numerically the most improved gymnast in her class. She improved every single one of her event ratings by eight points or more, with a whopping 12-point increase bringing her to a near-perfect 23 on bars. With a contributing mix of increased execution and increased comfort with the newer elements in her routines, Davis placed third at her debut Nastia Liukin Cup, indicating a stellar rise to the top of her class.
Where she can get even better: Davis set and matched a new career high of 9.900 on vault during 2026, a huge spike from her 2025 best of 9.700. While she has certainly tremendously improved on the event already, increasing the consistency of her landings could boost her further. She ranges from a near-stick to a medium-sized hop, and while both bode well for her future potential on the event, consistently bringing her landings closer to a stick would be advantageous.
Payton McClain
Rating:
College commitment: Michigan State
Improvement: 63 to 79
Reason for improvement: The newly-crowned national vault champion maintained her standard of excellence on vault and beam while seeing vast improvement on bars and floor. She dialed in on her form and execution while working to fully integrate difficult skills into her routines, including a Van Leeuwen on bars.
Where she can get even better: McClain has difficult and impressive twisting skills on floor, but struggles with control and form at times. Improving her execution on those skills will be deeply valuable, particularly if she hopes to implement those harder skills in her future college routine. The 2026 season was also her first at a new gym. Having a second season to establish further consistency could spell out even more improvement for the future Spartan.
Morgan Braun
Rating:
College commitment: Iowa
Improvement: 58 to 78
Reason for improvement: With a perfect event rating on bars and a myriad of further improvements across all three events, Braun earned an upgrade to five-star status. She significantly cleaned up her landings on vault and added five points to her beam rating through her precise acro and confident presentation. One of just a few to earn a perfect event total, Braun’s picture-perfect handstands and attention to detail on bars will be immediately valuable to the Hawkeyes.
Where she can get even better: Floor is still a lower-scoring event for Braun, partially attributable to some form issues on her third pass. Replicating the solid form and clean landings within her opening two passes could improve both her scoring potential and event rating here.
Joelie Berelc
Rating:
College commitment: Clemson
Improvement: 54 to 74
Reason for improvement: The highest-rated gymnast in Clemson’s 2027 class, Berelc spent the past season settling into priorly introduced upgrades in a big way. Her largest improvement came on vault, where she consistently displayed a high standard of execution, despite an injury early in the season which kept her off the event until February. Her precision shines through on her handstands on bars and twisting passes on floor, significantly raising her totals on those events as well.
Where she can get even better: Beam remains a bit behind compared to Berelc’s other events. She has a solid foundation and building sense of individualized style on the apparatus, but sometimes struggles with leg form throughout her acro and leaps. Increasing her confidence on those skills could fully cement her as a potential all-arounder by the time her collegiate career begins.
Taylor Noble
Rating:
College commitment: Utah
Improvement: 56 to 74
Reason for improvement: With a commitment switch to Utah and a solidified upgrade to four-star status, Noble has much to celebrate this recruiting season. Her largest margin of improvement came on vault, where she earned a 10.0 in February. After a full season of performing her Yurchenko one and a half, Noble has fully settled into the skill, reaching a level of consistency that should be immediately impactful to her future team. She is also excellent on floor, where she performs with a high level of energy and execution.
Where she can get even better: Beam is Noble’s lowest-rated event, largely due to some recurring struggles with consistency. Her acro skills and leaps are generally performed with a solid level of execution, giving the impression that once she unlocks the proper confidence on the event, she could become a very strong beam worker. Improvements here could lead to an even further boost in her rating as well.
Emma Heaton
Rating:
College commitment: Florida
Improvement: 55 to 71
Reason for improvement: The second future Gator on this list, Heaton made progress on every single event. Her Yurchenko full experienced a major clean-up, earning her a state title and a trio of career-high 9.825s throughout 2026. With training footage out there of an upgrade to a one and a half, look for Heaton to potentially push even higher on this event during her senior season. She is also a compelling beamer, with precise execution on her skills.
Where she can get even better: Heaton is already a solid competitor on bars and floor, but could improve even further as she enters her last year of level 10. Leg separations on her release moves on bars and an extra eye for precision on her floor landings are the most easily identifiable areas for improvement, and could greatly increase her future lineup potential on both events.
Lucy Stephenson
Rating:
College commitment: Michigan
Improvement: 53 to 70
Reason for improvement: While beam is still Stephenson’s lowest-rated event, the significant improvements she did make on the event throughout 2026 improved her total by eight points. With a near-perfect and significantly raised event total on bars, look for her to make a rapid splash there when she arrives at Michigan with her national-title-winning routine.
Where she can get even better: Further growth on both beam and floor could take Stephenson to the next level. Continued momentum on beam will be extremely advantageous for her, and a heightened focus on the smaller details of her tumbling and landings on floor could boost her rating there as well.
Flora Sherman
Rating:
College commitment: Michigan State
Improvement: 50 to 68
Reason for improvement: Sherman saw great growth on bars and floor. Her fun performance quality and improved tumbling skyrocketed her from a 12 to an 18 on floor, with clear potential to boost that rating even higher in the future. Her bars routine became impressively consistent, as proven by a video posted to her recruiting account which shows an almost identical level of execution across a majority of her 2026 performances. Already great on beam, she saw a slight rating boost there as well.
Where she can get even better: As hinted above, increasingly precise landings could move Sherman even further in the right direction on floor. Vault remains her lowest-rated event, largely due to some chest position struggles on her landing. This is certainly a solvable problem, however, and increasing the quality of her landing could boost her further on the event.
Niyonna Franklin
Rating:
College commitment: Uncommitted
Improvement: Not rated to 68
Reason for improvement: Franklin more than thrived in her junior season, making such a statement that she went from not earning a rating last year to becoming a four-star recruit. She boasts an excellent technical foundation across the board, which should garner her immediate recruiting attention as one of the highest-rated uncommitted gymnasts in her class. She is best rated on bars, where she consistently nails her handstands and floats easily through powerful release moves.
Where she can get even better: Franklin debuted her Yurchenko full at nationals and performed well, hinting at her likely potential to improve even further on vault. While her rating there this year reflects a combination of her upgrade and her earlier vaults throughout 2026, another season of settling into the skill and increasing its execution could boost Franklin’s rating even more.
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Article by Sarah Smith
