2017 Nastia Liukin Cup Series: Superlatives

With the 2017 Nastia Liukin Cup two days away, it’s time to take a closer look at the qualifiers and where they stand going into Friday’s competition. After seven weeks, we finally have all 36 qualifiers—18 juniors and 18 seniors—that will represent their club gyms, as well as, for some, their future colleges in New Jersey.

Update: Skylar Killough-Wilhelm, Shaylah Scott and Megan Skaggs are all out of the meet with Abigail Brenner replacing Scott and Gabrielle Gallentine will fill in for Killough-Wilhelm. Skaggs’ spot will be filled by Gabryel Wilson. The following stats are from the qualifiers and include some gymnasts no longer competing  at the Cup.Rachael Flam had the highest qualifying all around score with a 39.275, followed by Shayla Scott’s 39.125 and Kai Rivers’ 38.950. All three gymnasts will compete in the senior competition. Carly Bauman was the top junior qualifier, scoring a 38.900 at Chow’s Challenge.

Flam also had the top vault score, qualifying with a perfect 10 for her Yurchenko half on, front pike vault. Abby Heiskell wasn’t far behind with a 9.950 while both Scott and Rylie Mundell had 9.900s. The top junior vaulter was Kennedy Quay, who comes into the meet with a 9.800. On bars, Bauman has the highest incoming score with a 9.800, followed by senior Mikayla Magee’s 9.750 and senior Anastasia Webb’s 9.725. Flam notched the highest beam score with a huge 9.900. Scott also had a top beam score with a 9.825 and Rose Casali was the top junior beamer with a 9.825. Finally on floor, senior Makarri Doggette scored a 9.850 to enter the competition as the top floor worker. Bauman and Rivers had 9.825 to qualify in second on the event.

In total, 20 of the 36 competitors are verbally or officially committed to their future colleges with the university with the most recruits competing being Michigan with four. Denver had the second-most with three followed by California with two. Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, LSU, Oklahoma, Stanford, UCLA and Utah all had one future competitor qualify.

For a full breakdown of the individuals’ scores and future college choices, take a look at the chart below.

To catch up on all the previous qualifiers, check out our Events page.