While recruiting gymnasts out of high school is certainly a key aspect of finding success as a college gymnastics team, transfers can also play a huge role. Transfers are currently a hot topic due to several high-profile names rumored to be in the transfer portal this offseason. Let’s take a look at past transfers and how impactful they were for their new teams.
Methodology
We compiled a list of transfers dating back to 2011 because that was as far back as we had reliable transfer records. Athletes on each team were assigned a ranking (1-6) on each event based on their final NQS (or RQS) each season. If they had the highest event NQS on their team they received 6 points; if they had the second highest event NQS on their team, they received 5 points; and so on. If an athlete did not compete enough to receive an NQS or had an event NQS that ranked outside of the top 6 for their team, the athlete received 0 points on that event. Data was adjusted for gymnasts who sat out their first transfer season due to transfer rules. We then determined first year impact by summing the points each athlete earned in their first season (or second season for those that were required to sit out). We also summed the amount of points each athlete earned throughout their career at their new university. We then divided this sum by the number of seasons the athlete was eligible to compete to calculate their total average impact per season.
Results
Immediate Impact
| Gymnast | Former Team | New Team | First Season | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Addy De Jesus | Nebraska | Iowa State | 2021 | 24 |
| Maddie Herr | Ohio State | San Jose State | 2015 | 22 |
| Kiera Brown | Georgia | Penn State | 2016 | 20 |
| Sahara Gipson | Rutgers | Temple | 2016 | 19 |
| Taylor Zondervan | Michigan | Western Michigan | 2012* | 18 |
| Michaela Burton | Arkansas | Pittsburgh | 2020 | 18 |
| Bekah Gher | Boise State | San Jose State | 2013 | 17 |
| Rachel Zabawa | Nebraska | Lindenwood | 2013 | 17 |
| Julianna Roland | Bridgeport | Temple | 2021 | 17 |
| Kailey Hansen | Washington | Sacramento State | 2011 | 17 |
| Nichelle Christopherson | Michigan | Arizona State | 2017 | 17 |
| Taylor Allex | Utah | Arizona State | 2015 | 16 |
| Mackenzie Douglas | San Jose State | BYU | 2016 | 16 |
| Catie Conrad | Eastern Michigan | Pittsburgh | 2018 | 14 |
| Katy Koopman | Bridgeport | LIU | 2021 | 13 |
| Paige Zaziski | Arkansas | Michigan | 2017 | 12 |
| Bethany Larimer | Kentucky | Texas Woman’s | 2011 | 12 |
| Miya Dotson | Western Michigan | Pittsburgh | 2015 | 12 |
| Jazmyn Estrella | Utah State | Temple | 2019 | 12 |
| Kaitlyn Higgins | Minnesota | Nebraska | 2021 | 12 |
| Jordan Salsberg | SEMO | Arkansas | 2011 | 12 |
The most obvious name here is Addy De Jesus, with a perfect 24 points in her first season at Iowa State. This means that she had the top NQS on every event compared to her teammates, and the Cyclones’ scoring potential would’ve been significantly lower without her presence on the team. It’s interesting to see that both Temple and Pittsburgh have three transfers on this list, meaning that they’ve utilized the transfer portal well over the last decade.
Total Career Impact
| Gymnast | Former Team | New Team | Seasons | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rachel Zabawa | Nebraska | Lindenwood | 2013-2016 (4) | 68 |
| Kailey Hansen | Washington | Sacramento State | 2011-2014 (4) | 59 |
| Bethany Larimer | Kentucky | Texas Woman’s | 2011-2014 (4) | 53 |
| Sahara Gipson | Rutgers | Temple | 2016-2018 (3) | 41 |
| Sidney Sanabria-Robles | LSU | Penn State | 2013-2015 (3) | 40 |
| Lissette LaFex | Hamline | Bridgeport | 2012-2014 (3) | 39 |
| Maddie Herr | Ohio State | San Jose State | 2015-2016 (2) | 38 |
| Bekah Gher | Boise State | San Jose State | 2013-2014 (2) | 36 |
| Alisa Sheremeta | UIC | Missouri | 2020-2022 (3)* | 33 |
| Mackenzie Douglas | San Jose State | BYU | 2016-2018 (3) | 31 |
| Julianna Roland | Bridgeport | Temple | 2021-2022 (2)* | 30 |
| Paige Zaziski | Arkansas | Michigan | 2017-2018 (2) | 29 |
| Taylor Allex | Utah | Arizona State | 2015-2016 (2) | 28 |
| Miya Dotson | Western Michigan | Pittsburgh | 2015-2016 (2) | 26 |
| Addy De Jesus | Nebraska | Iowa State | 2021-2022 (2) | 24 |
| Jazmyn Estrella | Utah State | Temple | 2019-2020 (2) | 24 |
| Jordan Salsberg | SEMO | Arkansas | 2011-2013 (3) | 24 |
| Nicole Webb | Florida | N.C. State | 2019-2022 (4) | 22 |
| Tiara Wright | West Virginia | Maryland | 2019-2020 (2) | 22 |
| Kaitlyn Higgins | Minnesota | Nebraska | 2021-2022 (2) | 21 |
| Madison Nettles | Texas Woman’s | North Carolina | 2016-2018 (3) | 21 |
Rachel Zabawa transferred to Lindenwood as part of its inaugural team after redshirting her freshman season at Nebraska, and her total here shows just how important she was to the Lions’ first four years as a program. She was a consistent competitor on three events, placing in the top two by NQS every year she was on the team. Two active gymnasts, Julianna Roland and Alisa Sheremeta, will have a chance to move further up this list when they return for their COVID years in 2023.
Average Impact Per Season
| Gymnast | Former Team | New Team | Seasons | Points Per Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maddie Herr | Ohio State | San Jose State | 2015-2016 (2) | 19.00 |
| Bekah Gher | Boise State | San Jose State | 2013-2014 (2) | 18.00 |
| Taylor Zondervan | Michigan | Western Michigan | 2012 (1)* | 18.00 |
| Michaela Burton | Arkansas | Pittsburgh | 2020 (1) | 18.00 |
| Rachel Zabawa | Nebraska | Lindenwood | 2013-2016 (4) | 17.00 |
| Julianna Roland | Bridgeport | Temple | 2021-2022 (2)** | 15.00 |
| Kailey Hansen | Washington | Sacramento State | 2011-2014 (4) | 14.75 |
| Paige Zaziski | Arkansas | Michigan | 2017-2018 (2) | 14.50 |
| Taylor Allex | Utah | Arizona State | 2015-2016 (2) | 14.00 |
| Catie Conrad | Eastern Michigan | Pittsburgh | 2018 (1) | 14.00 |
| Sahara Gipson | Rutgers | Temple | 2016-2018 (3) | 13.67 |
| Sidney Sanabria-Robles | LSU | Penn State | 2013-2015 (3) | 13.33 |
| Bethany Larimer | Kentucky | Texas Woman’s | 2011-2014 (4) | 13.25 |
| Lissette LaFex | Hamline | Bridgeport | 2012-2014 (3) | 13.00 |
| Miya Dotson | Western Michigan | Pittsburgh | 2015-2016 (2) | 13.00 |
| Addy De Jesus | Nebraska | Iowa State | 2021-2022 (2) | 12.00 |
| Jazmyn Estrella | Utah State | Temple | 2019-2020 (2) | 12.00 |
| Alisa Sheremeta | UIC | Missouri | 2020-2022 (3)** | 11.00 |
| Tiara Wright | West Virginia | Maryland | 2019-2020 (2) | 11.00 |
| Randi Lau | LSU | Penn State | 2014 (1) | 11.00 |
When averaging the impact by number of seasons with the team, two San Jose State gymnasts come out on top in Maddie Herr and Bekah Gher. They both stayed with the Spartans for their final two seasons after transferring from Ohio State and Boise State, respectively.
Discussion
As always, there are some caveats with this analysis. First, season-ending injuries were not taken into account when averaging total impact by number of seasons; if injury-riddled seasons were removed from the calculation, several gymnasts would have placed higher on the third list. Second, fewer gymnasts achieved an NQS during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and this was not accounted for in the numbers. Similarly, NQS was calculated differently in the 2021 season than the other years in this analysis, but since we only used the gymnast’s ranking among teammates’ NQS, the impact of this should be very low.
This analysis favors all-arounders and multi-events over specialists, so there is potential to do further analysis focused solely on specialists who had a large impact as transfers. Similarly, another study could be done to compare transfer performance on a gymnast’s original team to performance on the transfer team.
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Article by Jenna King, Mariah Dawson and Emma Hammerstrom
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You did not include Emilie Leblanc who transferred from Maryland to Utah for the 2020 season or Macey Roberts who transferred from Maryland for the 2017 season.
Hi Kate, This article isn’t exhaustive, only including gymnasts that finished in the top of each category/criteria. As is stated toward the end of the article, the criteria used benefits all-around gymnasts. LeBlanc and Roberts were both specialists (that’s why you don’t see Florida’s Rachel Slocum’s name either). We may do another article in the future that deals more with specialists that transferred, but rest assured, we did not forget them.