LSU

Who Is She?

LSU’s class of five new gymnasts features two former elites, though the star of the group may end up being Haleigh Bryant, among the most heralded L10 athletes in this year’s national incoming class. Bryant has been dominating the circuit for years, winning her first JO all-around title back in 2017 and continuing that success through to her victory at the 2020 Nastia Cup, the final competition before the End Times. Bryant notched three consecutive national vault titles in her L10 divisions in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and would have been the heavy favorite to win a fourth in 2020.

In the realm of elites, Olivia Dunne leads the way in LSU’s class, a four-year junior elite fan favorite who finished 9th all-around at junior nationals in 2017, 0.350 behind Sunisa Lee. Dunne went back to compete L10 in 2020 in preparation for college, finishing 11th at the 2020 Nastia Cup.

One theme in LSU’s freshman class this year is “children of amazing Georgia gymnasts,” which must give LSU a little smirk of naughty joy. Former elite Elena Arenas is the daughter of Kim Arnold, and Sierra Ballard is the daughter of Lori Strong, who now does commentary for LSU. Arenas had a big year in 2017 when she finished 9th all-around in the senior division at nationals, and like Dunne, returned to the world of L10 in the years following her elite experience. Most recently, Arenas placed 8th all-around in her division at 2019 JO Nationals. Ballard also competed at those 2019 JO Nationals, her second appearance at the event, taking 8th place on vault.

Chase Brock is a perennial JO Nationals qualifier herself who arrives at LSU hoping to regain the magic of her 2018 year, when she placed 6th on bars and 8th on vault, while sporting a Yurchenko 1.5.

UTAH

Who Is She?

Utah got its “another one bites the dust” moment out of the way early this season when wildly anticipated freshman Deanne Soza announced her retirement—before we even had a chance to talk about how good her bars was going to be. That means it’s…not going to be exactly the Utah team we expected this year (especially if you recall back to the alternate timeline when MyKayla Skinner might have returned after her 2020 Olympics quest to complete her final year of eligibility at Utah in 2021).

Nonetheless, Utah brings in three quite accomplished freshmen this year, including two former elites. Jaylene Gilstrap competed senior elite in both 2018 and 2019, and while she was never going to boast the difficulty to keep up with the name brands at Classic or Nationals, she made a real mark with her exceptional leaps that stood out against an elite backdrop of “why”-level switch work.

Lucy Stanhope burst into the scene in 2018 when she was named to Great Britain’s European Championships team, primarily to give the team a DTY in the team final, but she can match that level of elite difficulty on every event. Stanhope originally verbaled to Arkansas, but ultimately switched to sign with Utah last fall. Joining Gilstap and Stanhope is US Level 10 Alani Sabado, coming to college a year early. Sadabo achieved by far her best result in 2019 when she finished 3rd all-around at JO Nationals in the Junior E division, a performance underlined by her bronze medal on bars.