FLORIDA

Who Is She?

Florida’s incoming quartet for 2021 is, to some extent, a makeshift class. In a different bubble of the multiverse, we are arriving at the post-Olympic college season with a bevy of elites sashaying into college gym to get their 10s. Instead, we all got the dud timeline and Florida will have to wait for the 2022 season for that elite explosion.

Nonetheless, Florida has gone to work to swap the 2021 class with the 2022 class, getting a couple essential junior-elite-to-L10s to start a year early to protect against a down season in 2021. So while it may be a makeshift class, it’s Florida, and Florida can make a pretty good shift.

Headlining this year’s class is Ellie Lazzari, a former junior elite who probably could have made quite the impact as a senior elite had she gone that direction. Rather, she joined the many (many) college newcomers this year in saying “that’s enough for me and this” to elite after 2017, returning to L10 gymnastics in 2019 to clean up all the awards. Lazzari won the all-around title at 2019 JO Nationals while placing no worse than 4th on any event.

Partnering with Lazzari in Florida’s class exchange program is another former junior elite, Gabbie Gallentine‘s Day. Gallentine’s Day ventured into junior elite for a couple years in the early part of this quad, making her mark on the Everest special: bars, which pretty much always garnered her best placement. Gallentine returned to L10 in 2020 to make a few appearances in preparation for college.

Joining the class this year to add some routines will be L10s Chloi Clark and Alex Magee. Clark had her best result in 2019 when she advanced to JO Nationals and finished 4th on vault. In 2019, Magee finished 3rd at Florida states on bars, which is nearly always her strongest event.

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DENVER

Who Is She?

Denver continues to signal its arrival into the higher echelon of college teams through a quintet of freshmen with a classic top-10-school career breakdown—four ninja level 10s with strong national all-around results to their names, plus one who took a momentary dip in the senior elite pond.

The most recognizable name in the group is probably Isabel Mabanta, who competed as a senior elite in 2018—qualifying to Classic—and who made waves for her sublime execution on beam. She has competed only sparingly since that 2018 elite season, but she did make an early-2020 JO cameo to reassure everyone that she can still ‘nastics.

The host of JO athletes in the class is headlined by Rylie Mundell, a lifer L10 who qualified to nationals every year from 2015-2019 and notched her best-ever result in 2019 with a 4th-place all-around showing, finishing top 8 on all apparatuses. She followed that with a 7th-place AA finish at the 2020 Nastia Cup, right before the shutdown.

In that 2019 JOs performance, Mundell finished 0.4 ahead of now-teammate Abbie Thompson in 6th place (though at the time Thompson was a West Virginia verbal who later switched things up to come to Denver). Thompson’s performance highlight was a 4th-place result on floor, the one apparatus where she outscored Mundell.

Placing 6th AA at that same JO Nationals was Rose Casali, though she did so in a younger age group as one of the many (many) incomers this year who was still competing as a junior last time we saw her at L10 nationals. Way back in 2017, Casali placed 2nd in the junior division at the Nastia Cup with top-4 finishes on every event.

Another who excelled as a junior was Jessica Hutchinson, who has been showing up at JO Nationals since 2014 and had her best result in 2016 with an 8th-place all-around finish. In 2019, Hutchinson returned to L10 nationals with a 10th-place finish on floor, where she fassst-twisted her way to a strong score.

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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.

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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.

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