DENVER – The No. 9-ranked University of Denver gymnastics team posted a 196.550 on Sunday in Magness Arena, finishing ahead of West Virginia (195.350) in the teams' second-straight meeting,
 
Junior Alexandria Ruiz (Lake Mary, Fla.) won the first all-around title of her career with a 39.275 performance while Denver added wins on vault, bars and beam.
 
COACH'S NOTES:
From head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart: "People stepped up on different events that they don't normally compete, and they hit. It's been a year since we've had fans in our building, and they were loud and energetic, and our student-athletes really appreciated it."
 
SIGNIFICANT STATS

• Senior Lynnzee Brown (Kansas City, Mo.) captured the vault title with a 9.950, just .025 off her career high. She added a share of the win on bars, bringing her career total to 47 titles and moving her into seventh all-time in DU history.
• Freshman Isabel Mabanta (Frisco, Texas) won a share of the beam title in just her second collegiate routine and was a last-minute substitution on floor, marking her DU debut on that event.
• Denver welcomed back freshman Rylie Mundell (Parker, Colo.) to the vault and bars lineups where she shared the bars title with teammate Brown.
• DU continued to work back toward full strength with Mundell's return on two of her events, though the team rested Brown on floor and junior Alexis Vasquez (Arcadia, Calif.).

VAULT RECAP
Denver opened the meet with its best vault rotation of the season, scoring a 49.100 and capped with Brown's event-winning 9.950. Mundell competed only a Yurchenko full – rather than her Yurchenko one-and-a-half – scoring a 9.800 and sharing second place with fellow freshmen Rosie Casali (Weddington, N.C.) and Jessica Hutchinson (Gilbertsville, Pa.). Senior Emily Glynn (Longmont, Colo.) added a 9.750, and Ruiz led off the rotation with a 9.725.
 
BARS RECAP
Brown and Mundell topped the bars podium with matching 9.900s, and Ruiz completed the podium sweep for Denver with a 9.850. Glynn's 9.825 and Casali's 9.800 gave DU the five highest scores of the meet while freshman Abbie Thompson (Sanford, Fla.) completed the Denver lineup.
 
BEAM RECAP
In just the second routine of her DU career, Mabanta took home a share of the beam title with a 9.900. Ruiz anchored the beam lineup for the first time in her career, scoring a 9.850 to tie with Thompson for third overall. Hutchinson returned to the beam lineup after missing the previous two meets and added a 9.775. Brown and sophomore Callie Schlottman (Savage, Minn.) rounded out the rotation with a 9.750 and 9.725, respectively.
 
FLOOR RECAP
For the second time this season, Hutchinson tallied DU's highest floor score, tying her career high and sharing second place with a 9.875. Ruiz led off the rotation with a 9.850, which Thompson also scored to match her personal best. Glynn posted a 9.825, immediately following a fall in the previous routine to get the rotation back on track for Denver. At the last-minute, Mabanta was added into the lineup, scoring a 9.650 in her first-ever college floor routine – exhibition or otherwise.
 
PODIUM FINISHES
All-Around
Ruiz: First Place – 39.275
 
Vault
Brown: First Place – 9.950
Casali: Second Place (tie) – 9.800
Hutchinson: Second Place (tie) – 9.800
Mundell: Second Place (tie) – 9.800
 
Bars
Brown: First Place (tie) – 9.900
Mundell: First Place (tie) – 9.900
Ruiz: Third Place – 9.850
 
Beam
Mabanta: First Place (tie) – 9.900
Ruiz: Third Place (tie) – 9.850
Thompson: Third Place (tie) – 9.850
 
Floor
Hutchinson: Second Place (tie) – 9.875
 
NEXT UP:
The University of Denver gymnastics team, presented by Your Front Range Toyota Stores, travels to Big 12 Conference foe Oklahoma for a quad meet with Lindenwood and Texas Woman's on Friday, February 26.
 
VIRTUAL SEASON TICKET: Activate exclusive virtual benefits for the 2021 season! Denver Athletics & Recreation is committed to making the best out of an unprecedented situation and, if we are not able to be together in person at the Ritchie Center, then we will do our very best to bring Denver Gymnastics to you! When you opt-in to be a Virtual Season Ticket Holder you gain access to exclusive season-long benefits including:

• 5280 TOGETHER limited-edition commemorative poster
• Access to individual home meet tickets (based upon availability and guidelines set forth by the NCAA, DU, and local and state health officials)
• Exclusive invitation to the weekly coaches "chalk talk" (virtual)
• Virtual meet notes/program for home and away meets
• Post-meet recap and downloadable stats package

For the latest University of Denver updates on the coronavirus, click here.
 
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