DENVER – The University of Denver gymnastics team is ranked No. 6 in the Week 12 Road to Nationals rankings, which were released on Monday.
 
Denver set new program postseason- and road-score records with its 197.975 at the Big 12 Championship on Saturday. The score also became the fourth-highest overall in DU history.
 
Rankings are now determined by National Qualifying Score (NQS), which is calculated using the six highest scores of the season, at least three of which must be from away meets. The highest of the six scores is dropped, and the remaining five scores are averaged.
 
NQSs are now final for the 2024 season, as are team event and individual rankings.
 
DENVER'S NQS
198.025 – Home
198.000 – Home
197.975 – Away
197.775 – Home
197.750 – Away
197.625 - Away
NQS: 197.825
 
DU again improved on its program-record NQS, boosting it by more than a tenth for the fourth-consecutive week – marking just the sixth time that Denver has increased its NQS by at least a tenth every week in a season and the first since 2021.
 
TEAM NATIONAL RANKINGS
Overall: No. 6 (197.825 NQS)
Vault: No. 10 (49.360)
Bars: No. 5 (49.510)
Beam: t-No. 9 (49.430)
Floor: No. 13 (49.530)
 
Denver's No. 6 overall ranking matches its highest of the season, first set in Week 1. It is also the second-highest national ranking that DU has held ahead of NCAA Regionals, behind only 2019's No. 5 rankings.
 
For the second week in a row, DU improved its NQS on all four events and moved up in the rankings on three of them while holding steady at No. 5 on bars. The team made the biggest rankings gain on beam, moving up three spots and joining vault and bars in the top 10.
 
DU initially set the program NQS record in Week 9 and has increased it each week since. The team's final NQS of 197.825 is the highest in program history by nearly three tenths. On bars, this year's NQS now stands alone as the school record, breaking a tie with 2021's 49.500. Denver also set a program record for highest floor NQS while its vault NQS is tied for the second-highest and its beam NQS is the third-highest.
 
INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL RANKINGS
Senior Jessica Hutchinson
All-Around: No. 4 (39.740 NQS)
Vault: tie-No. 8 (9.925)
Bars: tie-No. 18 (9.935)
Beam: tie-No. 8 (9.950)
Floor: tie-No. 5 (9.970)
 
Freshman Madison Ulrich
All-Around: No. 22 (39.525)
 
Senior Rylie Mundell
Bars: tie-No. 22 (9.925)
 
Hutchinson became the first Denver gymnast to finish a season ranked inside the top eight on four events. She is the fourth DU gymnast to be nationally-ranked on all five events at the end of the season, joining Lynnzee Brown (2021), Maddie Karr (2019 and 2020) and Jessica Lopez (2009).
 
The senior's final NQS in the all-around will finish as the second-highest in DU history, and she matched Nina McGee's 2016 program record for highest floor NQS. Her NQSs on vault, bars and beam all rank in the top four in DU history.
 
Ulrich finishes her first collegiate season ranked in the all-around with the 10^th-highest NQS in Denver history and is the third DU freshman to hold a national ranking in the all-around at the end of the year (Maddie Karr – 2017; Ashley Shible – 2001). Though she did not finish with in the top 25 on bars, her NQS of 9.910 is tied for the 10^th-highest in school history.
 
For the second year in a row, Mundell is ranked inside the top 25 on bars to finish the year, and her NQS is tied for the fifth-highest in program history.
 
Senior Bella Mabanta tied the 10^th-highest beam NQS in DU history with a 9.915, despite missing three meets with an injury during the year. Though she did not rank inside the top 25 in the final beam rankings, she was just .010 from that milestone.
 
No. 6 Denver has secured a spot at NCAA Regionals and will await final seeding and placement, which will be announced during the NCAA Selection Show on Monday at 12 p.m. ET/10 a.m. MT on NCAA.com.
 
TICKETS:
Season ticket deposits for the 2025 University of Denver gymnastics season are now on available and can be purchased online, by calling 303-871-4625 or by visiting the Ritchie Center Box Office.
 
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