DENVER – The No. 16-ranked University of Denver women's gymnastics team landed a win in its first Big 12 Conference meet of the 2025 season in Magness Arena on Sunday.
 
DU finished ahead of visiting West Virginia, 195.975-194.100, in what was the first official Big 12 Conference meet for both teams with the conference sponsoring a regular-season schedule and championship for the first time ever.
 
Denver gymnasts won at least a share of all five individual titles on the day with six student-athletes finishing atop the podium in total – and with only graduate student Rylie Mundell winning multiple events.
 
COACH'S NOTES:
From Joy S. Burns Head Women's Gymnastics Coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart: "We had three strong events today, and we need to continue to grow in the regular season and capitalized on the opportunities that we have. We're a really strong team, and we haven't come close to reaching our potential. I'm confident with what I see in practice every day and am looking forward to bring it into competition on a consistent basis."
 
SIGNIFICANT STATS

• Mundell's wins in the all-around and on vault brought her career total for titles won to 40, putting her within four of the top 10 in DU's all-time record book.
• Sophomore Maddison Reidenbach won the first title of her collegiate career, doing so with a new personal best of 9.875
• For the third time through DU's first four meets, junior Mila Brusch hit a career high on floor, this time resetting it with a 9.900. She also won the title outright from DU's leadoff position, the first of her career on the event.
• On three of the four events – vault, bars and floor – Denver only counted two combined scores below the 9.800 mark, and both were 9.775s.
• For the second meet in a row, DU had at least 13 student-athletes appear in at least one routine.
  • Denver had all 14 of its available student-athletes compete in the team's last outing at Arkansas on January 20.

VAULT RECAP
Denver started the competition with a strong vault lineup that improved by two and a half tenths from its previous meet and again competed with four 10.0 start values. All five of DU's counted scores sat in the 9.800 range, starting with such a score from Brusch as the first competitor of the day. Two vaulters later, sophomore Madison Ulrich matched her score while also equaling her best vault score of the season so far. The back half of the Denver lineup all posted 9.875s for their Yurchenko 1.5s with Reidenbach coming the closest to sticking. Mundell and fifth-year senior Rosie Casali closed it out with big vaults with singles steps on the landings.
 
BARS RECAP
Denver overcame a fall midway through its bars lineup to count five hit routines, four of which scored at least 9.850s. Casali logged the first of the 9.850s in the leadoff slot, which junior Cecilia Cooley and Ulrich also added in the two routines immediately following the fall. In just her second full lineup appearance of the year, junior Kiley Rorich had the meet's top score as DU's second bars worked, scoring a 9.900 to equal the highest score any Denver gymnast has earned on the event so far in 2025. Mundell anchored the lineup with a hit routine and a 9.775 to ensure the team would not count the fall.
 
BEAM RECAP
Beam proved to be a more nervy than normal rotation for Denver with some atypically broken leap and acro series connections. Graduate student Abbie Thompson had the rotation's standout performance in the No. 2 spot, delivering a 9.800 that would end up matching the event's highest score of the day. Routines from senior Momoko Iwai, Cooley, Mundell and graduate student Bella Mabanta all counted and allowed Denver to drop its only fall of the rotation.
 
FLOOR RECAP
Denver's floor squad regrouped quickly and successfully for floor, despite multiple last-minute lineup changes. Brusch resumed her spot as Denver's first competitor up and earned the meet's only 9.900+ on the event. Cooley finished just off her pace in the next routine, adding a 9.875, a score that Mundell would also tally later in the lineup.
 
Reidenbach was substituted into the lineup in the No. 3 spot after initially being slated to compete in exhibition, marking her second consecutive full-lineup appearance. Rorich also made the lineup for the second time this season but was moved back to the No. 5 slot after originally being set to compete second up. The junior scored a 9.825 in an improvement over her season debut performance, and Ulrich again anchored the lineup with a 9.800.
 
EXHIBITION NOTES
DU was initially set to compete with exhibitions on all four events but opted not to do so on floor as a last-minute change. Denver did still welcome exhibitions on vault, bars and beam, repeating its performers from its last meet with sophomore Amanda Hargraves on vault (9.750), Reidenbach on bars (9.725) and sophomore Ashley Gallen on beam (9.675).
 
PODIUM FINISHES
Vault
Casali: First Place (tie) – 9.875
Mundell: First Place (tie) – 9.875
Reidenbach: First Place (tie) – 9.875
 
Bars
Rorich: First Place – 9.900
 
Beam
Thompson: First Place (tie) – 9.800
 
Floor
Brusch: First Place – 9.900
 
All-Around
Mundell: First Place – 39.200
Ulrich: Second Place – 38.625
 
NEXT UP:
Denver closes January with its second of three consecutive Big 12 Conference meet, traveling to Arizona on Friday, January 31, at 7 p.m. MT.
 
TICKETS:
Tickets for the 2025 University of Denver gymnastics season are now on sale and can be purchased online, by calling 303-871-4625 or by visiting the Ritchie Center Box Office.

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