DENVER – The No. 12-ranked University of Denver women's gymnastics team began its 2025 campaign with a win over No. 13 Michigan on Sunday in Magness Arena.
Denver gymnasts earned at least a share of four of the five individual titles on their way to securing a 195.700-194.975 win over the Wolverines.
COACH'S NOTES:
From Joy S. Burns Head Women's Gymnastics Coach
Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart: "I'm incredibly proud of the team's hard work and dedication. It's important for them to know they can compete with freedom and take risks, and they showed their character by finishing with grit and resiliency on floor. We had last-minute lineup changes and weren't at full strength, but they showed their adaptability from start to finish."
SIGNIFICANT STATS
- In her collegiate floor debut, junior Cecilia Cooley won the title, capping off her first competition back after missing the entire 2024 season with an injury.
- Sophomore Maddison Reidenbach also earned a podium placement after competing an upgraded Yurchenko 1.5 on vault for the first time in college and sticking it.
- Denver's 49.450 on bars became a new program record for top score on the event in a season opener and did so by a full tenth over the previous record from 2024.
- DU's 49.250 on floor also became the fourth-highest season-opening score in program history.
- The meet's attendance of 5,071 was the seventh-highest overall in program history and a new school record for a home opener, topping the previous record of 4,634 from 2018.
- Sunday's win was DU's third in a row over Michigan after topping UM in the 2023 NCAA Regional Final and then earning a regular-season win at Michigan in March 2024.
VAULT RECAP
Denver kicked off its season with a strong vault rotation, ending with consecutive stuck or near-stuck Yurchenko 1.5s from Reidenbach and graduate student
Rylie Mundell – Reidenbach's marking her collegiate debut of the upgraded vault and after she only competed five times on the event in her entire freshman season. Sophomore
Madison Ulrich hit another 10.0 start value for DU with her front handspring front pike half, though the team substituted out a fourth 10.0 start when opting to rest fifth-year senior
Rosie Casali on the event.
DU's first three vaulters set the tone with big Yurchenko fulls from graduate student
Bella Mabanta, junior
Mila Brusch and sophomore
Amanda Hargraves.
BARS RECAP
Only four routines in the entire meet reached the 9.900 mark, and three of them came during Denver's record-setting bars rotation. Senior
Mia Hebinck was the first to achieve the mark in the No. 3 slot before Ulrich and Mundell closed out the lineup with back-to-back 9.900s. In total, all six of Denver's bars routines were at or above the 9.850 mark including senior
Momoko Iwai 's, which was just .025 from her career best.
BEAM RECAP
After a rough start to the lineup, DU ended the beam rotation with hits from its final two competitors in Ulrich and Mabanta – Ulrich's missing her career high by just a quarter tenth. In the first competitive beam routine of her collegiate career, Cooley delivered a 9.800 in the second spot, doing so after an uncharacteristic fall in the routine before her.
FLOOR RECAP
Denver regrouped for the final rotation with five scores at or above 9.825, highlighted by Cooley's event-winning 9.875 in her collegiate floor debut. Brusch set the tone with a career high-tying 9.850 in the leadoff. Mundell also hit a 9.850 after only competing on the event twice last season, and Ulrich anchored the lineup with her own 9.850. DU's final counted score came from Iwai with a 9.825 in the third spot.
PODIUM FINISHES
Vault
Mundell: First Place – 9.875
Reidenbach: Second Place – 9.850
Brusch: Third Place (tie) – 9.800
Bars
Hebinck: First Place (tie) – 9.900
Mundell: First Place (tie) – 9.900
Ulrich: First Place (tie) – 9.900
Beam
Mabanta: Third Place (tie) – 9.850
Ulrich: Third Place (tie) – 9.850
Floor
Cooley: First Place – 9.875
Brusch: Second Place (tie) – 9.850
Mundell: Second Place (tie) – 9.850
Ulrich: Second Place (tie) – 9.850
All-Around
Ulrich: First Place – 39.350
Mundell: Second Place – 38.850
NEXT UP:
Denver hosts its first quad meet of the season when it welcomes Missouri, Georgia and LIU to Magness Arena on Sunday, January 12, at 1:45 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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