WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – The No. 18-ranked University of Denver women's gymnastics team placed third overall at the 2025 Big 12 Gymnastics Championship at the Maverik Center on Saturday evening.
DU (196.400) placed behind No. 4-ranked Utah (197.775) and No. 21-ranked Arizona (196.675) but ahead of first-session leader BYU (196.275), No. 24-ranked Arizona State (195.975), as well as Iowa State (195.775) and West Virginia (194.875), which competed in the afternoon session.
Graduate student
Bella Mabanta and junior
Mila Brusch tied atop the vault podium with matching 9.900s to be named Big 12 champions on the event.
COACH'S NOTES:
From Joy S. Burns Head Women's Gymnastics Coach
Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart: "As a team, we discussed staying in our bubble, showing energy and approaching things with confident body language, and they did all three of those things tonight. There were multiple individual highlights for us to build off of, and I still believe we are a strong team. But we need to put it together when it counts."
SIGNIFICANT STATS
- Brusch and Mabanta won the first Big 12 individual titles of their careers.
- Last season, Brusch tied for third on vault while Mabanta tied for second on beam – marking her second top-three finish on the event in her career after also doing so in 2021.
- Their titles are the fifth and sixth on vault in Denver's history as a member of the Big 12 Conference, joining graduate student Rylie Mundell (2023), Lynnzee Brown (2019) and Maddie Karr (2018 and 2019).
- They are also the eighth and ninth DU gymnasts to become Big 12 champions on an event.
- Brusch's 9.900 on vault tied her career high – first set at the 2024 Big 12 Championship – and tied for the fifth highest vault score by a DU gymnast at a Big 12 Championship.
- Senior Momoko Iwai added another 9.900 for Denver, doing so on beam and missing the podium by just a .025.
- Her score tied the eighth highest on the event for DU at a Big 12 Championship and marked the second time in her career of scoring in 9.900 range at the meet (winning a share of the title in 2022 with a 9.950).
- Iwai and sophomore Maddison Reidenbach were also just a quarter tenth away from the floor podium, as was Mundell on bars, all with 9.850s on the respective events.
- Denver ended the night with a 49.225 on vault, matching the program's 10th highest postseason score on the event and the fourth highest at a Big 12 Championship.
- It was also DU's second highest vault score at an away meet this season.
BARS RECAP
Denver started the competition on bars but was unable to dial in all of its handstands and dismounts as it normally does, scoring a 48.900. Fifth-year senior
Rosie Casali kicked things off a with a solid routine for a 9.725 before sophomore
Madison Ulrich had an uncharacteristic mistake on her Pak salto to follow it with a 9.675. Junior
Kiley Rorich seemed to get the rotation back on track with a 9.825 in the No. 3 spot, and junior
Cecilia Cooley added a 9.775 afterward. Senior
Mia Hebinck, too, had trouble with her Pak but recovered to add a 9.725 in the penultimate routine. Mundell once again delivered a stellar set in the anchor spot, holding all of her handstands but hopped on her dismount for a 9.850.
BEAM RECAP
DU regrouped with five hit beam routines for a 49.125 in the second rotation to start getting back on track overall – despite again shuffling its lineup. Cooley hit a strong routine in the leadoff to set the tone with a 9.850 that was only a quarter tenth from her career best. Sophomore
Ashley Gallen moved to the No. 2 spot in the fourth lineup appearance of her career and added a 9.750, which graduate student
Abbie Thompson would earn later in the rotation. The lineup's highest came from Iwai with a rock-solid routine and a 9.900, earning a 9.950 from one of the four judges. DU's final counted score came from Mabanta, who returned to the lineup for just the second time in the last six weeks and finished just off Iwai's pace with a 9.875.
FLOOR RECAP
Denver continued to build momentum with an improvement again over the previous rotation, posting a 49.150 on floor off five scores at or above 9.800. Rorich started things off with a 9.825 in the first routine, and Brusch followed with a 9.800. Reidenbach made the full lineup for DU for just the seventh time this season and hit a 9.850 to match her season high, which Iwai would also score in the very next routine in what would be Denver's top scores on the event. Cooley then moved into the No. 5 spot for Denver and added another 9.825.
VAULT RECAP
The team once again built on its score from the prior rotation to finish with its strongest event score of the night, a 49.225 on vault. Four of the six vault scored in the 9.800 range, and the lowest counted score was a 9.775, earned by both Ulrich and fellow sophomore
Amanda Hargraves. DU's two Yurchenko 1.5s from Casali and Reidenbach were almost stuck, though both ended up hopping for a 9.800 and 9.850, respectively. Brusch and Mabanta highlighted the rotation with 9.900s for their Yurchenko fulls, joining two Utah vaults with 10.0 start values on top of the event podium at the end of the night.
PODIUM FINISHES
Vault
Brusch: First Place (tie) – 9.900
B. Mabanta: First Place (tie) – 9.900
NEXT UP:
Denver has secured a spot at NCAA Regionals and will await final selections and placements, which will be announced during the NCAA Selection Show live on ESPNU on Monday, March 24, at 10 a.m. MT.
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