DENVER – The No. 18-ranked University of Denver women's gymnastics team moved to 4-0 in Big 12 Conference competition with its win over Arizona in Magness Arena on Saturday night.
Denver finished with a 196.600 – its highest score at home so far in 2026 and its second highest score overall – and placed ahead of Arizona's 195.350.
SIGNIFICANT STATS
- Saturday's attendance of 5,595 became the fifth highest in program history.
- The top five attendance marks in DU Gymnastics history have now all come against Big 12 Conference opponents.
- The highest 11 attended meets in program history have all been set since 2019.
- DU set or tied its season highs in the first two rotations with matching 49.150s on vault and bars.
- On bars and floor, Denver did not count a score below 9.800.
- On floor, all six of DU's scores were at or above 9.825.
- For the first time in 2026, Denver gymnasts won all five of the individual titles.
- Senior Cecilia Cooley continued her trend of increasing her personal best in the all-around in every meet so far since making her collegiate debut in the season opener, earning a 39.500 on Saturday.
- She also won the title for the fourth week in a row.
VAULT RECAP
DU started off hot with three consecutive stuck vaults to begin the meet. All three of the gymnasts – Hargraves, Kasparian and senior
Cecilia Cooley – recorded their highest scores of the season thus far with Kasparian and Cooley earning new personal bests of 9.850 and 9.825, respectively. Hargraves' 9.850 was just a quarter tenth from her career high.
Junior
Maddison Reidenbach gave DU another tied season high with her 9.850 on a Yurchenko full with a small hop. Denver wrapped up the rotation with two 10.0 start values from freshman
Shyla Bhatia and senior
Kiley Rorich with Rorich's 9.775 becoming the team's final counted score.
BARS RECAP
Denver added five more scores at or above 9.800 on bars with a slightly rearranged lineup from its previous meet. Freshman
Kaitlynd Kastl repeated as the lead off with a hit routine, setting up Reidenbach for a 9.800 that equaled her personal best. Senior
Mila Brusch continued to build scores with a 9.825 that narrowly missed her career high while Bhatia moved to the No. 4 spot and set a new career high with a meet-best 9.875. Cooley was just off her pace with a 9.850 in the next routine, equaling her season high, and Rorich closed the lineup with a 9.800.
BEAM RECAP
DU recovered from a fall in its second beam routine to hit its next four routines and once again keep the team from counting a fall. The two routines immediately following the fall – Cooley in the No. 3 spot and freshman Steeley in the No. 4 spot – registered big 9.925s, both career bests for the two DU gymnasts to get things back on track. Reidenbach fought hard through her set and stayed on the beam, leaving freshman
Megan Aamold to close things off in the anchor spot, which she did with a 9.800.
For the second meet in a row, junior
Ashley Gallen took the lead-off position and delivered her sixth hit routine of the year.
FLOOR RECAP
For the fourth time through the first six meet in 2026, Denver's floor squad registered its highest event score of the night, this time with a 49.400 – the team's fourth mark above 49.300 so far. All six scores finished above 9.800s, an achievement DU has now seen in three meets in a row.
Leading the way was Bhatia, who set a new personal best in the middle of the lineup with a title-winning 9.925. Two routines later, Cooley collected a 9.900, her fifth score in the 9.900 range through the season's first six meets. Gallen was just barely off Cooley's pace with a career high of her own, 9.875. Hargraves and Reidenbach each added a 9.850 for the final counted scores, though sophomore
Addie Hewitt was only a quarter tenth away from their marks in her fifth consecutive floor appearance.
EXHIBITION NOTES
DU returned to having at least one exhibition on each of the four events. Hewitt again claimed the spot on vault and earned a 9.750. Kastl took one of the two exhibition spots on beam, her third such appearance, and scored a 9.575.
Kasparian competed three exhibition routines – giving her a pseudo-all-around appearance after also going in the full vault lineup. She changed her bars dismount from last week's exhibition appearance and earned a 9.775. In her first beam appearance of any sort since the season opener, she earned a 9.600, and she finished the day with her first routine of any sort on floor.
PODIUM FINISHES
Vault
Hargraves: First Place (tie) – 9.850
Kasparian: First Place (tie) – 9.850
Reidenbach: First Place (tie) – 9.850
Bars
Bhatia: First Place – 9.875
Cooley: Second Place – 9.850
Brusch: Third Place – 9.825
Beam
Cooley: First Place (tie) – 9.925
Steeley: First Place (tie) – 9.925
Floor
Bhatia: First Place – 9.925
Cooley: Second Place – 9.900
Gallen: Third Place (tie) – 9.875
All-Around
Cooley: First Place – 39.500
Reidenbach: Third Place – 39.025
NEXT UP:
Denver heads back on the road for the final time in Big 12 Conference competition when it travels to BYU on Friday, February 20, at 7 p.m. MT.
TICKETS:
Tickets for the 2026 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.
