DENVER – Three University of Denver gymnasts earned All-Big 12 Conference honors for the 2026 season, the conference announced on Wednesday.
 
Senior Cecilia Cooley, junior Maddison Reidenbach and freshman Shyla Bhatia each collected multiple spots on the All-Big 12 Conference Team while Bhatia added another honor as a member of the Big 12 All-Freshman Team. In total, Denver gymnasts combined for seven All-Big 12 Conference honors and eight overall awards when including Bhatia's All-Freshman Team nod.
 
DENVER'S ALL-BIG 12 TEAM HONOREES
Cecilia Cooley: All-Around, Beam, Floor
Maddison Reidenbach: All-Around, Floor
Shyla Bhatia: Vault, Floor, All-Freshman Team
 
Cooley topped the Denver contingent with three total places on the All-Big 12 Team: in the all-around and on beam and floor. After making her collegiate all-around debut as a senior in the team's first seven meets, she ranks No. 4 in the conference with an NQS of 39.295, helped by a personal best of 39.500.
 
The DU senior leads the Big 12 on floor, finishing with the highest national ranking of any gymnast in the conference on the event (tied for No. 12 nationally) with an NQS of 9.930 – the second highest single NQS by any Big 12 gymnast on any event this year. In DU's 11 regular-season meets, Cooley registered eight scores in the 9.900 range on floor including a career-high, near-perfect 9.975 against Stanford on January 11.
 
Cooley added a third All-Big 12 Team honor on beam as the No. 2-ranked gymnast in the conference on the event, holding an NQS of 9.900. She owns four scores of at least 9.900 this year, three of which equaled her personal best of 9.925 – two coming at away meets.
 
She was only .010 in NQS away from adding another All-Big 12 honor, missing out on the top six on bars in a tie for No. 8 with classmate Kiley Rorich.
 
Reidenbach picked up two All-Big 12 Team awards, joining Cooley on the all-around team in what was also her first season competing on all four events. The DU junior ranks No. 5 in the conference in the all-around with an NQS of 39.240, competing in the all-around in all but one meet so far in 2026 and earning a personal best of 39.425.
 
She also landed on the All-Big 12 Floor Team alongside Cooley, tying for No. 6 in the conference off an NQS of 9.890. Through Denver's first 11 meets in 2026, she has set a new career high of 9.925 on the event and has not scored below 9.850 all season long.
 
Reidenbach narrowly missed a spot on the vault team, sitting just .010 in NQS away from a top-six finish in the rankings.
 
Bhatia collected full All-Big 12 Team honors on vault and floor while also being voted as one of the six members of the All-Freshman Team – one of only two Big 12 freshmen to earn spots on both teams.
 
On vault, Bhatia earned an NQS of 9.860 to rank No. 6 overall in the Big 12. Highlighting her season was a stuck Yurchenko one-and-a-half on March 9 that earned a near-perfect 9.975, making her the only freshman in the conference to score a 9.975 or higher on any event this year.
 
The Denver freshman also landed on the full All-Big 12 Team on floor, tying for No. 6 overall with an NQS of 9.890. Four times, she scored in the 9.900 range including a high score of 9.925. In eight of DU's 11 meets so far, she has scored at least a 9.875 on the event and only once scored below a 9.825.
 
All three of Denver's All-Big 12 Team members are first-time honorees on a regular-season or postseason all-conference team. Cooley and Reidenbach were recognized prior to the start of the year as members of the Big 12 All-Preseason Team. Bhatia is the first Denver gymnast to earn All-Freshman Team recognition.
 
Denver's seven All-Big 12 Team honors and eight combined awards with the All-Freshman Team were both second most in the conference. The seven All-Big 12 Team nods are a new program record for the most in a single season, topping the previous record of six from the 2018 season. This is the second year in a row and the third time overall that DU has had three different gymnasts earn at least one all-conference award.
 
Bhatia is the first Denver freshman to earn multiple All-Big 12 Team honors in her first NCAA season and the third to do so on at least one event – joining Maddie Karr (vault in 2017) and Alexis Vasquez (beam in 2018).
 
The All-Big 12 Conference Team recognizes the top six gymnasts on each of the four events and in the all-around – including ties – as determined by NQS ahead of the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship.
 
The All-Freshman Team recognizes the top six first-year competitors as voted on by the head coaches, who cannot vote for their own student-athletes.
 
The No. 23-ranked University of Denver gymnastics team is the No. 2 seed for the 2026 Big 12 Gymnastics Championship and will compete in the evening session on Saturday, March 21, at 5 p.m. MT at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah. Joining Denver in the evening session will be No. 12-ranked Utah, No. 24-ranked BYU and Arizona.