WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – The No. 23-ranked University of Denver women's gymnastics team finished as the 2026 Big 12 Conference runner-up during Saturday evening's Big 12 Gymnastics Championship at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah.
Denver tallied a 196.575, placing behind only No. 12-ranked Utah (197.675). When results from both sessions were combined, BYU was third (196.175), Arizona State was fourth (195.225), Arizona was fifth (194.725), and West Virginia (194.250) was sixth.
Following the end of the meet, freshman
Shyla Bhatia was named the
Big 12 Conference Newcomer of the Year, and DU's three seniors –
Mila Brusch,
Cecilia Cooley and
Kiley Rorich – combined for four spots on the All-Big 12 Championship Team based on their performances in Saturday's meet.
SIGNIFICANT STATS
- DU's 49.450 on floor tied the program's second highest score on the event at a Big 12 Championship.
- Denver's 49.050 on beam tied its fourth highest score of the season.
- DU finished with the highest bars score of the entire meet – both sessions combined – with a 49.100.
- Two DU gymnasts matched career highs in the meet: Cooley with a 9.925 on beam and Rorich with a 9.900 on floor.
- The team rebounded after counting its first falls of the year in its last meet to hit 23 of its 24 routines and start a new streak of not counting a fall on any event.
BEAM RECAP
Teams chose their starting event for the meet based on their NQS rankings. Denver had the second choice for the evening session and opted to compete first on beam. The decision proved successfully with DU hitting all six routines – in its very first rotation since counting two falls on the same event one week prior.
Freshman
Megan Aamold continued her role as the lead-off competitor and delivered a 9.800 to get back on track after a fall last week and set the tone for the rotation. Junior
Ashley Gallen, too, responded with a 9.700 after a miss in her last beam routine, setting up classmate
Maddison Reidenbach for a 9.775 that was an improvement of nearly two tenths from DU's last meet.
Denver's final two beam workers delivered the team's top scores, starting with a rock-solid set and stuck front gainer full dismount from junior
Amanda Hargraves for a 9.850 that was only a quarter tenth from her career high. Cooley stepped up as the anchor and followed Hargraves' lead, putting together a steady and well-executed set that also ended with a stuck dismount for a personal-best-tying 9.925 – giving her redemption after a fall a week ago.
FLOOR RECAP
For the second time this season, Denver scored at or above 9.850 in all six of its floor routines – and only counted 9.875s or higher. The first 9.875 came from Gallen in her usual role as the first floor worker from DU, giving her a four-match streak of scores at or above 9.850 dating back to March 6. Hargraves followed with a 9.900 – her second time entering the 9.900 range on the event – and set up Rorich for her own 9.900 that tied her career high.
Bhatia registered a 9.875 in the No. 4 spot, her fourth floor routine in a row of at least as high of a score. Reidenbach added a third 9.900 for Denver that was just a quarter tenth shy of her personal best and becoming her fifth 9.900 or higher on the event this year. Cooley closed out the lineup with a 9.850.
VAULT RECAP
Four identical scores of 9.800 got DU to a 48.975 on vault, and all six of Denver's vaults scored at least a 9.750. Starting things off were two of DU's 9.800s from Hargraves – who stuck her Yurchenko full cold for the second time in the first three Big 12 Championship meets of her career – as well as from freshman
Sevana Kasparian for another Yurchenko full with a hop backward.
Reidenbach contributed a 9.750 in the No. 3 spot, and sophomore
Addie Hewitt added a 9.775 in the next vault, both for their Yurchenko fulls. Brusch, who entered the meet as a reigning Big 12 vault champion, gave Denver yet another 9.800 for a 9.95 start value, most of the deduction coming on her hop backward. Bhatia made it a fourth 9.800 for DU, hers coming for a Yurchenko one-and-a-half with a controlled step forward.
BARS RECAP
The most pressure Denver faced in the meet came in the final rotation but saw the team respond after a fall in its second routine to hit four consecutive sets, all for at least a 9.800 and ensuring DU would not count the mistake.
Freshman
Kaitlynd Kastl stepped onto the podium for her only routine of the night and earned 9.750 to kick off the lineup. Immediately following the fall in the second routine, Rorich got things back on track with a 9.850, her fifth straight score at or above 9.800 on the event. Bhatia nearly had the stick on her dismount but needed a small adjustment backward, scoring a 9.800 to keep things trending in the right direction for DU.
Brusch and Cooley provided back-to-back 9.850s in Denver's final two routines of the night, allowing the team to drop its only fall of the meet and finish with one of its top five team scores of the entire season.
ALL-BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Bars
Brusch: Fourth Place (tie) – 9.850
Cooley: Fourth Place (tie) – 9.850
Rorich: Fourth Place (tie) – 9.850
Beam
Cooley: Second Place (tie) – 9.925
NEXT UP:
The University of Denver gymnastics team has mathematically secured a spot at NCAA Regionals and will learn to which of the four campus sites it has been assigned during the NCAA Gymnastics Championship Selection Show on Monday, March 23, at 10 a.m. MT, which will be televised live on ESPNU.
