DENVER – Four incoming University of Denver gymnasts collected six total top-10 finishes at the 2026 USA Gymnastics Development Program Level 10 National Championships in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on May 9-10.
 
Lily Caranci, Emerson Gaa, Kennedy Welsh and Delilah Zepeda-Orth concluded their club careers at DP Nationals and will join the Denver squad in the fall after each earned at least one spot in the top 10 of their respective senior sessions at the championship meet.
 
Caranci closed the competition by winning a share of the national title on beam in the Senior F session – seeing her 9.775 posted early in the first rotation hold up as the top score on the event through the remainder of the competition. The Aurora, Colorado, native placed in the top two in each of the last two years at DP Nationals on beam, finishing as the national runner-up in 2025.
 
Gaa captured the highest all-around finish among the DU quartet with her third consecutive top-10 finish since 2024, placing sixth in this year's Senior D session. Highlighting her day was a 9.850 on floor for a third-place finish. The 2024 DP Nationals floor champion finishes her club career with top-three finishes on the event in each of the last three seasons. Gaa, who calls Colleyville, Texas, home, added a third top-10 finish in the meet, placing eighth on beam.
 
Welsh joined Gaa with an eighth-place finish on beam, hers coming in the Senior E session on Sunday. The result ranks as her highest finish on any event across her four career DP Nationals appearances. From Orefield, Pennsylvania, Welsh also narrowly missed a spot in the top 10 on floor, coming in No. 11 overall.
 
Zepeda-Orth gave Denver a fourth top-finish on beam for the weekend, coming in a tie for fourth in Senior A in what was her third time competing at DP Nationals as a Level 10 gymnast. Like Welsh, Zepeda-Orth's fourth-place finish on Saturday marked her single-best result on any event in her career at DP Nationals.
 
The four Denver gymnasts who competed at this year's DP Nationals will join three more incoming freshman to the DU roster for 2026-27. Rory Liegl and Michelle Lin did not qualify for DP Nationals due to injury, and Stefanie Gatin is an international gymnast from Canada and thus not eligible to qualify for the meet.
 
DU's incoming freshman class of seven gymnasts will seek to continue building off the experience earned by another young Denver roster during the 2026 season that saw DU advance to NCAA Regionals for the 27^th consecutive time and have at least one gymnast advance to NCAA Nationals for the 24^th time in the last 25 seasons.