With Oklahoma becoming a member of the SEC for the 2025 season, that convention is rapidly cementing itself because the preeminent NCAA gymnastics juggernaut. Regardless of the simple dynasty it has and continues to create, the SEC is much from the one convention with a storied historical past within the sport.
Flashing again to the early days of gymnastics being a sanctioned NCAA sport, one other dynasty seems – the Pac-12. Among the many eight colleges previously within the Pac-12 sponsoring gymnastics lie 16 staff nationwide titles and a whopping 100 particular person nationwide champions. With convention realignment spelling not less than the short-term finish of Pac-12 gymnastics as we all know it, there is no such thing as a time like the current to look again on what would find yourself changing into faculty gymnastics’ first-ever true dynasty, and to see what the long run appears like – each for the staff presently left within the convention and the storied packages that beforehand stuffed its ranks.
Earlier than NCAA gymnastics was launched as a championship sport in 1982, the faculties that may come to hitch the Pac-12 have been already pushing boundaries within the Affiliation for Intercollegiate Athletics for Girls (AIAW), with Utah profitable an AIAW title in 1981.
The longer term Pac-12 didn’t simply compete in that 1981 championship – it dominated, with UCLA, Arizona State, Oregon State, and the College of Southern California all ending within the prime 9 together with Utah. UCLA and Oregon State accounted for 4 of the 5 particular person titles – all besides ground train – with Bruin Sharon Shapiro taking the highest spot within the all-around and on vault, her teammate Diane Dovas taking the bars title, and Oregon State’s Laurie Carter profitable beam.
Flashing ahead one yr to 1982, Greg Marsden’s Woman Utes gained the primary official NCAA gymnastics event – and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that. That’s proper, Utah five-peated, a feat that may not be repeated till Georgia gained 5 in a row from 2005 to 2009. By securing further titles in 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1995, the Utes – who adopted the nickname “Crimson Rocks” in 1992 – cemented themselves as essentially the most profitable program of NCAA gymnastics’ infancy.
After being the runner-up 3 times, UCLA broke via as the subsequent Pac-12 college to win a staff nationwide title in 1997, led by famed head coach Valorie Kondos Discipline and a litany of gymnastics legends, together with Canadian world staff member Leah Homma and 1992 Olympian Stella Umeh, present Clemson head coach Amy Smith, and 1992 Olympian for Guatemala Luisa Portocarrero. The Bruins would go on to win further titles in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2010, and 2018 – the Pac-12’s last staff nationwide title as we knew it. Alongside the huge staff success got here particular person success as nicely, particularly for Jamie Dantzscher, who tied the Excellent 10 document, scoring 28 throughout her time at UCLA from 2001 to 2004.
By the top of the 2004 season, the Pac-12 convention had made historical past once more. Simply two days other than one another, Stanford and UCLA put up the best rating ever in NCAA gymnastics – 198.875. This document would stand for 20 years till the 2024 season, when Oklahoma scored a 198.950.
Stanford gymnastics was removed from executed after that historic 2004 season, nonetheless. Few individuals know Pac-12 (or Pac-10, because it was beforehand identified) gymnastics in addition to two-time Pac-10 all-around champion and Stanford Athletics Corridor of Fame inductee Tabitha Yim. From 2005 to 2008, Yim racked up 14 All-American honors and helped lead the Cardinal to back-to-back nationwide finals in her junior and senior years. Rapidly after graduating, in 2010, Yim joined the Stanford teaching employees as an assistant earlier than shifting to Arizona to be the top coach of the Wildcats for 2 seasons. Forward of the 2018 season, Yim returned to her alma mater, this time as head coach. Her six-year tenure has confronted highs and lows, together with a COVID-riddled five-meet-long 2021 season, however Yim’s Cardinal broke via in 2024, ending the season ranked fifth – Stanford’s highest rating since 2015.
For Yim, the legacy of the Pac-12 is an easy one: “Providing a full student-athlete expertise.” Initially cautious of how she would slot in with the Cardinal and stability the educational rigor of Stanford together with her sporting profession, Yim was rapidly welcomed into the school panorama by former head coach Kristen Smyth, who Yim says noticed one thing in her that she didn’t see in herself.
A southern California native herself, Yim had been lengthy uncovered to the Pac-12 groups. By the point she made it to school, she was absolutely able to reap the benefits of the holistic growth prevalent at Pac-12 establishments, noting how her coaches “performed such a giant position in [her] growth as a student-athlete, as an individual, and ultimately as a coach.”
Regardless of Stanford becoming a member of the Atlantic Coast Convention in August, Yim additionally made certain to acknowledge those that have paved the way in which for Stanford’s latest successes, shouting out “all of the alums from Stanford ladies’s gymnastics who set the trail inside the Pac-12 [and] helped construct Stanford to what it’s now.”
Wanting again on the Pac-12’s tenure as an entire, few moments have felt as triumphant because the 2018 nationwide championship. UCLA didn’t enter the meet as the favourite, however the Bruins have been capable of overcome a worse-than-usual vault rating within the second rotation to edge out the reigning champion Oklahoma Sooners. Maybe the one most iconic second in Pac-12 gymnastics historical past was Peng-Peng Lee’s Excellent 10 on beam to seal the nationwide title for the Bruins. Not solely was this the final routine of the meet for UCLA, it was additionally the final routine of Lee’s storied six-year faculty profession, which included 10 Excellent 10s, one particular person nationwide title, 9 All-American honors, and the 2018 Honda Award.
Alongside Lee, 2012 Olympic staff champion Kyla Ross and 2011 junior nationwide champion Katelyn Ohashi have been a number of the convention’s most prolific athletes. In 2019, Ross turned the second-ever gymnast to earn a second Fitness center Slam, that means she had acquired a Excellent 10 on each occasion twice. The largest story of the Pac-12 in 2019, nonetheless, was Ohashi’s viral ground routine, which has amassed over 247 million views to this point. Alongside Ohashi, routines from Felicia Hano, Sophina DeJesus, Jordan Chiles, Nia Dennis, Gracie Kramer, and Margzetta Frazier have garnered thousands and thousands of views on the backs of spectacular choreography from assistant coach BJ Das.
The daybreak of the 2020s may have been the golden age of Pac-12 gymnastics, with stacked senior lessons from each UCLA and Utah headlining the convention getting into the last decade. However alas, all good issues have to return to an finish. In June of 2022, UCLA (and the College of Southern California) introduced their intention to maneuver to the Massive Ten, the primary domino to fall within the eventual elimination of the convention as we all know it. In August of 2023, Washington and Oregon introduced that they have been following UCLA and USC to the Massive Ten, whereas Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah determined to make the transfer to the Massive 12 a mere two days later, following Colorado, which had introduced its intention to return to its former convention one week prior. The ultimate nail within the coffin got here a month later, in September 2023, when Cal and Stanford introduced their resolution to depart the Pac-12 in favor of the ACC.
Notably, this realignment left the Pac-12 with two groups, one in every of which – Oregon State – sponsors gymnastics. Whereas the Beavers have by no means clinched a staff championship, they’ve certified to the NCAA event yearly since 1975 and have six particular person champions, the latest of which was Amy Durham on ground in 1993. Nationwide titles apart, it’s unattainable to speak about Oregon State gymnastics with out mentioning its most profitable gymnast of the final 20 years: Jade Carey.
When Carey verbally dedicated to Oregon State again in 2014, she was nonetheless a Stage 9 gymnast with tons of potential. By the point she signed an NLI with the Beavers in 2017, she was a first-year elite gymnast on the periphery of greatness. Carey rapidly cemented herself as a drive to be reckoned with after profitable two silver medals on the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, Canada. After forgoing the 2018 World Championships with the intention to qualify for the 2020 Olympics as a person, Carey picked up an extra two World medals in 2019. Two years later, she turned the Olympic ground champion on the Tokyo Video games.
With such a profitable elite profession and the load of being the primary particular person Olympic gold medalist to compete in NCAA gymnastics (alongside Olympic teammate Suni Lee), the strain was on Carey to ship – and ship she did. Inside two weeks of beginning her faculty profession, Carey had damaged the Oregon State all-around document with an enormous 39.800, a document she would go on to interrupt a mere two weeks later when she scored 39.825 on the again of her first profession Excellent 10. This was just the start for the rising faculty star; she would go on to earn 11 extra 10s from 2022-2024 whereas as soon as once more besting her all-around document, scoring a 39.875 not as soon as, however twice in the course of the 2023 season. She nonetheless delivered in her staff in 2024 as nicely, regardless of coaching for the Paris Video games, the place she would ultimately win a staff gold medal and bronze on vault.
Although the long run remains to be unsure, issues have began to search for for the Beavers, with the Pac-12 asserting in September the enlargement of the convention to incorporate 5 new colleges for the 2026 season, together with two that sponsor gymnastics (Boise State and Utah State).
Whereas change is on the horizon, the previous Pac-12 groups see convention realignment as a possibility to rise to new heights on new levels. For Yim’s Stanford Cardinal, the aim is for “[Stanford’s] work to face by itself and to be rewarded from any angle – from each panel in all places within the nation.”
Coming off of a historic yr, there are apparent expectations of success shifting ahead, however apart from the numbers, Yim hopes to proceed her mission from when she took the top teaching place: “Determining find out how to greatest work with every particular person to convey out the most effective in our athletes.”
For the Utah Crimson Rocks, head coach Carly Dockendorf thinks the mindset is comparable: “Our job remains to be the identical… to be the most effective we will be and proceed to concentrate on our gymnastics, it doesn’t matter what convention we’re in.”
With 9 NCAA nationwide championships and 4 consecutive third-place finishes at nationals beneath their belt, expectations are excessive for the Crimson Rocks to proceed producing huge leads to the Massive 12. With a brand new crop of gifted gymnasts coming in, together with the top-rated recruit of the 2024 class, Avery Neff, Dockendorf is happy to “elevate and push the gymnasts on our staff to proceed to get higher.”
To place into perspective the legacy of the convention, each former Pac-12 staff has had not less than one particular person NCAA nationwide champion, with the primary for every program being: Utah’s Sue Stednitz and Elaine Alfano in 1982, Oregon State’s Mary Ayotte-Regulation in 1982, Arizona State’s Jeri Cameron in 1983, Washington’s Yumi Mordre in 1987, UCLA’s Kim Hamilton in 1987, Arizona’s Anna Basaldua in 1991, Stanford’s Larissa Fontaine in 1998, and Cal’s Maya Bordas in 2021.
All hope might not be misplaced, nonetheless, for followers seeking to revisit the glory days of the Pac-12. Boise State and Utah State becoming a member of forward of the 2026 season will give the convention three gymnastics groups. This leaves the Pac-12 at a fork within the highway, having to resolve whether or not so as to add the extra Mountain West gymnastics groups (San Jose State and Air Drive) as affiliate convention members for gymnastics or to petition any of the opposite three colleges becoming a member of the convention – San Diego State, Fresno State, and/or Colorado State – so as to add groups, very similar to Clemson did en path to the ACC sponsoring gymnastics.
Whether or not or not it’s the viral routines or the customarily free Pac-12 Insider streams, many NCAA gymnastics followers have fostered a delicate spot for the convention. Whereas not one of the eight packages that previously populated the Pac-12 are going anyplace, there may be going to be an apparent and simple shift within the collegiate gymnastics panorama. Convention realignment could serve to make faculty gymnastics all of the extra aggressive, with prime packages previously in numerous conferences assembly one another on an more and more common foundation. Whereas matchups like UCLA vs. Utah are being preserved regardless of realignment, there’s a sure stage of pleasure available concerning new matchups like Cal and Stanford battling for the highest of the ACC standings in opposition to NC State and Clemson and annual conferences between UCLA and the 2021 nationwide champion Michigan Wolverines.
Whereas these colleges acclimate to their respective new conferences, NCAA gymnastics followers may have the pleasure of watching a brand new dynasty kind and develop because it strives to reinvent the holistic tutorial status and record-breaking athletic efficiency of its predecessor.
