The Arizona GymCats already have two meets under their belts, but it’s finally time for the new group to debut in McKale Center. The team hosts Air Force on its Military and First Responders Appreciation Night Friday at 7 p.m. MST. It’s looking to build on improving scores over the first two weeks of the season.
The season opened at the American Gold Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Classic in Oceanside, Calif. on Jan. 4. The GymCats won their session, but the scores left something to be desired.
NCAA gymnastics is trying to reign in score inflation this season, making some of the scores lower than in recent years. That was definitely true in Oceanside, where Arizona won with a 194.925.
“What you’re gonna see now is they’ve established these ranges,” said Arizona head coach John Court. “So this way we don’t see a 10.0 and a 9.85. So you’re going to see a lot of scores are tighter, but sometimes those scores actually might be lower. But as long as you’re consistent, it doesn’t bother me. We definitely want to make sure the right scores are out there. But also this system is supposed to make sure that at the end of the season we have the best officials judging our conference championships, regionals and national championships, because the officials are being evaluated now by a new system every single weekend.”
Part of the issuein Oceanside was the balance beam, where the GymCats are typically very strong. They ended up counting a fall, dropping their score to 48.675. It was the lowest score on beam since Jan. 2022 when they had a 48.600 in the third week of the season.
The vault was a better representation of the lower scores that can be expected this season. The GymCats had just two scores above 9.650 on the event in the first week. Their 48.450 was their lowest total of the day and the lowest overall on vault since the end of Feb. 2021.
The team responded in week two. It faced off against Michigan, North Carolina State, and Clemson in its session of the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad. The Wolverines were ranked No. 13 in the preseason WCGA poll. The Wolfpack was No. 25.
It came down to the final gymnast. Michigan edged past Arizona by a tenth to win the session, but the GymCats finished 2-1 on the day to improve their record to 5-1 this season.
It didn’t look like it was going to happen. Arizona started in fourth place after the opening rotation when another strong event—in this case floor exercise—went sideways. The experienced group, which featured 16 of 24 routines by upperclassmen, chipped away at their deficit. They moved into a tie for second, then took sole possession of second. Then, they were pushing for first.
“I actually thought that the meets were very similar from a performance standpoint,” Court said. “We were 22 out 24 in each meet, but the two events (with falls), they switched it up. But I thought that the quality of routine was really good from the technical aspect, but also from where they were doing the routine, they had very, very good control and execution.”
Now, the group is looking to up the performance in its first home appearance of the year. This season, McKale has been reconfigured for gymnastics meets and features a number of technical upgrades that should improve the fan experience. It also has a nice mix of veterans and newcomers making an impact.
Seniors Alysen Fears and Emily Mueller have joined sophomore Abigayle Martin to give the team three all-arounders this season, but the team is getting strong contributions from its specialists, as well.
Fifth-year beam and bars specialist Elena Deets has been the big story so far, earning Arizona’s first Big 12 gymnastics weekly award as specialist of the week last week. The journey of Gianna Lenczner has been huge, as well.
Lenczner is a junior who is getting her first chance to be in the lineup this season. She came to Arizona as a beam and bars specialist, but injuries have kept her on the sidelines the first two seasons. Last year, a reinjury to her shoulder ended her time on bars and almost caused her to end her time in the sport.
“It’s very exhausting,” Lenczner said. “It’s defeating, and it feels like you’re doing everything wrong, kind of, whereas I know that things are meant to happen for a reason. I kind of just try to test that because it can be really frustrating, and I kind of always had the mentality of why is this happening to me? And that really sucks, but you just have to keep working through it. I know that no matter what I’m doing, I can keep going and push through and do my best.”
Lenczner stuck with it and has been one of Arizona’s best performers on beam in the early going. The gymnast earned a 9.850 in both meets, helping Arizona survive two falls in Oceanside and put up a 49.225 in Oklahoma City. She’s been rewatching her routines since then, getting encouragement from the performances and seeing her teammates cheering for her.
“I felt so good to get out there and show everyone that I have been working for this, and to just prove, like for myself, to know that I got out there and I can do it, and to help (associate head coach) Taylor (Spears),” Lenczner said. “It feels really good to show her that I can do that and that she put the trust in me and that I got out there and did what she wanted.”
It’s what her head coach recruited her to do.
“I knew this day would come,” Court said. “And one of the things I told her after she finished her beam, I said, she deserved this. She’s worked so hard, and it’s what I’ve always envisioned her doing.”
Sophomore Martin has seen her role expand, as well. She performed in the all-around a few times in the latter half of last season, but she has already been on all four events in both meets this season. She was second of eight gymnasts in the all-around in Oceanside. In OKC, she again finished second but improved her score by 0.075.
Court has also given time to freshman Aubrey Krohnfeldt. She had some difficulty on floor exercise at the Collegiate Quad in Oklahoma City but has otherwise been a strong competitor with three of her four scores landing between 9.750 and 9.850.
The GymCats hope to keep things moving on a upward trajectory by reducing the falls and major breaks this week against the Falcons. The meet will be streamed on ESPN+.
Lead photo by Catherine Regan / Arizona Athletics