The 2015 NCAA Gymnastics season has come to a close. This marked a third straight title for Florida. A team that was once an underdog has set up a new dynasty, a bright spot only to be undersung by the big shake-ups in the NCAA coaching field.
Rhonda Faehn has left the sunny beaches of Florida for the cold Midwest in her new position with USA Gymnastics. How can you blame her, it’s a great opportunity. Who could pass up a dream job?
Greg Marsden, head coach of Utah, has retired after 40 years at the helm of Utah. Much like Sarah Patterson last year, he came so close to having that final win. Marsden had so many ideas that never came to fruition, for instance only having four teams in the final, making the NCAA final more of a fan friendly and dynamic. Utah came within 0.025 of beating Florida. They didn’t have Tori Wilson to boost their line ups, but they managed to pull out a top performance. Individually, Georgia “No Grips” Dabrtz brought home a bars title. Since Marsden has mostly stayed on the sidelines, he let his wife and current co-head coach Megan do the heavy duty coaching on the front lines. Utah will lose seniors Tori Wilson, Becky Tutka, and Georgia Dabritz, all though Miss “I don’t wear grips and my Comaneci salto is one of the seven wonders of the gymnastics world” will be returning as a team manager. The last time Utah won that Super Six title was in 1995, with the dynamic legacy and seat filling program Marsden built, they will continue to prosper.
Florida is overflowing with talent from Bridget Sloan to Kytra Hunter to Kennedy Baker to Alex McMurty, they started strong and kept it going. Not even an ankle injury from Bridget Sloan could keep them derailed. With some sleight of hand re-arrangement in the line-ups, it was like nothing ever happened, and Bridget Sloan came back like nothing ever happened. In the prelims they had some problems, with Bridget Sloan having some issues on floor. But they still managed to qualify in the first place spot. Kytra Hunter finished her day on the first of several highs she had over the past few weeks winning the all-around title with Samantha Pezsek of UCLA. Of course, the day of Super Six finals came and Florida hit, blew their competition out of the water and won a third straight title that they don’t have to share. Why would Rhonda Faehn leave the sunny beaches of Florida for the cold Midwest in her new position with USAG? Besides the fact that it is a dream job. She’s poured her heart and soul into that team and it has paid off. She’s invested much time into recruiting top elite athletes. Over the next several years, Florida has a potential small army of young recruits ready and eager to take their place in a winning program, names that include Peyton Ernst, Alicia Boren. They just named a replacement for Faehn: Jenny Rowland, 2015 NCAA co-Assistant Coach of the Year. If anyone could pull off success in the next year and bring home a fourth consecutive title, it would be Florida.
Over in Baton Rouge, LSU head coach D D Breaux is probably planning beam line-ups for next year. LSU was a team that was strong in the regular season, but when it came to the post season, they struggled. They qualified to nationals out of their regional, but in the semi-finals,the beam-pocalypse, happened. The beam was their worst enemy. Not even Rheagan Courville and her standing Arabian could rescue LSU from the depths of beam despair. LSU will lose Courville, Liomencia Hall and Jessie Jordan. They’re gaining their own Olympic team in their 2016 freshman class, including McKenna Kelly, Sarah Finnegan and Lexie Priessman. Maybe 2016 will be the year they break through, capitalizing on the major coaching shake-ups.
Somewhere, KJ Kindler is hoping that 2016 Super Six trophy will belong to her and only her. Ranked # 1 all season, the Oklahoma Sooners were definitely the favorites going into the Super Six final. Not a team of big elite names, save for Brenna Dowell. They’re overflowing with talent from people like Chayse Capps, Haley Scaman, Erica Brewer, Maili’ana Kanewa. They were undefeated in the regular season, huge accomplishment. They’re not stacked with huge names like some of their rivals, but they’re just as talented. They came oh so close to having that title all to themselves. In the semi-finals, they had a fall, the first time since McKenzie Wofford had an unfortunate beam crotching incident at Denver. The Sooners were determined not to let LSU’s bad beam juju affect their performance. But it came down to those two out of bounds for Brenna Dowell and Ali Jackson on floor. Oh so close.
The Legacy team Alabama had head coach Sarah Patterson retired last year. Much like Marsden, she was close to bringing in one last of her career. Dana Duckworth, Sarah’s replacement has a goal to pace the team effectively. Their strategy has been to start out slow and be ready in the post season, come out when no one else expects you. It worked at SECs when their competitors couldn’t hold it together on beam and I suspect they had the same strategy for Super Six, but in the end, they were not nearly as strong as their rivals.
While playing slow and steady didn’t work out for Alabama, Stanford was able to capitalize on the mistakes of their bigger competitors and get a successful Super Six berth. Maybe the judges were appreciating Taylor Rice making it rain on beam and floor and her quirky, twerktastic floor choreography that only she could get away with. Or just the combination of Elizabeth “Ebee” Price’s dynamic all-around performance at Super six after not having competed all around all year. She was a standout on a team of unique gymnasts, between Sami Shapiro’s bars and Ivana Hong’s glorious beam routine that makes a Gainer pike look like a thing of beauty and the perfect Gym Max form of Nicollette and Danielle McNair. They were one of the few teams that hit clean and didn’t have to count a fall or a major error. While they’re not Florida, or Utah, they have their own brand of great gymnastics. They start slow and build up their team to what they need for post season.
Oregon State may not have made Super Six, but them qualifying to the Nationals is huge for them. The Beavers have gained attention with athletes on their team such as Risa Perez, who brings the performance aspect on floor and Maddie Gardiner of Canada who brings her unique wolf turn to split on beam.
Auburn had their first super six final in over twenty years. No one expected them to make it to nationals. No one really expected that they would make super six. But they did, with strong performances from Bri Guy, Caitlin Atkinson. Hopefully, they can use this as motivation next year to keep making the Super Six.
The post-season has seen more shake ups in coaching. Former elite gymnast and Stanford Alum, Tabitha Yim accepted a position as a head coach at the University of Arizona. Yim as an assistant coach helped the Stanford Cardinals to two of their highest final scores at Super Six in 2012 and just a couple weeks ago in Texas. She’s replacing long time coach, Bill Ryden. Could she be the next Rhonda Faehn? She’s young, not even thirty yet. She has experience in the NCAA and in the elite scene and she’s had success in elite, and disappointment, and has had great success in NCAA. She could bring the super gym nerdiness and savvy that Faehn brought to Florida and bring that person that the girls can look up to. She’s someone who brings a fresh perspective to NCAA coaching that could breathe much needed fresh air into 2016.
Article by: Maria Layton
Photo Cover: source