Happy NCAA gymnastics season! — Simone Biles is named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated
By Lela Moore
The IX: Gymnastics Saturday with Lela Moore, Jan. 4, 2025
Happy Gymnastics Saturday and Happy New Year! It’s 2025. Doesn’t the year after an Olympic year always seem like a bit of a letdown? But it is also the first weekend of NCAA gymnastics season, and that, at least, is an annual delight.
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Also back in action is Spencer Barnes, creator of The Balance Beam Situation and GymCastic cohost. Barnes was diagnosed with colon cancer last year. Barnes announced on GymCastic’s final episode of 2024 that he was finished with chemotherapy. And this week, he’s returned to writing, giving us a preview of the NCAA season and his weekly schedule and streaming links post. Many gymnerds, myself included, were wondering what an NCAA season without Barnes’ commentary (and the GIF roundups!) would look like — and for now, we can stop worrying. The best possible news! We wish Barnes all the best.
It will never truly feel like a proper Friday night in January again without Bart Conner and Kathy Johnson Clarke on the SEC Network’s Friday Night Heights. But we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly back into the past. By press time, we’ll have seen two SEC teams debut: Missouri and LSU. Utah will have also debuted.
The big wrench there is the absence of Haleigh Bryant, LSU’s superstar all-arounder, who is sidelined for the foreseeable future with a UCL injury to her elbow. It proobably won’t affect this debut meet against Iowa State but it will likely be closer than it would have otherwise.
Utah’s preview meet showed a solid team, and I’m expecting a solid debut performance as well. Will top-ranked freshman Avery Neff be the star she’s expected to be? My vote is yes, but we can’t rule out rookie nerves.
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Today brings us a fuller slate of meets, although the catch is that we can’t watch some of them because they won’t stream live. These include the Pacific Coast Challenge with an early session at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT between Cal, UCLA and Oregon State and a late session at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT between Arizona, Southern Utah, Rutgers (did New Jersey move coasts?), and the debut squad from Wilberforce, the newest HBCU gymnastics team.
Cal is coming back from a Four on the Floor appearance at NCAAs, and UCLA is coming back from waves hand at 2024, this time with Jordan Chiles and maybe more 10.0 start-value vaults, but now without Selena Harris (who transferred to Florida). Chiles’ Olympic teammate Jade Carey returns to Oregon State, and it will be exciting to see the two of them face off.
We’ll also see (well, hear about, since this one’s also not streaming) Oklahoma’s first attempt at avenging its 2024 season at the Nashville Invite Saturday, beginning at 6:15 p.m. ET/3:15 p.m. PT and also featuring Nebraska, Auburn and BYU. Obviously we’ll all be paying attention to the scores to see if this year’s Tennessee meet matches last year’s in terms of grade inflation.
And Sunday’s big debut is Michigan, facing off against Denver on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.
Buckle up!
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Other gym news
College Gym News sees you gearing up for NCAA season and brings you a primer on getting your TV ready for action and one on catching up with all the conference realignment in the offseason. Just in time for that Tennessee meet, you can also get caught up on the new judging rules for 2025. Finally, read about all the 2024 Olympians competing in NCAA this season!
The Gymternet has a You Asked, the Gymternet Answered column for us, as well as the top WAG scores from the quad that just wrapped up and the best scores of 2024.
Missouri’s head coach, Shannon Welker, extended his contract through 2029 — no doubt an attempt by the Tigers to capitalize on the team’s fifth-place NCAA finish last season.
Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic medalist, died at 103 last week in Budapest. She won 10 Olympic medals, including five golds, for Hungary at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics before moving to Israel and building up that country’s gymnastics program.
Kayla DiCello had surgery on her foot (the one she didn’t injure at Olympic trials). She was already considered out for the season at Florida, but hopefully she will now return with two working feet.
The Gators picked up five-star recruit Ly Bui a season early.
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Five at The IX: Simone Biles is Sportsperson of the Year
Simone Biles was named Sports Illustrated’s 2024 Sportsperson of the Year. The accompanying article credits Biles not only with her personal and professional comeback at the Paris Olympics, but with changes across her sport and all sports in terms of the way athletes discuss their mental health and the steps taken to address issues. No one is more deserving.
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX |
| Fridays: Hockey |
| By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden |
| Saturdays: Gymnastics |
| By: Lela Moore, @runlelarun, Freelance Writer |
