Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics | |
---|---|
Founded | 2003 |
University | University of Arkansas |
Head coach | Jordyn Wieber (5th season) |
Conference | SEC |
Location | Fayetteville, Arkansas |
Home arena | Barnhill Arena (Capacity: 10,000) |
Nickname | Gym'Backs |
Colors | Cardinal and white [1] |
Super Six appearances | |
2009, 2012 | |
NCAA Regional championships | |
2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2021, 2024 | |
NCAA Tournament appearances | |
2024 |
The Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team represents the University of Arkansas and competes in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). [2] The team was founded in 2003 and is currently coached by Jordyn Wieber, [3] after she assumed the position in April 2019. [4]
The gymnastics team was founded in 2003 by Mark Cook, who started building the team in 2001. [5] Cook had previously coached the Stanford gymnastics and UCLA Bruins teams, as the head coach and assistant coach respectively. The first team competed in the 2003, with an all-freshman roster, and finished the regular season ranked 41st.
The team made their first appearance at the NCAA National Championship finals ('Super Six') in 2009, finishing in 5th place with a score of 196.475 - their best placement to date. [6] The Razorbacks made their second appearance in 2012, finishing in 6th place with a score of 196.300. [7]
The retirement of Mark Cook as head coach was announced on April 9, 2019. [8] The new head coach for the 2019-2020 season was announced to be the 2011 World Champion Jordyn Wieber on April 24 - the first Olympic champion to be the head coach of an NCAA gymnastics team. [9] Wieber was previously a volunteer assistant coach at UCLA, at which she coached floor, which UCLA finished the 2018 and 2019 regular seasons ranked No. 1 in the country. [10] [11]
In 2024, the Razorbacks qualified to the national championships, finishing in 7th place; Reese Drotar was awarded first-team All-American honours on the uneven bars, and Leah Smith earned second team All-American honours on vault. [12]
Arkansas Razorbacks Super Six Appearances | |
Year | Finish |
---|---|
2009 | 5th |
2012 | 6th |
NCAA: Arkansas Individual Champions | ||
Name | Year | Event |
---|---|---|
Katherine Grable | 2014 | VT |
Katherine Grable | 2014 | FX |
SEC: Arkansas Individual Champions | ||
Name | Year | Event |
---|---|---|
Casey Jo Magee | 2009 | BB |
Jaime Pisani | 2012 | FX |
Name | Height | Year | Hometown |
---|---|---|---|
Chandler Buntin | 5-5 | SO | Collierville, TN |
Grace Drexler | FR | Stratford, WI | |
Reese Drotar | 5-8 | JR | Los Gatos, CA |
Dakota Essenpries | 5-2 | SO | Adrian, MO |
Kalyxta Gamiao | 4-10 | SR | Honolulu, HI |
Maddie Jones | 5-2 | SR | Charlotte, NC |
Hailey Klein | 5-2 | SO | Lake Forest, IL |
Ja'Leigh Lang | FR | East Palo Alto, CA | |
Priscilla Park | 5-3 | SO | Atlanta, GA |
Frankie Price | 5-0 | R-JR | Coppell, TX |
Joscelyn Roberson | 4-8 | FR | Texarkana, TX |
Jensen Scalzo | 5-4 | GR | Parkland, FL |
Leah Smith | 5-1 | SR | Spring, TX |
Sadie Smith | FR | Gig Harbor, WA | |
Cally Swaney | 5-2 | JR | Gastonia, NC |
Cami Weaver | 5-1 | R-JR | Pelham, AL |
Julianna Weeks | FR | Charlotte, NC | |
Lauren Williams | 5-3 | JR | Rogers, AR |
Name | Years | Record | Win % |
---|---|---|---|
Mark Cook | 2003 – 2019 | ||
Jordyn Wieber | 2020 – present |
Name | Position | |
---|---|---|
Jordyn Wieber | Head coach | [13] |
Chris Brooks | Assistant coach | [14] |
Kyla Ross | Assistant coach | [15] |
Catelyn Branson | Assistant Coach | [16] |
The University of Arkansas is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System. Founded as Arkansas Industrial University in 1871, classes were first held in 1872, with its present name adopted in 1899.
The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot in 1910 to the Arkansas Razorbacks after a hard-fought battle against LSU in which they were said to play like a "wild band of Razorback hogs" by former coach Hugo Bezdek. The Arkansas Razorbacks are the only major sports team in the U.S. with a porcine nickname, though the Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas play in Division II.
Houston Dale Nutt Jr. is a former American football player and coach. He formerly worked for CBS Sports as a college football studio analyst. Previously, he served as the head football coach at Murray State University (1993–1996), Boise State University (1997), the University of Arkansas (1998–2007), and the University of Mississippi (2008–2011). Nutt's all-time career winning percentage is just under 59 percent.
Nolan Richardson Jr. is an American former basketball head coach best known for his tenure at the University of Arkansas, where he won the 1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and led the Razorbacks to three Final Fours. Elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014, Richardson coached teams to winning a Division I Basketball National Championship, an NIT championship, and a Junior College National Championship, making him the only coach to win all three championships. During his 22 seasons of coaching in NCAA Division I, Richardson made a post-season tournament appearance 20 times.
Corliss Mondari Williamson is an American basketball coach who serves as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also a former player who played for four teams during his 12-year career. He previously served as an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns. His nickname is "Big Nasty", a moniker he received from his AAU coach when he was 13. Williamson was a dominating power forward in college at Arkansas, but an undersized power forward in the NBA and mostly played at the small forward position.
The Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball team represents the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas in NCAA Division I men's basketball competition. The team competes in the Southeastern Conference and is coached by John Calipari. Arkansas plays its home games in Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus. The Razorbacks are a top-twenty-five program all-time by winning percentage (.641), top-twenty program by NCAA tournament games played, top-twenty program by NCAA Tournament games won, top-fifteen program by Final Four appearances, and despite playing significantly fewer seasons than most programs in major conferences, top-thirty by all-time wins. Under the coaching leadership of Nolan Richardson, the Hogs won the national championship in 1994, defeating Duke, and appeared in the championship game the following year, finishing as runner-up to UCLA. The Razorbacks have made six NCAA Final Four appearances.
The UCLA Bruins women's gymnastics team represents the University of California, Los Angeles and competes in the Big Ten Conference. They compete in Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. The team, coached by Janelle McDonald, has won 21 Regional titles and seven NCAA National Championships, most recently in 2018.
Jordyn Marie Wieber is an American former artistic gymnast and current gymnastics coach. Since April 2019, she has been the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team.
Sabrina Vega is a retired American gymnast from Carmel, New York. She was a five-time national team member and a member of the United States team that won gold at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She later competed for the University of Georgia from 2017 to 2020.
Kyla Briana Ross is a retired American artistic gymnast and current assistant coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team. She is the first female gymnast to win NCAA, World, and Olympic championship titles.
The 2009 NCAA Women's Gymnastics championship involved 12 schools competing for the national championship of women's NCAA Division I gymnastics. It was the twenty eighth NCAA gymnastics national championship and the defending NCAA Team Champion for 2008 was Georgia. The Competition took place in Lincoln, Nebraska hosted by the University of Nebraska in the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
The 2011 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship was held at the Wolstein Center, in Cleveland, Ohio on April 15–17, 2011. Twelve teams from the six regional meets advanced to the NCAA Division I national team and individual titles. The Alabama Crimson Tide were the 2011 national champions.
Christopher Brooks is a retired American gymnast who represented the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. He is now assistant coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks NCAA gymnastics team. He won four gold medals at the 2012 Pacific Rim Championships. He has trained alongside Olympic and World Championships medalist Jonathan Horton as a junior, college and senior elite gymnast. On August 17, 2017, he announced his retirement from artistic gymnastics.
The 2012 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship were held in the Gwinnett Center, at Duluth, Georgia on April 20–22, 2012. Twelve teams from the six regional meets advanced to the NCAA Division I national team and individual titles.
Madison Taylor Kocian is an American retired artistic gymnast. On the uneven bars, she is one of four 2015 World co-champions and the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. She was part of the gold medal-winning team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and she was a member of the first-place American teams at the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020, where she was a member of its women's gymnastics team. She helped the UCLA Bruins win the 2018 NCAA Championships.
Valorie Kondos Field, often referred to as Miss Val, is a retired American gymnastics coach. She was the head coach of the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1991 to 2019, leading the Bruins to seven national championship titles. She is a four-time Conference Coach of the Year, the 2018 West Region Head Coach of the Year, and the Pac-12 Gymnastics Coach of the Century. She is the third most-winning NCAA gymnastics coach, behind Suzanne Yoculan and Greg Marsden.
Norah Irene Flatley is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2014 Pacific Rim junior balance beam champion. She previously competed for the UCLA Bruins and also competed for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The 2016 NCAA women's gymnastics tournament were held April 15–16, 2016, at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The 2016 edition marks the second consecutive time the Championship has been held in Fort Worth; this only the second time it has been held in the state of Texas. Following the 2016 championship, Fort Worth would be where the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship is held in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023. The team competition was won by Oklahoma with a score 197.675.
Thomas Farden is a South Korea-born American college gymnastics coach. He began his career as the assistant coach of his alma mater the Southeast Missouri Redhawks women's program in 1999, and was promoted to head coach in 2003. After his departure in 2009, Farden briefly served as an assistant coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks for the 2010 season. In 2011, Farden became an assistant coach for the Utah Red Rocks team; a position he held until 2015 when, following the retirement of long-time leader Greg Marsden, he was made the co-head coach with Megan Marsden. After Marsden's retirement in 2019, Farden became the sole head coach of the program. In November 2023, the school put him on administrative leave.
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