'U' Heads Home to Host Huskies

MINNEAPOLIS-- The No. 18 Minnesota women's gymnastics team looks to stay unbeaten this weekend with a competition against the Washington Huskies. The meet is set for 4 p.m. CT on B1G+ inside Maturi Pavilion. The Gophers will be honoring 'Hometown Days' for Emily Koch, Jayda Lewter, Sophia Nguyen and Megan Steensland, who all represented Legacy Gymnastics.

MEET INFORMATION
No. 18 Minnesota vs. Washington
Saturday, Feb. 1
4 p.m. CT
Maturi Pavilion
Minneapolis, Minn.
TV/Stream: B1G+
Commentators: Halle Remlinger and Tiarre Sales
Live Stats: GopherSports.com

PARKING ADVISORY
Fans arriving on campus should park in the University Avenue or Washington Avenue Ramps south of Maturi Pavilion. All space is subject to availability. Please note, event rate parking will be $12 all day Saturday.

PROMOTIONS AND THEMES

Alumni Day: Minnesota will be welcoming back over 40 alumni from five decades of Gopher gymnastics.
We will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day (Feb. 5). All coaches and support staff will have specially designed quarter zips while the team has its own warm up shirts.
Post-meet autographs will take place at the conclusion of the meet.

EVENT ROTATION ORDER
Minnesota: Vault-Bars-Beam-Floor
Washington: Bars-Vault-Floor-Beam

SCOUTING MINNESOTA

Minnesota defeated Iowa in its B1G road opener Sunday. The Gophers scored a stellar 197.325 compared to 195.625 for Iowa. The score was a season-best for Minnesota and the top tally since earning 197.400 at last year's NCAA Regional Finals. The 'U's previous best in 2025 was 196.375.
"Everybody hit their routines today," said coach Jenny Hansen. "To go 24-for-24 just shows how much our hard work is paying off. We're thrilled with how the team performed today, especially early in the season."
The Gophers (4-0, 2-0 B1G) earned 49.400 on vault, 49.075 on bars, 49.475 on floor and 49.375 on beam. All four were season-highs.
Rookie Teryn Crump was the standout on the uneven bars for the 'U', posting a meet-high 9.875 to win her first ever event title. Crump also split the vault title with Ava Stewart and Sarah Moraw after they all posted 9.900s.
Seria Johnson stepped in for Mya Hooten on floor, anchoring the group with a 9.925 to win the event title. On her 21st birthday, Brooklyn Rowray took home the balance beam title in her home state of Iowa. Her score of 9.925 was a season-high and her best since going 9.975 on Jan. 6, 2024.
The Gophers are coming off a 2024 season that saw them go 20-11 (6-3 Big Ten) and finish second at the B1G Championships. The Gophers went to the NCAA Regional Finals for the third time in the last four seasons and their No. 12 final ranking was the highest finish of any Big Ten team.
Heading into 2025, Gophers seniors Mya Hooten and Lauren Pearl were named Big Ten Gymnasts to Watch. Hooten, a fifth-year, has earned 11 All-America honors in her career. Pearl earned All-Big Ten Second Team and All-Big Ten Championships Team honors in a breakout junior year.
The Gophers finished fourth in the B1G regular season standings with a 6-3 league record. Minnesota then finished second at the Big Ten Championships on March 23 with a score of 197.500, missing winning the conference crown by .100 to Michigan State (197.600). It was the second-best finish at Big Ten's since 2006 (won Big Ten title in 2021).
Minnesota made its 43rd NCAA Regionals appearance all-time in 2024 in year 50 of program history. The Gophers have made regionals for the past 28 seasons (not including 2020 COVID year).
The 'U' made nationals three times (2016, 2021, 2022) in the past 10 seasons, finishing second each time in their regional. Their two regional titles in program laurels came in 1980 and 1982.

SCOUTING WASHINGTON

The Washington Huskies (1-4, 0-2 B1G) are led by first-year head coach Jessica Hansen Parker. She was announced as the program's ninth head coach on July 2, 2024 after serving four seasons as an assistant coach at her alma mater, Iowa.
Washington enters week four with a No. 42 ranking, placing at 45 on vault, 49 on bars, 17 on beam and 42 on the floor.
The Huskies opened the season with a third place finish at their quad meet, falling to Boise State and Stanford but beating UC Davis. They have lost both conference meets against Rutgers (Jan. 11, 194.050) and Michigan (194.975).
UW was picked to finish 11th in the Big Ten Preseason Poll and Lana Navarro and Emily Innes, were named 2025 Big Ten Gymnasts to Watch. Innes won a regional championship on floor in 2024 and advanced to nationals.

HISTORY VS. WASHINGTON

Minnesota is 8-4 all-time against Washington. Minnesota and Washington met last year in the Boise State quad meet on March 1. The Gophers finished third behind Washington (197.200) and Boise State (196.825). Before that, they met in 2023 at the Wasatch Classic in West Valley, Utah, falling 196.550-196.325 to UW.
Previously, they met in 2014 in Seattle, with the 'U' taking a 196.350-195.025 victory.
The last time Washington came to Minnesota was in 2013, a 195.550-193.500 victory for the Gophers. Prior to that, Minnesota defeated UW 194.375-194.075 at the Pav in 2007.

NEW FACILITY OPENED ON JAN. 16

After starting construction in June, the $15.5 million Minnesota Gymnastics Facility project was officially opened Jan. 16, 2025.
The new performance center is in the Athletes Village footprint, which will allow for student-athletes to study, train, eat and recover all in one location. The facility is being constructed on the south side of the department's indoor football field.
"It's hard to believe this day is finally here," said head coach Jenny Hansen. "We have worked a long time to make this day a reality for our student-athletes and we're so grateful to everyone who made this a reality. To Mark Coyle, Marc Ryan and all our senior administrative staff, thank you. You believed in our program and saw the need. We now have the ability to train in a world class facility and the possibilities are endless for this program. We're so excited for our team to train at a facility of this level and we can't wait to get started."
The team's old practice facility, Peik Gymnasium, has been proposed for future demolition by campus leadership.
"It's just pure excitement and pure joy," said junior Sarah Moraw. "We have so much honor and gratitude to those that came before us and made this possible. Everyone who was involved in this process had a vision and made it come to life. I couldn't be more grateful for that."

HOOTEN STARTS HOT IN FIFTH SEASON

A fifth year senior from Woodbury, Minn., Hooten elected to use her fifth year (due to COVID) and return to Minnesota in 2025. She's an 11-time All-American, including a four-time WCGA First Team All-American on floor (2021-24), a First Team All-American on vault (2024) and a two-time Second Team All-American on vault (2022, 2023). Hooten earned two NCAA Championships First Team All-America honors on floor (2021, 2022) and two NCAA Championships Second Team accolades on vault (2021, 2022).
In 2024, Hooten posted three perfect 10's on floor (vs. EMU, Jan. 13; vs. Michigan, Feb. 10); (Senior Day, March 17). She's done so nine times in her career. Also last season, she earned Big Ten Event Specialist of the Week five times (11 times in her career), and won 20 event titles (10 floor, seven vault, three uneven bars). She made SportCenter's top-10 plays for her floor performance on Jan. 13 vs. Eastern Michigan.
An AAI Award nominee, Hooten made the Big Ten All-Championships Team for the fourth consecutive season after winning Big Ten Championships on the floor (9.950), uneven bars (9.925) and vault (9.975). It was her third Big Ten floor title, second vault title and first UB title.
Hooten started her fifth year with event titles in both vault (9.900) and floor (9.825) on Jan. 4 in the CMU meet. She then went 9.950 on vault and 9.900 on the floor at UNH, winning event titles on both again. She was named Big Ten Event Specialist of the Week on Jan. 14.
She delivered her best performance on the floor so far this year Jan. 18 vs. Penn State, going 9.925 to win an event title.

WCGA AND ROAD TO NATIONALS RANKINGS

Minnesota finished the 2024 season at No. 12 in the Road to Nationals rankings. They ranked 19th on vault, 21st on bars, eighth on beam and 11 th on the floor. Individually, Mya Hooten ranked eighth nationally on vault and second on the floor, earning WCGA All-America honors in both.
Minnesota began the 2025 season ranked No. 18 in the WCGA Preseason poll.
After week four, the Gophers come in at No. 18 in the Road to Nationals rankings. They come in at No. 15 on vault, 27 on bars, 11 on beam and 22nd on the floor.

ROAD TO NATIONALS INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

On vault, Mya Hooten (9.888 avg.) ranks 8th nationally (2nd in B1G) while Ava Stewart (9.883 avg.) comes in at No. 13 (4th in B1G).
Jordyn Lyden (9.863 avg.) comes in at No. 31 nationally (10th in B1G) on bars.
Ava Stewart (9.838 avg.) ranks 53rd nationally and 10th in the Big Ten on beam. Lyden (9.837 avg.) ranks 58th and 12th in the Big Ten.
Emily Koch (9.887 avg.) and Mya Hooten (9.883 avg.) rank 7th and 8th in the Big Ten on floor. They rank 20th and 22nd nationall

KOCH KEEPS COOKIN' IN YEAR FIVE

A fifth year senior from Bloomington, Minn., Emily Koch competed in all 14 meets last season as a staple on both the balance beam and floor teams. She posted career-best 9.950 scores on both beam and floor on senior day at the Pav.
She went 9.850-or-higher five times on beam and 13 times on the floor - winning two event titles, including one each on beam and floor. The four-year letterwinner is a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, two time WCGA Academic All-American and a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
Like Hooten, Koch elected to come back for her fifth year in 2025. She started on the beam team in all four meets and on floor twice. Koch, who has competed on floor in the two Big Ten meets, has gone 9.875 and 9.900 against Penn State and Iowa.

STEWART PROVIDES HUGE BOOST AS A FRESHMAN

Bowmanville, Ontario native Ava Stewart came to the Gophers in 2025 after competing for Team Canada in both the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics. This past Olympics, Stewart placed 19th in the Artistic Women's All-Around Final. Stewart competed in all for events for Canada, where her vault score was 13.333, bars was 12.633 and she earned scores of 13.166 on beam and 12.500 on floor. Her total score was 51.632.
In her first meet as a Gopher, Stewart started on the beam team, where she took home an event title with a 9.875 on Jan. 4 vs. CMU. She earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Jan. 7. Stewart started on vault, bars and beam on Jan. 11 at UNH.
In Stewart's third meet vs. Penn State, she shined once again, winning an event title on vault with a stellar 9.925 run. She also hit 9.825 on balance beam, helping Minnesota comeback to defeat the Nittany Lions after trailing through two rotations.
At Iowa on Jan. 26, Stewart earned her second 9.900 of the year on vault in addition to going 9.850 to help the beam team.

GOPHERS KEEP REELING IN WEEKLY AWARDS

Three times this season in four weeks the Gophers have earned Big Ten Weekly honors. Ava Stewart (Jan. 7) and Teryn Crump (Jan. 28) both earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week. Minnesota is the only team in the conference to have two different freshmen take home the award.
Mya Hooten earned Big Ten Event Specialist of the Week on Jan. 14. Minnesota is the only team in the 12-team league to have award winners in three different weeks of the four weeks of competition.

CRUMP CONTINUES GREAT START TO CAREER

A Pfluegerville, Texas native, Teryn Crump came to Minnesota as the Texas level 10 uneven bars and floor state champion last year. In her Minnesota debut on Jan. 4. Crump was in the lineup on vault, bars and floor. Her best performance came on the uneven bars, where she earned a 9.750, which ranked tied for third on Minnesota.
Crump posted season-highs of 9.825 on vault and 9.750 on floor Jan. 11 at UNH.
The rookie had her best meet in college at Iowa on Jan. 26. She won two event titles, posting career-bests on vault (9.900) and bars (9.875). She was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Jan. 28 for her efforts.

UP NEXT
Minnesota travels to East Lansing, Mich., for a road meet at Michigan State next Saturday, Feb. 8. The meet is set to begin at 6 p.m. CT on B1G+.

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Players Mentioned

Teryn Crump

Mya Hooten

Seria Johnson

Emily Koch

Jayda Lewter

Jordyn Lyden

Sarah Moraw

Sophia Nguyen

Lauren Pearl

Brooklyn Rowray

Megan Steensland

Ava Stewart