Oklahoma tops women's college gymnastics preseason power rankings

The wait is almost over! After months without college gymnastics, the new season kicks off with the new year, and the story of the 2024 season will begin to unfold. While we’re deep into the Oklahoma dynasty, the SEC has reloaded with talent, and the Pac-12 has plenty of experience to make things interesting, meaning we’re in for another thrilling season of NCAA gymnastics!

The upcoming Paris Olympics means things will be different this season. While we won’t see some superstars, like Bruin Jordan Chiles or Gator Kayla DiCello, as they’ve deferred the season to train, we’ll be spoiled to see the likes of Oregon State’s Jade Carey and LSU’s Konnor McClain challenge for both NCAA titles and Olympic team spots in 2024.

With lots to know ahead of the season, we break it all down for you — from which teams to watch to which transfers could have the biggest impact. These are the power rankings heading into the 2024 season.

Team

1. Oklahoma
2. LSU
3. Florida
4. Alabama
5. California
6. Utah

As winners of six of the last nine NCAA titles, it should be no surprise that the back-to-back champion Sooners are the early favorites heading into 2024. Oklahoma is losing five routines from last season, but with a talented trio of freshmen and graduate transfer Soraya Hawthorne joining an already star-studded roster, head coach KJ Kindler should have no problem filling any gaps in the lineup and defending the top spot. 

Against all odds, LSU made last year’s team final with an injury-depleted roster. Depth shouldn’t be an issue this season: The Tigers aren’t losing any of their postseason routines and have multiple likely contributors returning from the injury reserve, including All-American Kiya Johnson. Did we mention they’re also bringing in a highly touted freshman class that includes 2022 U.S. national champion Konnor McClain and decorated graduate transfers Savannah Schoenherr and Jillian Hoffman? On paper, LSU has all the puzzle pieces necessary to win its first NCAA title.

The Gators and Crimson Tide land in the top five largely on the strength of their incoming freshmen. Florida has the unenviable task of replacing all-time great Trinity Thomas, but its six rookies are imminently capable of contributing to lineups and complementing the current face of the program, world champion Leanne Wong. In Tuscaloosa, former No. 1 overall recruit Jamison Sears headlines a top-rated trio of newcomers joining an experienced and impressive Alabama roster. The team is looking to rebound from last year’s respectable — albeit underwhelming — 10th-place finish under first-year head coach Ashley Priess Johnston.

The Pac-12 rounds out the top six with two programs trending in different directions. The Golden Bears were a few uncharacteristic mistakes away from the championship final last season and brought in a pair of former five-star recruits to replace one departing gymnast, making them one of the most dangerous squads this season. The Utes added three former five-stars in the offseason after their third consecutive third-place finish at nationals. However, they have had plenty of distractions this preseason with the unexpected departure of one of the team’s stars and subsequent change in head coach. The talent is there, so all eyes will be on Utah to see how it adjusts.

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Honorable Mentions: UCLA, Kentucky, and Michigan State. You can never count the Bruins out with the likes of Selena Harris and Chae Campbell, but losing Jordan Chiles’ scoring, exuberance, and leadership is a lot for a team to grapple with. Don’t be surprised if Kentucky and/or Michigan State upgrade from “nationals threat” to “nationals favorite” at some point this season, as both return experienced crews and boast top-five freshmen classes ready to contribute multiple routines.

All-Around

1. Leanne Wong, Florida
2. Haleigh Bryant, LSU
3. Jordan Bowers, Oklahoma
4. Sierra Brooks, Michigan
5. Maile O’Keefe, Utah
6. Selena Harris, UCLA

This year’s all-around race is wide open thanks to several top contenders graduating or deferring to train for the 2024 Olympics. One notable omission from this list is Oregon State powerhouse Jade Carey. The Olympic gold medalist has indicated that she has her sights on Paris and will be playing a reduced role in the team’s 2024 lineups as a result. 

Florida’s Wong is also an Olympic hopeful but seems to be taking the opposite track: She’s featured heavily in all of the Gators’ preseason intrasquads and training clips and looks cleaner and more confident than ever after a successful elite campaign this summer. The same all-around prowess that landed her a spot at worlds has her opening the season on top of the power rankings.

Vault queen Bryant really came into her own as an all-arounder last season, becoming just the fifth gymnast in NCAA history to score a hat trick of perfect 10s and earn postseason All-America honors in all four events plus the all-around. Her career-best 39.875 ties Carey for the highest of anybody competing this season and demonstrates how much of a threat she’ll be while leading LSU.

Finally earning a permanent spot in the Sooners’ stout beam lineup last season meant Jordan Bowers could be a consistent all-arounder — and that she was every single meet for Oklahoma en route to a top-five NQS. She’s scored as high as 9.975 on every event before and will be set up for even more 10s as she moves deeper into the Sooners’ lineups.
 
For the second year in a row, Michigan returns the reigning AAI Award winner as Sierra Brooks decided to pull a Natalie Wojcik and return for a bonus season. The Wolverines are grappling with quite a bit of lineup turnover, and with plenty of new routines filling holes, Brooks will be heavily relied upon to score well every weekend — which she’s more than capable of.

Reigning NCAA champion O’Keefe starts at a half-tenth disadvantage due to her lower start value vault, but as she proved in Fort Worth, she’s more than capable of making up ground on the other four events. Fellow Pac-12 powerhouse Harris was the top-rated recruit in the 2022 class, and she certainly lived up to the hype in her freshman year, claiming seven All-America honors and a perfect 10 on vault. With Chiles’ deferral, Harris will step solely into the spotlight for the Bruins.

Honorable Mention: Luisa Blanco (Alabama), Aleah Finnegan (LSU), and Raena Worley (Kentucky). Former U.S. national team members Blanco and Finnegan have already punched their individual tickets to Paris (competing for Colombia and the Philippines, respectively), and it’s unclear how that will affect their college seasons. Graduate student Worley has finished ranked in the top 14 in the all-around the last three seasons — and as high as fourth in 2022 — and will always be in the conversation with her wealth of experience as the leader of the Wildcats.

Vault

1. Haleigh Bryant, LSU
2. Sierra Brooks, Michigan
3. Jocelyn Moore, Missouri
4. Katherine LeVasseur, Oklahoma
5. Gabby Wilson, Michigan
6. Suki Pfister, Ball State

Bryant is entering her fourth season with the most dynamic vault in the country. Her front pike half explodes off the table and is 10.0 worthy whenever she sticks — which is often — as she approaches double-digit perfect scores on the event with eight to her name already. Pfister secures the sixth spot with the same vault as Bryant, which she’s used to dominate the MAC and beyond. 

The Wolverines’ fifth-year duo, Brooks and Gabby Wilson, will use their powerful Yurchenko one and a halves to lead a Michigan vault lineup that is consistently one of the nation’s best. Yet again, the pair are on track to be among the NCAA’s best set-up and anchor combo on the event.

Moore notched her first career 10 last season and capped off the year with a 9.975 at the regional finals. She sat out the Tigers’ Black & Gold intrasquad due to a minor shoulder tweak, but her Yurchenko one and a half has looked better than ever throughout the preseason.  

LeVasseur isn’t the flashiest vaulter on the list, but she may be the most technically perfect (and has four career 10s to prove it). If her performance at the Sooners’ December preview is any indication, she’ll be adding to that total in 2024. 

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Honorable Mention: Mya Hooten (Minnesota) and Jaedyn Rucker (Utah). A former NCAA champion on the event, Rucker has the lines and amplitude to score supremely well, as her perfect 10 and national title suggest. She’s yet to consistently dial in on her landing, but she’ll soar up the rankings if and when she does. Hooten has always been a gymnast to watch on floor, but after scoring well in the notoriously stingy Big Ten last season, her vault has become a must-watch event, too.

Bars

1. Audrey Davis, Oklahoma
2. Leanne Wong, Florida
3. Andi Li, California
4. Lali Dekanoidze, North Carolina
5. Mara Titarsolej, Missouri
6. Madelyn Williams, California

While Oklahoma fans continue to clamor over Audrey Davis still being 10-less on the event, she opens the season on top of the rankings thanks to her stellar lines and unwavering consistency. Davis is blossoming into an all-arounder for the Sooners, but this will always be her pet event.

Wong truly flexes her elite prowess on bars and claims the top returning NQS after finishing third a season ago. It’s her most consistent event, which will be necessary for the Gators this year as they’re expected to welcome several new faces to this lineup.

California has become synonymous with stellar bars in the 2020s, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see two Golden Bears here. Andi Li and Madelyn Williams ranked sixth and eighth to close out 2023 and will be a one-two punch as the Golden Bears hope to challenge for the NCAA final again. Li has also switched up her routine this season, forgoing her Shaposh half for a massive Jaeger that’ll catch anyone’s attention.

Dekanoidze came back with a vengeance last season, thriving as a vault and bars specialist after suffering a season-ending injury in her freshman campaign. A 9.9 machine on bars, she was key in making sure the Tar Heels found themselves on the right side of the postseason bubble, as her trio of 9.975 performances were crucial.

One of many former LIU gymnasts who found a new home over the summer, Mara Titarsolej should thrive at Missouri where her best event fills an important lineup hole. She brings a 10.0 career high on bars that’ll be the signature routine in a lineup that was shaping up to be rather average.

Honorable Mention: Margzetta Frazier (UCLA) and Emily Lopez (Boise State). Known for always hitting, Frazier certainly cannot be counted out in her sixth year on her best event. She’s UCLA’s top routine on bars and looked polished at Meet the Bruins. Lopez is one of the top mid-major gymnasts to watch, with a perfect 10 on bars and a trip to the national championships highlighting her 2023 season. She’s one of a few Broncos to keep an eye on.

Beam

1. Maile O’Keefe, Utah
2. Jade Carey, Oregon State
3. Ragan Smith, Oklahoma
4. Luisa Blanco, Alabama
5. Aleah Finnegan, LSU
6. Mia Takekawa, Illinois

As if it were scripted, O’Keefe sealed her unexpected 2023 all-around win with her fifth perfect 10 of the season on beam — eventually upping her career beam total to 10 after ending her season with another flawless set in the team final. O’Keefe is the most dominant force on any event heading into the season, which will be needed as the Red Rocks have turnover to contend with in their notorious beam lineup.

Likely to sit out vault and floor during her limited capacity run this season, Carey will have to find a new place to shine, and beam is the event. She started her 2023 campaign on beam with her lowest score on any event in her career (a 9.800 that most would be happy with) before proceeding to score 9.925 or higher for every routine after. Not only is she a guaranteed hit, but she finished second in NQS, just five-thousandths of a point behind O’Keefe.

Longtime fans of the sport have been marveling over Ragan Smith’s beam work for nearly a decade — spanning back to her elite days — and will be treated to one more year’s worth with her decision to take a fifth year. Smith is incredibly polished and, with her championship pedigree, is always going to be challenging for a 10 — of which she has already earned five.

Blanco is the SEC’s stalwart beam threat, with regular and postseason All-America honors, an SEC title, and an NCAA title all on the event in her first four seasons. With momentum heading into 2024 after clinching herself a trip to Paris next summer, there’s no telling what Blanco can accomplish for the Crimson Tide. Finnegan is in a similar position but without the accolades, as she found her groove last season. She could be the conference’s beam heiress once Blanco’s collegiate career comes to a close.

Back in 2020, freshman Mia Takekawa made quite the impression with a perfect score on beam in just the second weekend of the NCAA gymnastics season. Since then, she’s been the Big Ten beam queen, threatening for 10s on the event week-in and week-out. A two-time beam All-American, Takekawa hopes to end her career the same way she began.

Honorable Mention: Mya Lauzon (California) and Isabella Magnelli (Kentucky). One of last season’s breakout stars, Lauzon gained membership to the 10.0 club with a perfect score on beam. Her intricate mount flaunts her flexibility and helped her finish in the top 10 last season. Magnelli was part of a huge beam rejuvenation for the Wildcats as they improved over 10 spots in the event rankings between 2022 and 2023. Her consistent 9.9s were necessary in the back half of Kentucky’s lineup.

Floor

1. Mya Hooten, Minnesota
2. Chae Campbell, UCLA
3. Aleah Finnegan, LSU
4. Haleigh Bryant, LSU
5. eMjae Frazier, California
6. JerQuavia Henderson, Iowa

As previously mentioned, Hooten is known for floor. She’s scored under 9.9 just three times in her career — half the number of times she’s been perfect — and raises the bar on combining both power and performance. Her yearly floor debuts are anticipated by fans like Beyoncé album drops — the artist Hooten typically chooses music for her routines.

The season hasn’t even started yet, and Chae Campbell has already gone viral for her floor routine. She’s generally a near-guaranteed 9.950, and while she hasn’t scored a 10 since 2022, we may see her return to perfection in 2024 after this much preseason hype.

In what should be a surprise to no one, LSU’s dynamic duo shines on its namesake event. Bryant’s double front and Finnegan’s double Arabian highlight a variety of well-executed tumbling passes from the Tigers, who have a few other gymnasts capable of making an appearance on this list this season.

Former U.S. national team member eMjae Frazier had a historic first season for the Golden Bears, including notching the program’s first-ever perfect 10 on floor. She scored under 9.9 just twice (still in the 9.8s) on the event all year, giving fans a taste of what her sophomore season may have in store.

Henderson has been one of Hooten’s biggest challengers for floor supremacy in the Big Ten, as fans have eagerly been awaiting her first perfect score for years. The reigning conference floor champion is gracing us with her ever-consistent full-twisting double back for an extra year, and with five 9.975s to her name already, perfection seems imminent.

Honorable Mention: Raena Worley (Kentucky) and Faith Torrez (Oklahoma). Worley is one of the most consistent floor workers in the game, scoring no lower than 9.9 last season. She makes her full-in look easy, and now in her fifth year, she should have no problems keeping that streak going. Even as a freshman, Torrez was a fixture late in the Sooners’ floor lineup with her strong double layout. With double-digit 9.95s just in her debut season, she’s just beginning to make her mark.

Freshmen

1. Konnor McClain, LSU
2. Jamison Sears, Alabama
3. Lily Smith, Georgia
4. Chloe LaCoursiere, Alabama
5. Ella Zirbes, Utah
6. Amari Drayton, LSU

McClain surprised everyone with the announcement that she’d join LSU this season after initially planning to defer until after the 2024 Olympics. As she’s still planning on making a run for Paris, she’s not only bringing her strong technique to Baton Rouge but some exciting difficulty, too. McClain is a name to remember beyond the college season.

Former five-star recruits Sears and Chloe LaCoursiere are the marquee names of Alabama’s third-ranked freshman class. Even with a roster full of experience, the pair factors into best-case-scenario lineups for the Crimson Tide. LaCoursiere is a must-watch on bars, where she notched a perfect recruit rating, while Sears achieved the same feat on beam and floor (and nearly vault).

Lily Smith came in at third overall in the class of 2023 recruit rankings and showcased why in Georgia’s preseason meet. Her flawless bars set and promising beam routine secured her spot in the freshman of the year conversation, with a possible all-around debut still on the horizon.

The Utes brought in a trio of former five-star recruits, and it was Ella Zirbes who stood out among them in the Red Rocks Preview. Performing in the all-around, she showed she’ll be a given in at least three lineups for Utah and will have plenty of opportunities to skyrocket up this list.

Amari Drayton was another SEC newcomer who impressed in her preseason debut. Even with the Tigers’ unbelievable depth, Drayton’s booming vault and double layout on floor proved she’s worth bumping experience out of the lineup for a spot.

Honorable Mention: Danie Ferris (Florida) and Hannah Horton (Missouri). Don’t forget about Ferris, as she’ll be sidelined the first few weeks of the season with a minor injury because the former five-star and No. 2 overall recruit is expected to be the next big thing for the Gators. Horton jumped onto everyone’s radar after stealing the show on social media after Missouri’s preseason intrasquad. She’s dynamic and brings difficulty to every event.

Transfers

1. Savannah Schoenherr, LSU (Florida)
2. Nya Reed, UCLA (Florida)
3. Brie Clark, Clemson (Utah State)
4. Sage Thompson, Oregon State (Utah)
5. Mara Titarsolej, Missouri (LIU)
6. Soraya Hawthorne, Oklahoma (Georgia)

With tremendous vault and bars along with potential as an all-arounder, Savannah Schoenherr was the most sought-after name in the portal this summer after her surprise announcement to seek a bonus year. She missed the 2023 season with an injury but showed she’s back to form on all four events in LSU’s preseason exhibition, adding to the Tigers’ unbelievable overall depth and filling a hole perfectly on bars.

After disappearing from the Florida roster before the 2023 season, Nya Reed was an off-season addition for the Bruins in an attempt to fill the void left by Jordan Chiles. Reed is known for being the perfect vault and floor complement to legend Trinity Thomas and will have the opportunity to shine on those events at UCLA.

Brie Clark transferred before last season but sat out a year to train at Clemson before the Tigers make their gymnastics debut in 2024. She was stellar on vault and floor at Utah State and should be one of the leaders of this new program fresh out of the gate.

Both known for their prowess on bars, Sage Thompson and Mara Titarsolej should factor into more lineups on their new teams while shining on their signature event. Bars was a weakness for both the Tigers and Beavers last year, giving the duo’s perfect 10 career highs on the event extra significance.

Floor was the Sooners’ weakest event in 2023 (still finishing third in the country), and head coach KJ Kindler addressed that “issue” with the transfer portal nab of Georgia’s best floor worker — Soraya Hawthorne. Her double layout and 9.975 career high add some explosiveness to the floor lineup, while her beam and 10.0 start value vault contribute important depth.

Honorable Mention: Jillian Hoffman (LSU from Utah) and Lucy Stanhope (Nebraska from Utah). Two former vault specialists for the Utes aim to factor in on additional events for their new programs. Hoffman has the potential to add to the Tigers floor lineups, while Stanhope is a likely all-arounder for the Huskers.