Jada Oliver, a L10 at Brandy Johnson's Global Gymnastics, has committed to a full scholarship offer at LSU, starting in 2027-2028.  This past season, she won the AA title in the Jr. E division at the 2025 Women's Development Program (WDP) L10 Nationals.  She also won VT, tied for 2nd on UB and tied for 6th on FX.  She was also the AA runnerup in the Junior C division at the 2024 WDP L10 Nationals, where she also won the FX title and placed erd(t) on BB, 4th on VT and 9th on UB.  

Link:  Insta

Camryn Shepard, a L10 at Prime (TX) (and formerly at Mavericks),  has committed to a full ride scholarship offer at Arkansas, starting in 2027-2028.  Last season, she placed 3rd on VT and 31st AA at the Women's Development Program (WDP) L10 Nationals.  She also tied for 2nd on VT and placed 18th AA at the 2024 WDP L10 Nationals.  

Link:  Insta

Libby Tobias, a L10 from Aspire, has committed to a full athletic scholarship at Kent State, starting in 2026-2027.  This past season she placed 18th AA at the 2025 Women's Development Program (WDP) L10 Nationals.  She also placed 25th AA at the 2024 WDP L10 Nationals.  

Link:  Insta

On September 11th, 2001, Mari-Rae Sopper was on her way to California, ready to start her job as Head Coach of the women's team at UC Santa Barbara.  Sopper, a former standout at Iowa State, was known as "ISUFan" on the fromer College Gymnastics Board.  She had given up her job as a Navy JAG Corp lawyer to pursue her dream, and to help save the cancelled program at UCSB.  She lost her life during the events of that fateful day, as the plane she was on was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon.  We pause to remember her spirit and dedication to the sport, and her inspiring effort to pursue her dreams, as well as the others who lost their lives that fateful day.

The NCAA has released the 2025-2026 Rules Modifications for NCAA women's gymnastics, and the resulting changes are perhaps the most inconsequential in the decades.  As the result, absent something like the SCORE board initiative, scoring records could be in danger again this season.  

Sometimes, there are changes to the underlying code from the Women's Development Program Code of Points.  However, this season, those changes are minor as well, as this is the last year of the four year cycle of changes to the Code.  There are some clarifications and changes on the NCAA side, but they are mostly new procedures and clarifications, with no changes on the events.

The most major change is the fact that a Panel Judge can call for a judging conference when an "impossible" score is identified.  This is due an obvious flat execution deduction that was not applied (like a fall or grab of the apparatus or extra swing) or a composition deduction was not applied, and yet the counting scores are within range and/or the Start Values are the same.  

There were no notable changes on vault.

On UB, they clarified situations in which a combination leading to a fall is repeated.  

On BB, a clarification was added to show movement/choreography in all directions, and that movements at any level (low, semi-low, standing). 

On FX, the definition of a salto was clarified to include elements that take off from two feet and land on one or both feet, or lower in control to the knee.  Neither aerials nor saltos that land in a sitting, prone or sit-split qualify as an Acro pass.  As per the prior regulation, at least one salto must be a C value salto.  The NCAA also further clarified that the routine must include two acro passes performed on two different diagonals.        

The document also provides changes on injury assessments, video reviews and various aspects of meet operations, including the rotation and placement of judges. 

On the underlying Women's Development Program (WDP) Optional Code of Points, the changes are also minor and are moving closer to the NCAA guidance.  These execution rules are adopted for evaluating routines in the NCAA.  Here are some of the changes for this season:  

• Several skill values have been raised to align with the NCAA values.  
• The deduction for small or medium steps on landing are 0.1 or 0.15.  
• Upon landing, the athlete's hips must below knee level to get up to a 0.3 deduction (the prior guidance on "level with knees" has been stricken out).
• The deduction for failure to dismount of 0.3 has been deleted.
• On Vault, deductions of up to 0.3 can be taken when a lateral axis turn is taken too early.  This would give an opportunity to separate execution on the ever popular Yurchenko Full and 1 1/2.    
• Certain leaps and jumps will no longer be downgraded for severe undersplit (e.g., 134 degrees or less) but execution will be taken.  Similarly, wolf and tuck jumps will be awarded value part credit if the position is greater than 130 degrees at the hips and 90 degrees at the knee.     

Clarifications are in bold font, changes are highlighted in blue.

Link:  2025-2026 Women's NCAA Rules Modifications (PDF)

Link:  2022-2026 Women's WDP Optional Code of Points Update (PDF)

Ball State has hired Kim Hermansen as an assistant coach.  She was previously the Team Director at Bare Foot Gymnastics in Utah and has extensive club coaching experience.  

Link: Release

Michigan (W) has hired Quest Hayden as an assistant.  He was previously an assistant at Ohio State, and before that, at Iowa and UNC.  He also was a volunteer assistant at PSU and Michigan.  He was formerly a standout at PSU and a member of the US National Team.  

Link:  Release

Denver has hired former Cal assistant coach John Carney as their new assistant.  Prior to that, he had coached at Missouri and Oregon State.  

Link:  Release

Taylor Spears has stepped away from her role as the Associate Head Coach at Arizona.  The former OU standout is stepping away completely from collegiate gymnastics.

Link:  Insta

Olympian Helzy Rivera, an LSU commit, won her first US Senior Women's AA title with a strong day 2 performance, posting a 56.4 to win with a two day tally of 112.0.  Florida grad Leanne Wong was 2nd while Arkansas' Joscelyn Roberson was 3rd.  UCLA signee Ashlee Sullivan was 4th while Florida commit Simone Rose was 5th.  Close behind was clubmate and fellow future Gator Jayla Hang, who bounced back after problems on Day 1.  Florida commit Dulcy Caylor was 8th, UCLA signee Tiana Sumanasekera was 9th.  

Rivera won BB, FX and tied for 1st on UB with Florida's Skye Blakely.  Wong won the VT.  

All of the above plus recruitables Garbrielle Hardie (2029) and Claire Pease (2027) were named to the US Senior National Team.  

Link: USA Gym