From College Gym Fans -
1. Florida
Sloane Blakely
Bri Edwards
Morgan Hurd
Riley McCusker
Leanne Wong
Florida edges out UCLA and Utah for the top spot in this year's rankings. The margin of victory would have been larger had commit Shilese Jones had shown up for this season (as of this writing, she has not been added to the roster). This group of powerhouse gymnasts includes top elites
Morgan Hurd,
Riley McCusker and
Leanne Wong as well as former elite
Sloane Blakely and in-state L10
Brianna Edwards.
You can expect 5-time National Team member
Leanne Wong to deliver across the board. She has beautiful artistry and, of course, a big bundle of high level skills. She delivered stunning performance throughout the ’21 elite season and she was named an alternate to the Olympic Team. She spent the remainder of the fall training for the World Championships and came away with a silver in the AA and a bronze on the
FX. She's been training a new
10.0 Start Value (SV) vault for college and should excel on
UB and
BB, where the reduced difficulty will only make her best attributes shine.
Hurd, a National Team member since 2016, was always in the conversation for a spot on the Olympic Team since her breakout performance in 2017. She won the
World AA title in 2017 and then won a bronze in the AA in 2018. Unfortunately, the year delay worked against her as injuries caught up with her in 2021. Her wide variety of big skills, experience in high pressure situations and clean form and execution will serve her very well in college. She's had some time off since the trials but excels especially on
UB,
BB and
FX.
McCusker is a 5-time National Team member with big skills at her disposal. She also has some exceptional extension and beautiful toe point. Unfortunately she also has had a significant history of injuries that will require careful management in college. She has been most successful on bars and beam, rarely finishing outside the medals in major competitions. She earned an invitation to the Olympic Trials, but competed only bars due to injury. Expect her to impact on
UB and
BB, but now that she's
healthy, she could ease into the
other events.
Blakely is a former senior international elite who dropped back to L10 for her final club season. She used some of her elite skills and her elite polish to put on a show all season long. She swept the events (
VT,
UB,
BB,
FX) and all around at ’21 L10 nationals. She was also 9th on BB the 2019 US Championships.
Edwards, a local product, was a L10 National qualifier in 2021. Her best event is vault where she competes a
Yurchenko Full.
More from UF -
Four Gator newcomers were part of the U.S. Senior National Teams – Sloane Blakely, Morgan Hurd, Riley McCusker and Leanne Wong - and three are World Championships medalists – Hurd, McCusker, Wong.
Hurd and Wong make up half of World Championships’ all-around medalists ever to join college programs. Hurd won the 2017 title and was third in 2018. In October, Wong won all-around silver in the 2021 World Championships in Japan. Hurd (2018, 2020) and Wong (2019) won all-around in the last three American Cups.
McCusker, a seven-time U.S. Championships’ event medalist which includes winning 2017 bars, won gold as a member of the 2018 U.S.’s World Championships team.
Blakely earned a spot on the 2018-19 U.S. Senior National Team. She finished her club career by sweeping the 2021 Level 10 National Championships Senior F titles. Blakely is the first to claim outright titles for all five events at a single Level 10 National meet.
The class also includes Bri Edwards of Navarre, Fla. She advanced to the 2021 Level 10 National Championships and looks to compete for a spot in the Gators’ vault lineup.
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