Ella Warren to Join Kentucky Gymnastics for 2018 Season
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ella Warren, a member of the 2019 signing class, has graduated high school early and will join the Wildcats for the 2018 season.
“We are excited to have Ella join our team mid-year,” head coach Tim Garrison said. “She has tremendous potential to be a major contributor on all four events this season.”
Warren, from Jacksonville, Florida, was a level 10 national qualifier in 2015, 2016 and 2017. She qualified for the Florida State meet and the Regional meet from 2014-17.
Her best finish at the national meet was in 2017, where she placed 12th with a score of 38.075. That meet included a third place finish on beam with a score of 9.625 and a seventh place finish on bars. She also took second in the all-around with a score of 37.950 at the 2017 Florida state meet, and third place at the 2017 Regional Qualifier with a 37.475.
She was the regional and state champion on bars, with scores of 9.8 and 9.75, respectively. She’s registered six bars victories over the last three years. On beam, She’s taken seven crowns over the last three years. Her best beam score was 9.625 at the 2017 national meet, where she finished third.
Kentucky will begin the regular season on Jan. 5 for Excite Night at Rupp Arena. UK will face Southeast Missouri, Ball State and George Washington. The Wildcats head into the season ranked No. 10 in the nation in the NAGCA/W preseason poll. UK is coming off an historic season. UK recorded the highest Regional Qualifying Score in program history of 196.845, which was the highest in school history, and helped UK become a two seed in an NCAA Regional for the first time in school history. Kentucky set a program high when it beat Alabama for the first time in school history with a 197.475. The Wildcats had two All-Americans last season – Alex Hyland and Mollie Korth – and Korth also won the SEC Freshman of the Year award. Korth was the sixth SEC Freshman of the Year award winner for UK.
Three Wildcats – Korth, Hyland and Sidney Dukes – were All-SEC for their performance in the first session of the SEC Championships. Korth earned All-SEC for her first session all-around win with a 39.425. Hyland earned All-SEC with the SEC beam title while Dukes finished second in the first session on the beam with a 9.9 in the first session.
