Gymnastics Advances to NCAA Regional Final
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Seven-seed Kentucky gymnastics has advanced to the NCAA Regional Final at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. following a 197.100 semifinal meet on Thursday.
The Wildcats and Arkansas Razorbacks (197.325) advanced together out of the semifinal facing the next round of competition on Saturday at 6 p.m. EST.
The Road to Nationals ended on Thursday for Nebraska (196.600) and Arizona (195.600) who completed the four teams competing in Session I of the day. UK and UA will take on the top two advancing out of Session II which consists of two-seed LSU, 15-seed Minnesota, Oregon State and BYU.
Fifth-year senior Raena Worley earned her 30th career all-around title and 27th floor individual win. Senior Isabella Magnelli was Kentucky’s top score on vault earning a 9.900 from the judges for second place overall. Fellow senior Bailey Bunn was the best on bars with a 9.825 for a T8 finish. Freshman Creslyn Brose and Magnelli tied for best on beam with a 9.900 for T2 overall.
Competing in Olympic order, Kentucky began the afternoon on vault scoring a cumulative 49.350. Following Magnelli’s top score on the event, the next best for the Wildcats was leadoff Jillian Procasky and Cecily Rizo both earning 9.875. The remaining three Cats in the lineup, Arianna Patterson, Raena Worley, and Makenzie Wilson, all earned 9.850 to round out rotation one.
The second event of the meet was the uneven bars where Kentucky saw its lowest tally of the day, 49.025. With Bunn’s 9.825 holding the top score of the lineup, four Wildcats earned 9.800 – Hailey Davis, Delaynee Rodriguez, Procasky and Worley. Rizo closed the rotation’s scores with a 8.950 following a fall.
On the balance beam, Kentucky tied its vault total for the second-best score of the day, 49.350. In addition to Magnelli and Brose’s 9.900’s, Rodriguez, Bunn and Worley held the next best marks, each with 9.850. Patterson rounded out the rotation with a 9.600 following a balance check.
The best rotation of the day was the floor exercise where UK recorded a 49.375. Worley’s anchoring 9.950 was preceded by Brose and Davis who both earned 9.900. Magnelli was the next best score with a 9.825 while both Rodriguez and Wilson were awarded 9.800.
The top two teams from each quad of the Arkansas and Michigan regionals (April 3 to 6) and the California and Florida regionals (April 4 to 7) will determine who will advance to the NCAA National Championships April 18-20 in Fort Worth, Texas at Dickies Arena.
The top 36 teams, based on the national qualifying score (NQS), were selected for regional competition. The committee named the top 16 teams and seeded them in the bracket. Seeding determined at the time of selections will be maintained through the championship. Teams 17-36 were placed geographically at one of the four regional sites. Nine teams will compete at each of the four sites.
Fans can tune in to Saturday’s competition live on ESPN+ with live stats available by clicking here.
For the latest on the Kentucky gymnastics team, follow @UKGymnastics on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKAthletics.com.
