Seven Wildcats Earn All-SEC Honors
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Seven Kentucky athletes were named to the 2026 All-Southeastern Conference Gymnastics Team, the league announced Wednesday. Seven gymnasts earning All-SEC honors is a new program record, smashing the previous mark of four set in 2021.
Chesney Bennett, Creslyn Brose, Anna Flynn Cashion, Ryan Noonan, Cecily Rizo, Delaynee Rodriguez, and Gabby Van Frayen comprise the seven Wildcats earning All-SEC laurels. With the recognition, all seven recipients are on their first career All-SEC Team. Brose was on the SEC All-Freshman team in 2024.
The All-SEC Team is comprised of the student-athletes with the top four scores (including ties) on each event and in the All-Around competition in the first session and the second session of the SEC Championships.
Bennett, a sophomore from Charleston, S.C., earned her spot on the All-SEC by virtue of a 9.850 performance on the uneven bars at last week’s SEC Championships. After only competing on beam as a freshman, Bennett has enjoyed a breakout sophomore season where she has featured in every bars, beam, and floor lineup and has scored personal bests of 9.875 on bars and 9.900 on beam and floor.
Brose, a junior from Holly Springs, N.C., has finally earned her first career All-SEC honor despite being a Second Team All-American in each of her first two seasons in Lexington. Brose scored a 9.900 on the floor exercise at the SEC Championships, the second highest score in Session I, to earn her spot on the All-SEC Team. This season, Brose has scored at least 9.900 on all nine of the floor routines she has competed, moving her career 9.900+ tally on the floor to 32 out of 35 routines. Brose finished the regular season ranked No. 11 on the floor with a 9.935 National Qualifying Score.
Cashion, a sophomore from Cornelius, N.C., garnered her first career All-SEC honor with a struck front handspring pike half vault that scored a 9.875 at the SEC Championships. After only competing in three meets during her freshman year due to injury, Cashion anchored the Kentucky vault lineup in all 11 meets. She matched her career best of 9.950 twice, won vault titles in three meets this year, and finished the regular season ranked No. 30 on vault with a 9.890 NQS.
Noonan, a sophomore from Del Mar, California, featuring in every vault and bars lineup for the Cats on her way to her first career All-SEC honor. Noonan scored career highs of 9.900 on both vault and bars this season and scored a 9.875 on bars at the SEC Championships to finish Session I in fourth place.
Rizo, a junior from Coppell, Texas, has earned her first All-SEC honor during her first season as an all-arounder. Rizo finished Session I of the SEC Championships in third place on vault with a 9.900 and fourth place in the all-around with a 39.275. Her vault performance held up for fourth place in the overall competition standings, the best finish for any Wildcat on the day. Rizo has set or matched her career best score on vault, beam, floor, and the all-around this year.
Rodriguez, a junior from Las Vegas, Nevada, earns her firs All-SEC laurel after three seasons of consistently excellent gymnastics. For the first time in her career, Rodriguez competed in the all-around during every meet this season, only one of two SEC gymnasts to achieve that feat this season. Winning only four event titles in her first two seasons combined, Rodriguez claimed 16 victories this season—including seven all-around titles. Rodriguez matched her career high of 9.950 on beam and set new career highs of 9.950 on floor and beam and 9.925 on vault. Her career high all-around score of 39.650 at Auburn this year ranks her fourth all-time at Kentucky. Rodriguez finished Session I of the SEC Championships in second place in the all-around with a 39.400 and fourth on beam with a 9.900.
Van Frayen, a freshman from Lewis Center, Ohio, featured in every bars, beam, and floor lineup for the Cats during her rookie season. Van Frayen won a pair of beam titles and one bars title this season, scoring career highs of 9.900 and 9.875 in those winning performances, respectively. At the SEC Championships, Van Frayen earned her spot on the All-SEC Team with a 9.850 on bars.
No. 16 Kentucky is set to host NCAA Regional competition inside Historic Memorial Coliseum for the first time since 2010, beginning the championship in Session II of the Second Round at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, April 3. The Cats will take on No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 18 Ohio State, and the winner of Central Michigan and Rutgers. All-Session Tickets and Single Session Tickets for the 2026 NCAA Lexington Regional are on sale now at ukathletics.com/gymregionals26.
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