No. 9 Kentucky Gymnastics Falls Short at National Championships

No. 9 Kentucky Gymnastics’ historic season has come to a close.

The ‘Cats ended the 2023 Regional with a 197.850 overall score, matching the program’s highest score ever received in a regional before. It was enough to send Kentucky to its second-ever National Championships in program history, which began on Thursday night in Fort Worth, Texas.

But the best of the best came out to play with the lights shining the brightest.

Tough company to be in

The Wildcats were one of four teams in the evening session of the Championships on Thursday. They were with good company as No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 Utah were on their side of the bracket. The morning session ended with LSU and Florida heading to the finals set for Saturday.

Kentucky was looking to make some noise as an underdog in the competition. The team had their first opportunity at the vault event. Junior New York native Isabella Magnelli performed well in the event for the ‘Cats with a score of 9.8625 while Makenzie Wilson led the way with a 9.9125. Magnelli and Wilson’s scores and the rest of the team added up to 49.3125 to round out the first event.

UK finished last as they headed into the bars portion of the competition trailing Utah by a little more than .500.

Not where they wanted to be

While all the other teams were scoring in the high 9.800 range to low 9.900 range, Kentucky was staying right around the 9.800 range. If they wanted to get back to those top two spots that would send them to the finals then they needed to stay straighter and focus on their landings.

The bars were not what the ‘Cats had hoped they’d be as they got into their second event of the night. Kentucky senior Raena Worley, who has been their most solid performer, killed the bars with a 9.9250 but it still was not enough as the team remained in last with an overall score of 98.4375.

Kentucky’s third rotation of the evening was the beam and it was the weakest so far. None of the girls were able to make it into the 9.900 range which was needed if they wanted to have a chance at booting UCLA and Utah out of those second and third spots. Unfortunately, with no extremely high scores, UK had seemed to settle into that last spot.

Unfortunate ending to a historic season

The last event was the floor and it took the cake for the weakest event for the ‘Cats on the night. With their highest individual score being 9.9375 courtesy of Worley, the rest of the team did not surpass 9.8625.

Without those big scores in the last couple of events, there was little hope of moving on to the finals on Saturday for Kentucky.

9.9375 on FLOOR for THE @RaenaWorley!!!!!!!
#WeAreUK | #Team49 pic.twitter.com/MNSOGQYwdj

— Kentucky Gymnastics (@UKGymnastics) April 14, 2023

Although the Wildcats were not able to make it to their ultimate goal, they have done so much for the program by finishing in the top 10 in three of the last five years. Again, this was only the second National Championship appearance ever. The future is still bright.