{"id":227972,"date":"2026-01-08T22:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/227972\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:09:09","slug":"gymcats-set-to-open-2026-season-against-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/227972\/","title":{"rendered":"GymCats Set to Open 2026 Season Against Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TUCSON, Ariz. \u2014\u00a0Arizona will host Washington in McKale Center on Friday, January 9 to open the 2026 season.\u00a0The meet is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. MST and will be streamed on ESPN+.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2025 RANKINGS:\u00a0Arizona finished the 2025 season ranked No. 16 overall in the Road to Nationals rankings.\u00a0
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\n\tVault: No. 26
\n\tUneven Bars: No. 23
\n\tBalance Beam: No. 20
\n\tFloor Exercise: No. 30 <\/p>\n

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FRESH FACES:\u00a0The GymCats welcomed six newcomers to the team this season. Sadie Smith<\/a> transferred to Arizona in the offseason while Elle Bragga<\/a>, Riley Carman<\/a>, Delaney Mead<\/a>, Hillary Puleo<\/a>, and Lily Tisdale<\/a> are all freshmen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FAMILIAR FACES:\u00a0Arizona returns 15 gymnasts from last season. Among the 15 returners is redshirt senior Elizabeth LaRusso<\/a> along with seniors Gianna Lenczner<\/a>, Sophia Stephens<\/a>, and Emma Strom<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

COACHING STAFF:\u00a0The GymCats have a very accomplished coaching staff. John Court<\/a> enters his eighth year as head coach and 28th year on staff in Tucson. Last season, Court was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year. Associate head coach Kylie Kratchwell enters her fourth year with the GymCats and Arizona alumna, Shelby Martinez, enters her second year on staff. Kratchwell and Martinez earned WCGA Regional Assistant Coaches of the Year honors last season. \u00a0<\/p>\n

PRESEASON POLLS:\u00a0In the WGCA preseason poll, the GymCats were picked to finish 18th.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BIG 12 PRESEASON TEAM:\u00a0Two GymCats were selected to the Big 12 Preseason Gymnastics Team.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\tAbby Martin earned preseason honors on vault and beam and was a unanimous selection to the all-around team. The junior from Bacliff, Texas earned a career high 9.90 on vault against Utah State and posted a career best of 9.925 on beam at the Big 12 Championships. Martin posted another career high for the season in the all-around of 39.450 against BYU. She placed first in the all-around three times throughout the season against West Virginia, BYU, and Utah State. Martin closed out the 2025 season nationally ranked at No. 39 in the all-around and No. 48 on beam.\u00a0
\n\tStrom was a unanimous selection to the preseason floor team after an outstanding 2025 season on the event. The senior from Omaha, Nebraska set a career high of 9.925 on floor against Air Force. Throughout the season, Strom tallied four 9.90s on floor. She finished the season ranked No. 8 in the conference on the event.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Story Links TUCSON, Ariz. \u2014\u00a0Arizona will host Washington in McKale Center on Friday, January…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-227972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}