{"id":255533,"date":"2026-05-02T15:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255533\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T15:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:50:10","slug":"three-gymnasts-graduate-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255533\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Gymnasts Graduate this Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Three Gators return to a familiar stage this weekend\u2014but this time, it won&#8217;t be for competition.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nInside the Stephen C. O&#8217;Connell Center, where they once flipped and soared as members of the Florida Gators gymnastics team, <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/lori-brubach\/17852\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17852\" target=\"_blank\">Lori Brubach<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/riley-mccusker\/17861\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17861\" target=\"_blank\">Riley McCusker<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/leanne-wong\/17215\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17215\" target=\"_blank\">Leanne Wong<\/a> will walk across the stage Sunday morning to receive their degrees from the University of Florida.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nEach gymnast celebrates academic accomplishments Sunday. Brubach graduates cum laude, while McCusker \u2013 the 2026 NCAA uneven bars champions &#8211; earns her degree magna cum laude.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nWong, who graduated magna cum laude last May, becomes a double Gator grad when she receives her master&#8217;s degree Sunday. But before she receives her latest degree, Wong steps to the microphone as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXfKD11FlvL\/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UF&#8217;s Health &amp; Human Performance graduation speaker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\nGator Grad Notes:<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tBrubach competed floor exercise for the Gators, setting her collegiate best of 9.90 as a sophomore. A foot injury sidelined her for the 2026 season. She earned Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll recognition every season, was a three-time Women&#8217;s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Scholastic All-American and Sunday graduates cum laude.&#13;<br \/>\n\tMcCusker, a member of the U.S.&#8217;s 2018 World Championships gold medal team, chose to return to the Gators for a fifth season in 2026 after being sidelined in 2024 due to ankle surgery. She was in every Gator uneven bars lineup in her final season, which included winning the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/oSxEVrHjzqQ?si=qhAWPd7lMeDFXiYg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 NCAA event title<\/a>. The three-time All-American shared the 2025 Southeastern Conference uneven bars title with fellow grad <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/leanne-wong\/17215\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17215\" target=\"_blank\">Leanne Wong<\/a> at 10.0. Among the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.glamour.com\/student-athletes-college-women-of-the-year-2023\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2023 Glamour Magazine College Women of the Year honorees<\/a>. She earned Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll recognition every season, was a four-time Women&#8217;s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Scholastic All-American and Sunday graduates magna cum laude.&#13;<br \/>\n\tWong found success in both collegiate and elite competition as a Gator. She won medals at the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 World Championships and finished her career as a 29-time All-American \u2013 third all-time for the Gators. Her 11 perfect marks is second all-time on the Gators Career 10.0 list, which includes earning a Gym Slam (10.0 in each apparatus). <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/LcxHIbe0zYI?si=L-9xA6eOrXSktFmY\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">She also won the NCAA uneven bars title as a junior<\/a>. She&#8217;s a four-time WCGA Scholastic All-American and 2024 and 2025 College Sports Communicator Academic All-America first-team selection.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Three Gators return to a familiar stage this weekend\u2014but this time, it won&#8217;t be for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-255533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}