The No. 15 ranked Minnesota Gophers women’s gymnastics team lost in the Fayetteville Regional Finals in Arkansas with a score of 197.400 April 6. 

The Gophers finished regionals with a season-best 49.500 on bars, 49.400 on the floor, 49.250 on vault and 49.225 on beam. 

Senior Mya Hooten was the top performer for the Gophers, scoring 9.950 on the floor, a season-best 9.950 on the bars and a 9.850 on the vault. 

When asked about the role Hooten has played in pushing the team forward, head coach Jenny Hansen had high praise for her star senior.

“She’s one of those athletes that you just want to watch,” Hansen said. “She has that infectious smile, but also has that respect from her team.”

The Woodbury, Minnesota native has a long list of honors and awards that garner the respect of her teammates. She has been named to the All-Big Ten first team three times (2021, 2023, 2024) and second team once (2022). 

Hooten is a three-time Big Ten floor champion (2022, 2023, 2024), a two-time Big Ten vault champion (2023, 2024) and a Big Ten uneven bars champion (2024). 

Hooten has nine perfect 10s on the floor in her career, with the most recent coming this season on March 17.

Hansen said five student-athletes are paying on their own to head to Texas to watch their teammate compete at the NCAA Championships. 

Senior Katie Horak had her first season of competition this year and performed well in Fayetteville. She scored 9.850 on the beam. 

Horak did not compete the last three years, with last year being cut short due to a knee injury that required surgery. 

Despite the turmoil throughout Horak’s career, she has been able to stay positive and look towards the future. 

This year Horak was finally able to show how hard she had been working for the past three years, with a career-high of 9.850 on beam. 

“It’s not always an easy path, but sometimes you have to stay in it for the long run to see the outcome that you want to see,” Horak said. 

Horak has already decided to end her collegiate career with plans to take the medical college admission test. 

Senior Emily Koch competed on beam and the floor in Arkansas. She scored 9.725 on the beam and 9.875 on the floor. 

Koch recalled her favorite memory from her career happening just a week ago. 

“Regionals this year was really fun,” Koch said. “We were kind of the underdog going in, no one really knew what we were capable of. So finishing on a high note was very fun.”

Koch has another year of eligibility but has not yet made a final decision on her future. 

After her 10th season as the head coach of the Gophers, Hansen has made a regional appearance each year of her career excluding 2019, when the season ended early because of COVID-19 health concerns. 

Hansen attributes the year-after-year consistency to not only herself but also her staff and team. 

“I’d say we are a team that has pretty high standards,” Hansen said. “As a coaching staff, what we expect is a lot, but I think that is what leads to having that consistency.” 

Sophomore Vivi Del Angel won the National Championship in the platform dive at the NCAA championships on March 23, becoming the first Gophers woman to do so.

Del Angel’s first collegiate meet was at the same pool in Athens, Georgia where she won her national championship. The meet ended with her placing first in the platform dive.

Her score of 327.90 dominated the competition during the platform finals, finishing over 23 points ahead of second place.

Del Angel’s season garnered the 2024 Big Ten Diver of the Year award. Gophers diving coach Wenbo Chen won a Big Ten award alongside her, taking the conference’s 2024 Diving Coach of the Year. 

Without Chen, Del Angel may have never become a Gopher, according to Gophers head coach Kelly Kremer. Kremer called Chen the catalyst in recruiting Del Angel.

“[Chen] saw one dive on the platform and said, ‘If she gets better at that one dive, she has a chance to be a national champion,” Kremer said. 

Kremer added that neither of them thought winning a national championship would happen this quickly but Chen always envisioned great things for Del Angel.

When Kremer asked Del Angel what separated Minnesota from other schools, her response was “Wenbo Chen.”

Del Angel said her mother was influential in her decision to come to Minnesota. After Chen reached out to her and asked her to come, Del Angel’s mother pushed her, saying, “I’m feeling it.”

Del Angel knew college diving would be challenging, but she was ready. 

“It’s going to be hard, but I definitely can do this,” Del Angel said. “I have what I need: a good coach, a good physical trainer, a good team, so let’s work hard.”

A native of Veracruz, Mexico, Del Angel had to adjust to living in Minnesota. 

“This year [the snow] wasn’t that bad, but last year was bad,” Del Angel said. “My teammates told me it was going to get worse, and it got worse. You get kind of used to it, you just have to wear your jacket and a lot of layers.” 

Del Angel was not the only Gopher who performed well in the pool at the NCAA championships. Junior Bar Soloveychik took home All-American honors on day three of the men’s NCAA Championships in Indiana last weekend.

Soloveychik broke two school records in Indiana, the 500 free (4:11.33) and the 1650 free. His 1650 free time of 14:41.40 placed him seventh and earned him All-American honors. 

Soloveychik attended the NCAA Championships each of his three years as a Gopher, but this was the first season he placed high enough to earn All-American honors. 

He said he was not nervous his freshman year because he didn’t understand the magnitude of the event, adding he did not perform up to his standards because he was too nervous.

Kremer said this year was different for Soloveychik after seeing him work harder than ever before.

“I would tell Bar he’s literally great every day, no exceptions,” Kremer said. “When he gets to a high-level competition, I tell him he’s going to be great. … He does not have a miss.”

Soloveychik has been working hard for years and became serious about swimming when he was just 12 years old.

Soloveychik, who is from Israel, will try to earn a spot on the Israeli national team for the 2024 Paris Olympics. He said he missed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by less than half a second. 

“All my life I saw really talented people swimming around me and I didn’t think I was as talented as them,” Soloveychik said. “I always had to make it up by working hard.”

The No. 15-ranked Gophers gymnastics team finished second in the Big Ten Championships with a score of 197.500, a tenth of a point behind the champion Michigan State Spartans.

Senior Mya Hooten had a spectacular performance, collecting three individual titles. Hooten won her second career title on the vault (9.975), third on the floor (9.950) and first on uneven bars (9.925).

When asked about the Big Ten Championship weekend, Hooten was ecstatic.

“[The weekend] was amazing, I still feel like I’m on cloud nine right now, I can’t believe it,” Hooten said.

Hooten added that her teammates’ “love and support” made her feel amazing.

A Woodbury, Minnesota native, Hooten was named to the All-Championship team along with five of her teammates: senior Gianna Gerdes, senior Ella Sirjord, senior Katie Horak, junior Lauren Pearl and sophomore Sarah Moraw.

Gerdes finished second on the bars, top-five on the beam and vault and tied her career high on the floor. She said she feels the team is only going to get better as the season goes on.

“We are never going to peak,” Gerdes said. “We are just on that rise, and we’re going to continue to rise all the way through to the end.” 

Minnesota posted a season-best 49.375 on the bars after two 9.850 performances from sophomore Siera Johnson and freshman Jordyn Lyden.

The Gophers finished with a 49.375 on the beam. Moraw ended with a 9.925, while senior Emily Koch scored a 9.800.

The Gophers scored slightly better on the floor, totaling 49.475 after performances by freshman Leah Gonsiorowski (9.875), and Koch and Johnson (9.850). 

Five Gophers, including junior Marissa Jencks and freshman Sophia Nguyen, rounded out the events on the vault for the Gophers with a 49.225 total score.

Four Gophers were named to the All-Conference teams after the tournament. Hooten and Gerdes were named First Team, while Pearl and Sirjord made Second Team. 

Head coach Jenny Hansen said the team has seen steady improvement “each and every week” of the season.

“These last few meets have been outstanding,” Hansen said. “We still feel like we have a little bit left in us.”

Hansen is in her 10th season as the Gophers gymnastics head coach and has been extended through 2028. During Hansen’s seventh season, she led the Gophers to their first Big Ten Championship since 2006.

Minnesota’s next competition will be in the Fayetteville Regional, scheduled for April 3-6, at Bud Walton Arena. They are set to compete on April 4 in the second round against No. 2 LSU, No. 18 Oregon State and the winner of the play-in matchup between Boise State and BYU.

The NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships in Athens, Ga. feature six Gophers, while the men’s championships in Indianapolis next week will feature 10 Gophers.

Headlining Minnesota’s student-athletes in the women’s championships are freshmen Katie McCarthy and Elna Widerstrom, sophomores Vivi Del Angel and Addie Albrecht, junior Eliot Kennedy, and senior Megan Van Berkom.

Van Berkom, who holds the school records in the 200 fly and 200 individual medley (IM) with times of 1:53.89 and 1:54.92, uses them to continue to push herself. 

“I really want to get another record in the 400 IM,” Van Berkom said. “Seeing your name up there is so exciting, so it’s still pushing me even though it’s my name and not someone else’s.” 

Van Berkom added that heading to Georgia with two swimmers in her group makes the event more exciting than usual.

Van Berkom is competing in her fourth straight NCAA championships. 

Through event seven on March 21, Widerstrom is the only Gopher swimmer or diver to compete. She finished sixth in one-meter diving.

She scored 286.40 in the preliminaries and 293.65 in the finals for a total of 13 points. Minnesota ranks 19th through event 7 with 13 points.

The men’s team will send eight swimmers and two divers to Indianapolis.

Headlined by senior Kaiser Neverman, the Gophers swimmers will also include seniors Chris Nagy, Matt McDonald and Casey Stowe, juniors Joe Rudd and Bar Soloveychik, sophomore Lovro Serdarevic, and freshman Davide Harabagiu.

Neverman, who will be competing in the 200 IM, 100 fly and 200 fly, set the school record for the 200 IM and 200 fly earlier this year.

When asked about how those records push him, Neverman said the records are “cool,” but has his eyes set on scoring during the NCAA championships and the upcoming Olympic trials. 

Neverman commented on how it feels to be going to Indianapolis with so many teammates. 

“Bringing 10 guys, two divers and eight swimmers, is going to be awesome because now we are going to have camaraderie and be able to see each other's faces each day,” Neverman said.

As for the divers, sophomore Drew Bennett and freshman YuTong Wang will represent Minnesota in the NCAA championships.

Director of swimming and diving for the men’s and women’s teams Kelly Kremer started leading both programs in 2011.

Kremer said coaching the two offered new challenges, comparing it to coaching two basketball teams or two hockey teams.

He added he and the program have grown since he joined Minnesota’s staff 26 years ago.

“[10 to 15 years ago] was so much about points on the board, and how we’re placing is a reflection of me,” Kremer said. “Now, I’m much more concerned about if [my athletes] are smiling when this is over. I’m much more concerned about their well-being.”

First considered an “underground” basketball league, Manager Games became official when teams started to keep track of records in 2014. A decade later, a team of Gophers basketball staff members will head to their version of March Madness.

The 64-team bracket will be announced on Monday, with the Gophers likely being named the first seed. The top eight teams in the 64-team tournament will head to Phoenix, Arizona to play for a national title.

According to Nick Gag, a graduate manager with the team since 2018, the managers play a multifaceted role. Day-to-day assignments for the managers include stocking fridges, doing laundry and playing the role of the scout team.

Gophers basketball forward Kadyn Betts said the managers always give the players a good look at their upcoming opponent during practices.

“We know all [the other team’s] plays, it helps us adapt,” Betts said. “We will know their moves and what tendencies they have. It gives us a great look and it’s almost like we are playing against them.”

When they take the court themselves, the Gophers managers are 6-0, winning by an average of 14.3 points per game, and ranked first in the nation according to Faktor. This is Minnesota’s first season in the top 10 within Faktor’s ranking system.

Rounding out the top 10, from highest to lowest, are Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Arizona, Duke, Michigan, Michigan State, Arkansas, Marquette and Charleston.

Ike Dillion, a senior manager with the Gophers and guard-forward on the manager team, said he appreciates the environment around the team.

“Being a part of this program means a lot to me,” Dillion said. “It’s a second family.”

Gag said that Manager Games allows them to play organized basketball again and, in some cases, play against prominent names.

“A year or two ago we played against Matt McQuaid, who played on Michigan State’s Final Four team,” Gag said. “We played against Dru Joyce III, who was LeBron’s high school point guard.”

Gag added that being ranked first gives them confidence heading into the tournament and has also given them some notoriety. StrictlyBball, a popular TikTok account with 2.4 million followers, recently posted a video on the Gopher managers. 

Dinkytown Athletes has picked up on the trend, too, selling shirts dubbing the Gopher managers “America’s Team.”