SPORTS
By Steve Andrews | Photos courtesy of Razorback Communications
Reaching New Heights
Arkansas gymnastics program looks to return to the national championship meet this season with familiar and new faces
From day one, the ultimate goal for the Arkansas gymnastics program was winning a national championship. Now, beginning her sixth season at the helm, coach Jordyn Wieber has the Gymbacks knocking on the door.
Arkansas is coming off its best season in more than a decade, finishing seventh in last season’s national championship meet. It was the highest finish for the program since 2012, when the Gymbacks finished sixth at the NCAA final. It’s the best season finish in Wieber’s tenure and the Hogs’ first return to the championship meet since the format changed from 12 to eight teams in 2019.
“I’ve learned so many things over the past five years,” Wieber said. “Obviously, every year, every team is different. So, as a coach, I feel like it challenges me in a different way. Just with the different dynamics each team has. We knew the potential of this program when we came in, but last season was a really massive shift in just the overall confidence level competitively. One of the things I’m learning is that what we are doing is working, so we just need to keep trusting the process and believing in our athletes.”
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One of the biggest signs of the program’s growth has been the fan support, which seems to have outgrown the legendary Barnhill Arena. With a capacity of 9,000 and some crowds reaching in excess of 10,000, the program will now host all of its home meets inside the 19,200-seat Bud Walton Arena.
“We loved Barnhill, but we just outgrew it a little bit,” Wieber said. “Our season-ticket holders have been showing up. Our crowds have been showing up. It’s a bigger stage, and I think our athletes deserve it.”
Coach Jordyn Wieber
The season will open with a quad-meet in Oklahoma City on Jan. 11, including Kentucky, Ohio State and UCLA. The home slate will then kick off with the Arkansas Tri-Meet on Jan. 20, including Denver and Texas Women’s University.
The first home dual-meet will be Jan. 24, when defending national champion LSU enters Bud Walton for “Friday Night Heights” on the SEC Network.
“The SEC is a very competitive conference, and it’s a grind week after week,” Wieber said. “But I knew that coming in, and that is actually one of the big things that attracted me to this position. I love it because every weekend feels like a national championship atmosphere in a lot of ways. The energy, the intensity and the fan base — that’s what separates us from every other conference. We don’t have easy opponents, so every meet matters.
“What we have created on Friday nights is unlike anything else you will see in the country,” she continued. “That’s really cool to be a part of, but when I’m recruiting, it’s a really big deal for a lot of the girls. They want to compete and perform in the SEC.”
Setting goals is nothing new to Wieber, an Olympic gold medalist. Now 29, she was 23 when Arkansas Athletics Director Hunter Yurachek made her the youngest college head coach in the country in 2019. Although some may have questioned her youth at the time, Yurachek was convinced that one of the most decorated gymnasts in the last decade — a 10-time gold medalist — would translate to coaching success over the decades to come.
So far, so good.
“I’m a big goals-driven person and set goals all the time,” Wieber said with a chuckle. “We obviously have our postseason performance goals that we want to achieve every year. Last year, it was qualifying for nationals. This year our big goal is to get to the Final Four, which not only requires us to get back to nationals but to show up and be more competitive on that first day. We are really proud of what we did last year, but we want more. We are hungrier for more, and they want to achieve higher.”
With a good mix of newcomers and returning standouts, Wieber feels this year’s squad is poised to make history.
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“This team feels really special,” she said. “The girls are really connected, like interpersonally. There is just such a positive dynamic throughout this team, where they all get along great, and they are all honing in on accountability and making sure they hold each other accountable to the culture and standard of the gymnastics program.”
With a slew of key returnees, including juniors Frankie Price and Lauren Williams as well as senior Maddie Jones, the Gymbacks have also added the services of Alabama transfer Mati Waligora and Illinois transfer Katie Ewald. The biggest boost may come from freshman Joscelyn Roberson from Texarkana, Texas, a 2023 world team champion and an alternate for this past summer’s Olympic team.
This also comes on the heels of Arkansas signing the No. 2 overall recruiting class for next season.
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Wieber and her husband, Chris Brooks, comprise half of the coaching staff, with assistant Kyla Ross back for another season and choreographer Catelyn Branson back on the staff after spending the past three seasons as the head coach at Lindenwood University.
“Our biggest task as coaches is to continue to build their confidence under high stakes and high levels of pressure,” Wieber said. “We’re going to need to see that continue to grow. Then, elevating the score potential of every single routine in the lineup. Everyone has that score potential of 9.9. Now, how do we get that score potential to a 9.95? We are just coaching them hard and getting the technique better. But they also have to have that inner swagger and confidence.”
She also added that none of this success would be possible without the support of the athletics department and Yurachek.
“I really appreciate Hunter and his leadership, especially with so many changes going on in the NCAA,” Wieber said. “He’s provided a really good plan for us. So, I feel very confident in the fact that we believe that we can win a national championship at the University of Arkansas.”