Something was off from the start.
Before the No. 3 Michigan women’s gymnastics team could even get going, senior Gabby Wilson fell on the second routine of the team’s first rotation. With an uncharacteristic fall on bars, Wilson, and the Wolverines’ hopes, were already on the ground. And that’s just about where they would stay — no matter how hard the team fought.
Although Michigan (26-2 overall) led for the first two routines and was tied going into the final rotation, it had a subpar meet at the worst possible time, failing to qualify for the National Semifinals for the first time since 2018 with a score of 197.750, while No. 14 Denver and No. 6 LSU advanced.
The Wolverines and Tigers ended the meet tied, so it all came down to a tiebreaker. All six gymnasts were counted in all four events. While Michigan could usually move past an uncharacteristic fall on an event, the falls were the Wolverines’ kryptonite on Sunday.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. “We have had an amazing season. I think we’re a team that could contend to win a title, but I think it’s a combination. I still feel like even with the meet that we had, we deserved to be one of the teams that advanced. But when we open the door and kind of put things into a gray area and we put control into someone else’s hands, that does not always end well.”
And the Wolverines cracked that door open from the beginning.
Although Michigan had one fall on the bars with Wilson’s slip, they still excelled and led after the first event. Graduate students Abby Heiskell and Natalie Wojcik and senior Sierra Brooks led the charge with 9.950s. They looked like their usual stalwart selves and helped Michigan gain a .225 point lead. Despite the fall, the team already reached its peak, securing the fourth-best bars score in program history with a 49.650. But, with the tiebreaker the fall is the one thing that would ultimately matter.
And that was all the history and happiness the Wolverines could muster.
The beam rotation started out no better than the bars. Junior Carly Bauman fell on the beam, her second beam fall of the weekend. Once again, the rest of the routines would have to be nearly flawless to make up for the early misstep. Once again, as Brooks has done so often through this season and her career, she led the charge with a 9.950 that included a back handspring double twist and a stuck dismount. But, no matter how hard Brooks and her teammates fought, the Pioneers and the Tigers were clawing back, and Michigan’s lead dwindled to just .075 points.
Luckily for the Wolverines, they had their strongest event to resurrect their national title hopes. Three gymnasts scored 9.9 and above, with Brooks once again leading the way with a 9.925. But, it didn’t seem to matter, as they still underperformed. After three rotations, Michigan was in hazy territory. They were tied with LSU for the lead, clinging on to hope that they would be one of the top two teams to advance.
Michigan has dictated so much of how its meets went this season. But this one was out of its hands. As they finished on vault, the Tigers still had gymnasts performing for their lives on the floor. On vault, one of the Wolverines’ strong suits, they had an average performance in a situation where they needed a spectacular one. Freshman Kaylen Morgan anchored the event with a stuck landing and a team high 9.9. But it didn’t matter. It was all up to LSU and Denver.
And there’s one thing you should never do in gymnastics: leave the door open.
When LSU’s final floor routine finished, there was a shock around the arena. Michigan and the Tigers were tied at 197.750. No one seemed to know what was going on. Except for the Wolverines. You could see it on their faces.
All you could see were tears.
After a few moments of deliberation among the judges, where they counted all six gymnasts’ scores for all events as the tiebreaker, the outcome was clear. With its falls on beam and bars, Michigan’s sixth gymnast couldn’t dig it out of a hole. Instead, that sixth gymnast was its Achilles heel. The one time the Wolverines needed all six gymnasts, for a team that is uncannily deep, was the one time not all six gymnasts showed up for every event. And thus, the shocking, unthinkable outcome was true:
For the first time since 2018, Michigan would not be competing for a National Championship.
“We win and we advance together as a team,” Plocki said. “… I think we deserve to advance, but when we open the door and put control in someone else’s hands then it doesn’t always come out the way that we wanted.”
The failure to advance is shocking, heartbreaking even for the Wolverines. But it wasn’t for a lack of high scores and stuck landings. The overall score was respectable but a far cry from Michigan’s standard.
“We have six up and five count for a reason,” Plocki said. “… We won bars. We won vault. We tied to win floor. … There were a lot of bright spots. It’s a little bit hard. I haven’t been sitting here quite honestly thinking about that because everybodies just really disappointed and brokenhearted about the outcome.”
At the end of the day, despite the bright spots, the tears and the heartbreak will be the lasting memory. There was nothing going into this meet that foreshadowed what the final outcome would be. There were no warning signs. Everyone, especially Michigan, thought this meet was just a stepping stone to bigger things.
“Tonight it didn’t end well for us,” Plocki said. “It’s a really difficult pill to swallow. But we have to take it as a look at what we have control over, that we could have changed or done better. And that’s what we have to learn from this experience.”
This type of heartbreak stings. It’s one few experience and one no one wants to. The only thing worse than defeat may be a shocking, unexpected upset while knocking at the doors of greatness. And that’s exactly what Michigan experienced on Sunday in Denver.
A team full of national title hopes saw its season and dream end suddenly. A team, led by a coach that felt like her team truly deserved it, won’t get to see how high it could truly climb.
But there was something off from the beginning. And at the end, instead of a trophy, all that was left was tears in the Wolverines’ eyes.