2020 Preview: Floor
1/7/2020
Washington will look to continue its years-long excellence on floor, returning seven of eight floor competitors from the 2019 season, including its top five in average score. The GymDawgs will have back three gymnasts who averaged a score over 9.800 last season: Kristyn Hoffa, Maya Washington, and Evanni Roberson. Also back are the excellent Amara Cunningham, Geneva Thompson, Brenna Brooks, Meaghan Ruttan, and Michaela Nelson.
Hoffa returns for a fifth year with the Dawgs to continue an already-impressive career. She earned two event victories in 2019, both on floor. Her season-average score of 9.856 was buoyed by a stretch of three straight scores over 9.900 entering Regionals. Only once all year did Hoffa record a floor score under 9.800: she has now reached 9.800 or higher in 18 of the last 20 meets and all but four meets since the start of 2018.
Maya Washington joins Hoffa as the backbone of the floor lineup, averaging a 9.852 in 2019. At the 2019 Pac-12 Championships, Washington recorded the highest score on floor of any GymDawg as well as a career high, with a 9.950 on floor. It was her third score of 9.900 or higher on the year and one of ten scores of 9.850 or higher on floor. Since starting 2018 with a score of 9.775 on floor, Washington has gone over 9.800 all but once. 2017 is the only season of her career that Washington has had multiple scores under 9.800 on floor: that year, she was under 9.800 just twice.
In addition to her vault expertise, Cunningham worked her way into the floor rotation in her first year with the GymDawgs. As a freshman, she competed on floor every week and, at the Pac-12 Championships, recorded a career-best 9.900. Cunningham improved as the season went on: four of her five best floor scores came in the last five weeks of the season. She reached 9.850 or above four times, ending the year with a 9.850 at NCAA Regionals.
Brooks got her feet wet in collegiate competition as a freshman and now looks to build a full-time spot in the floor rotation. She competed seven times on floor in 2019 for the Dawgs. Twice she recorded scores of 9.800: against UCLA and against Boise State.
Thompson debuted as a vital part of Washington’s rotation last year. On floor, she improved throughout the season, with her two highest scores coming at Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Regionals. After starting the year with two scores of 9.700, Thompson recorded seven scores of 9.800 or above and fell below 9.750 just once.
Roberson earned her second straight All-Pac-12 honor in 2019 as the GymDawgs’ all-around maverick. She had 17 scores of 9.800 or higher and five of 9.900 or higher before an injury ended her 2019 season halfway through the year. An All-Pac-12 Beam performer in 2018, Roberson recorded a 9.950 on beam at Arizona, the highest beam score by any GymDawg since 2004. Against Boise State and Utah State, Roberson scored a 39.500 in the all-around, a career high helped along by career-high vault and bars performances. She would end 2019 with ten individual event wins despite appearing in only eight meets.
In each of the last two years, Michaela Nelson has helped push Washington’s floor group to higher heights. In 2018, she had eight scores of 9.800 or higher in her nine floor routines, including a career-best 9.875 mark. Last season, Nelson competed on floor in each of the season’s final four meets. Those four routines included a 9.825 mark at NCAA Regionals for the now-senior.
Ruttan will be making her competitive collegiate debut on floor this season. As a freshman, Ruttan worked her way into the beam lineup late in the year, with performances at both UC Davis and the Pac-12 Championships. She has excelled in the preseason and competed on floor at the Purple and Gold intrasquad meet.