2020 Preview: Beam
1/9/2020
Another stellar year on beam in 2019 has set up Washington for success in 2020. Washington had three gymnasts average scores of 9.800 or higher and bring back all three this year: Evanni Roberson (9.859), Madison Copiak (9.831), and Maya Washington (9.810). Michaela Nelson adds to the team’s plethora of beam gymnasts after missing the early part of 2019 with injury. Two GymDawgs, Brenna Brooks and Meaghan Ruttan, saw action on beam as freshman and will grow their roles this year, while Hannah Vandenkolk and Morgan Bowles will see their first collegiate competition. Geneva Thompson will compete on beam for the first time in her college career as well after competing on all three other events in 2019.
While Roberson was no doubt excellent on every event, she shined on beam especially. In just the second meet of the season, Roberson set a career high with a score of 9.950. That earned her one of her three beam event titles despite only competing in the event eight times due to injury. Only once in 2019 did she record a score under 9.800: in her last 20 competitions, she has gone over 9.800 18 times, including eight scores of 9.900 or above, the most of any active GymDawg.
Since joining the GymDawgs, Maya Washington has been in the beam lineup in all but eight meets. 20 times she has earned a score of 9.800 or higher on beam in her career. Last season, she set a new career high on beam with a score of 9.900, coming at UC Davis. She followed that up with a score of 9.850 at the Pac-12 Championships, giving her two of her three highest career beam scores in back-to-back weeks.
Copiak’s second year in Washington’s beam lineup was even better than the first, with 2020 holding plenty of potential to improve even more. As a junior, Copiak earned her first two beam event titles and her second and third scores of 9.900 or higher. Late in the year, Copiak set a new career high with her score of 9.925 on beam. She has averaged a score over 9.800 in each of her two seasons competing on beam: after putting up an average score of 9.815 as a sophomore, she finished with the second-highest average score on the GymDawgs with at 9.831.
Washington’s duo of Brooks and Ruttan are back for their sophomore seasons after a year of collegiate experience. Ruttan competed twice on beam in 2019. Brooks was in the beam lineup all year long for Washington. She had eight scores of 9.800 or higher. That included five meets in a row in which Brooks reached 9.800 or higher, buoyed by her career-high score of 9.850.
Nelson began her GymDawg career on beam, competing nine times on the event in 2017. In 2018, she was only able to appear once on beam before making a triumphant return last year. Nelson has 11 scores of 9.800 or higher in her 18 career appearances on beam. Thrice she has earned scores of 9.850. She was in Washington’s lineup for each of 2019’s last eight meets after working her way back to full health.
Vandenkolk and Bowles will be making their GymDawgs debut this season. Vandenkolk missed all of 2019 with injury, while Bowles joins the GymDawgs for her first season out of her hometown Las Vegas.