UNC Gymnastics 2025-2026

[CosmicHeel]

ACC rankings and averages for week 6:

T9. Stanford (196.97, tied with Arkansas)
13. UNC (196.5)
14. Clemson (196.475)
20. Cal (196.288)
21. NCSU (196.155)
34. Pitt (195.1)

This is the last week of ranking by average and next week things shift to NQS. Here are the teams ranked by average with the high and low removed.

1. Stanford (197.05)
2. UNC (196.483)
3. Clemson (196.475, this drops to 196.208 with two highs and a low removed)
4. Cal (196.306)
5. NCSU (196.025)
6. Pitt (195.106)

The team most impacted by this shift in rankings is State, which has one extreme outlier meet (today's) propping up their average. The rest of the ACC doesn't move much. And we're seeing the potentially major consequences of Clemson scheduling a sixth home meet...they could end up being dinged significantly by that, particularly because their home/road splits are so stark.

 

[Jriv23]

That was a really good meet. State got us this time. We have to get them back when they come to us.

 

[TAHeel]

Scrolling back through now that we're approaching the halfway mark of the season to remember some notes and...I guess Jojo isn't going to do Floor this year? Feels an odd line up choice.

 

[CosmicHeel]

Scrolling back through now that we're approaching the halfway mark of the season to remember some notes and...I guess Jojo isn't going to do Floor this year? Feels an odd line up choice.

I wouldn’t rule it out, but I’m not loving the odds. There was an Oklahoma gymnast who was very injury-prone and only got used in the second half of the season (I think through her entire career), and the running joke was that she spent the first half of the season “defrosting.” She was a great gymnast and it seemed to work out well for all parties. So I’m hoping this is a similar situation. I similarly hold out hope that Jillian Fisher will make an appearance (she was in a boot during preseason). Alas, I’m beginning to think we will never see TaeLyn Canty.

 

[CosmicHeel]

One of our incoming recruits scored a perfect 10 on vault at her club meet last weekend! It is MUCH less common to get a 10 in club than in college, and this is a huge achievement! Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be video of it anywhere.

 

[TAHeel]

Really confusing meet...we picked up a tenth from the initial scores that I saw per the TV and on Twitter, if you add up the per event Tweeted scores we had a 196.225, but we're reporting a 196.325, not sure what happened.

Felt like we were really hard done by the floor judging, admittedly not an expert and I wasn't watching incredibly closely but I felt like we had multiple scores come in well below what I was expecting based on what I saw and that contributed to our lowest floor score of the season and lowest score overall of the year. Weird night, hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can explain whatever happened

 

[TAHeel]

Yeah, confirmed that Paige picked up a full tenth on the bars from the initially reported score.

Seabrooks (Floor) and Jojo (Beam and Vault) were the only to have scores 9.9 or more. Need to get more of those.

 

[CosmicHeel]

We have too many 9.7s and not enough 9.9s to cancel them out, much less find the next gear. Story of this program.

 

[CosmicHeel]

We have fallen to 16th in the in-progress rankings, an eyelash behind Clemson and an eyelash ahead of Cal. Hoping for a big day at Metroplex.

 

[TAHeel]

Lowest vault score of the season, 2nd lowest bars score. Not purchasing the stream so not seeing exactly what's happening but feels like we've lost some of the early season momentum

 

[TAHeel]

Of course right as a I give out we drop far and away our best beam score of the year.

 

[TAHeel]

2nd worst Floor of the season too, but it is enough to beat Auburn and NCSU and win the meet.

 

[CosmicHeel]

It’s concerning that our best score of the season remains week 1. In NCAA gymnastics teams generally get better and score higher over the course of a season unless a star goes down midseason (like us with Lali in 2022). “Consistent” is the nice way to describe our season but “stagnant” is another. And we haven’t had a major contributor miss significant time since the season started. It’s been the same 7-8 rotating in the lineup spots on each event all season.

 

[CosmicHeel]

ACC rankings and NQS for Week 7 (we're officially in NQS territory):

10. Stanford (196.906)
14. Clemson (196.555)
15. UNC (196.44)
17. Cal (196.42)
22. NCSU (196.16)
35. Pitt (195.13)

Notably, Clemson stays ahead of us even if you drop two highs and a low (and their high home score is yet to come unless something goes horribly wrong on Senior Night). We're on the road at Cal this week, Pitt and Clemson meet at Clemson, and Stanford heads to State. In other words, all of the ACC teams ranked in our immediate vicinity have the edge on us this week. We could, in theory, leapfrog Clemson this week but it would take a season high from us and a season low from Clemson. Cal can pass us this week but State cannot.

One side effect of our...consistent...season is that it is very, very hard to budge our NQS at this point and to make an upward move in NQS (which will be needed to hold our ranking) we need to be hitting high 196s/low 197s for the rest of the season. Our theoretical high NQS is only .06 ahead of our theoretical low. The other ACC teams have a potential swing of 2-3 tenths. In particular keep an eye on Cal -- they've almost finished their road schedule for the season and have only had one home meet so far.

 

[CosmicHeel]

Lineups vs Cal

Bars: Seabrooks, Neve King, Stippich, Stanley, Prejean, Fink (Rueda exhibition)
Vault: Prejean, Neve King, Fink, Seabrooks, Valahovic, Forbes (Neve King exhibition)
Floor: Naranjo, Fink, Aoki, Forbes, Seabrooks, Rueda (Elly King exhibition)
Beam: Seabrooks, Stippich, Aoki, Fink, Naranjo, Valahovic (Rueda exhibition)

Clemson had a meh-for-them 196.525 at home tonight, moving them down a hair in NQS.

 

[TAHeel]

2nd best bars score of the season, great recovery after Seabrooks threw up a disaster to open and put the pressure on.

 

[TAHeel]

T-2nd worst vault of the season

 

[TAHeel]

Best floor score since the opening week, fingers crossed for a strong finish

 

[TAHeel]

Best score of the season, 196.750, did get edged out by half a tenth to Cal.

 

[CosmicHeel]

Stanley was pulled from the bars lineup at the last minute -- hope she's OK. Looks like Fisher didn't travel with the team, which isn't encouraging re: her prospects of coming into lineups soon.

We are currently in 17th and an eyelash behind Cal in terms of NQS. Clemson is on a bye next week so we won't be able to pass them, but we could leapfrog back over Cal.

 

[CosmicHeel]

ACC rankings and NQS, Week 8:

10. Stanford (196.906, next week's range is 196.805-196.97)
14. Clemson (196.55, on bye next week so can't move)
16. Cal (196.483, next week's range is 196.35-196.55)
17. UNC (196.479, next week's range is 196.457-196.518)
22. NCSU (196.229, next week's range is 196.062-196.321)
T38. Pitt (195.088, next week's range is 195.025-195.15)

This coming week Clemson is on a bye, Stanford and Cal are on the road, State and Pitt are at home, and we are at a "neutral site" (but like not really). All non-conference meets. Our "neutral site" meet, Purple and Gold, should be a favorable scoring environment and we should definitely try to keep wobbles and hops to a minimum so as to draft off of what will be very high scoring for LSU and Bama.

 

[CosmicHeel]

BTW I didn’t realize this but our Sunday meet is now a quad meet because Arizona got added after their scheduled meet with Iowa State was canceled. Looks like no streaming unfortunately.

 

[CosmicHeel]

Cal had a strong away score last night and pulled out of reach, but a bad one for Auburn allowed us to move up to #16 in the in-progress rankings. We'll probably hold at that spot this week.

We are one-thousandth of a point behind Clemson's "drop two highs and a low" score.

 

[CosmicHeel]

Really good day for State, really bad day for us. I think the afternoon session of ACCs is back in play, unfortunately.

 

[TAHeel]

Best bars of the season, but completely undone by having our worst apparatus score of the entire season by half a point in beam.

 

[CosmicHeel]

YIKES.

This article says the coaches’ contracts won’t be renewed. Other sources say they have already been terminated. If I understand the rules correctly, the termination of the coaches’ contracts would mean that the entire Iowa State team could theoretically enter the portal today.

 

[Jriv23]

Does Iowa State have anyone on their team that can really help us?

 

[CosmicHeel]

Does Iowa State have anyone on their team that can really help us?

We desperately need bars next year and they have a class of 2026 signee who is outstanding.

 

[Jriv23]

Thanks for sharing. I hope our coachers will try to go after them. We might not get them but at least try to let us posters know that you are doing all you can to upgrade that potential need. Go Heels!

 

[CosmicHeel]

Yeah, it's not something to worry about right now, but of the eight athletes who have competed bars for us this season, four are graduating (including our top 2 by NQS). Of our three incoming freshmen, only one is likely to challenge for the lineup based on her Level 10 scores. And although we have Jessica Naranjo (who competed bars her freshman season) and hopefully Jillian Fisher (who's injured right now), that's still only seven. That group of seven doesn't have a super-high ceiling, and then what if some of them are injured...?

 

[CosmicHeel]

Thanks for sharing. I hope our coachers will try to go after them. We might not get them but at least try to let us posters know that you are doing all you can to upgrade that potential need. Go Heels!

She has announced on her social media that she has been released and is reopening her recruitment.

 

[Jriv23]

CosmicHeel, who is the person that you are referring to. Can you give us that person's name and tell us if she is still in high school, etc.? thanks.

 

[CosmicHeel]

Lineups vs. Minnesota

Vault: Prejean, Neve King, Fink, Seabrooks, Valahovic, Forbes (Stanley exhibition)
Bars: Stippich, Seabrooks, Stanley, Prejean, Fink, Rueda (Wozniak exhibition)
Beam: Seabrooks, Stippich, Aoki, Rueda, Naranjo, Valahovic (Fink exhibition)
Floor: Naranjo, Stippich, Aoki, Forbes, Seabrooks, Rueda

Major takeaways: Glad to see Stanley getting a test on a second event, Fink being pulled from beam is notable, and no exhibition on floor leads me to believe Elly King is out with an injury.

 

[CosmicHeel]

Our NQS moves up to 196.494 and is enough to hold off State this week. Although Clemson competes a second time this weekend, they're confirmed to stay ahead of us in the rankings. We could theoretically pass Cal depending on what they do tomorrow, but it would take a pretty bad day for them.

 

[UNCAlum83]

Best score of the season; 4th best in program history!

Gymnastics Tops Minnesota, Records Highest Score Of The Season - University of North Carolina Athletics

Carolina's score marks their highest of the season and fourth-best in program history.

goheels.com

 

[UNCAlum83]

Highlights:

Kaya's 9.925 on Vault:


Sydney's 9.9 on Beam:


Claire's 9.9 on Beam:


JoJo's 9.95 on Beam:


Kaya's 9.9 on Floor:


Sydney's 9.9 on Floor:


Cami's 9.925 on Floor:

 

[Jriv23]

Way to go ladies. Great win last night. Go Heels!

 

[oldwell]

Big win! Let’s go

 

[CosmicHeel]

ACC rankings and NQS, Week 10:

10. Stanford (197.143, next week's range is 197.05-197.269)
14. Clemson (196.644, next week's range is 196.512-196.644 using the "drop two highs and a low" calculation)
15. Cal (196.591, next week's range can't be calculated due to it being a double weekend)
18. UNC (196.494, next week's range is 196.433-196.572)
21. NCSU (196.425, next week's range is 196.34-196.498)
37. Pitt (195.256 next week's range is 195.189-195.372)

Next week is Senior Night for all of the ACC teams, and notably it will be Clemson's sixth home meet. This means that if Clemson scores a 197.025 or higher, the meet can't be counted at all and will be dropped alongside Clemson's existing high score of 197.025. It sounds like the sixth home meet doesn't get removed until after conference championships, which is insane, but it is what it is.

Meanwhile, I'm focused on two things: our quest to get into the top 16 and, in the nearer term, to get into the night session of ACCs. On the latter point, my math says that if we score a 196.55 next week, State can't catch us no matter what they score. If we score lower than that, we're at the mercy of what State does on *their* Senior Night. But historically scores are flying on Senior Nights, so we should be in the driver's seat here.

Top 16 is harder. Really, the goal is to get the 15 seed and be in the LSU regional, as all of the others have unseeded host teams and that's a recipe for upsets. But of note is the fact that in addition to Clemson, #16 Auburn also has its sixth home meet this week, which limits its ceiling.

The good(?) news is that if we don't get a seeded position, we still have probably a 50/50 shot at the LSU regional. Don't think we'd get sent out west, and the other option is Kentucky (which would be a bad draw for us).

 

[CosmicHeel]

Senior Night lineups:

Vault: Prejean, Neve King, Fink, Seabrooks, Valahovic, Forbes (Stanley exhibition)
Bars: Stippich, Seabrooks, Stanley, Prejean, Fink, Rueda (Neve King, Wozniak exhibitions)
Beam: Seabrooks, Stippich, Aoki, Rueda, Naranjo, Valahovic (Fink, McBride exhibitions)
Floor: Naranjo, Stippich, Aoki, Forbes, Seabrooks, Rueda (Fink exhibition)