WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Lindenwood gymnastics will compete in their final USAG Championship this weekend in West Chaester, Pa. starting on Friday, April 12th where they earned the number one seed after their historic performances in 2024. With a RoadToNationals ranking of 43, it marks their highest since 2019.

Last Meet Recap 
Lindenwood gymnastics took home gold at the Midwest Independence Conference Championships inside Hyland Arena with an overall team score of 196.075. It marked the seventh overall MIC Championship for the Lions in their 12-year history.

The Lions opened the MIC Championships with a team score of 49.975 on vault. Reese Baechle and Gayla Griswold led the way for the Lions on vault with a 9.825 which ranked seventh at the meet. It marked Griswold's first meet in just over a month and marked her final meet in an accomplished Lindenwood career. Baechle's performance tied her second highest score in 2024.

Lindenwood had a bye during the second rotation, but returned to the mat where they competed on bars and finished with a team score of 48.550. Nya Kraus started her exceptional day with a 9.875 on bars which was her highest in the last six meets. She finished in first on bars taking home All-MIC First Team honors. Hannah Appleget (9.825) and Hannah Moon (9.800) finished in second and third and also claimed All-MIC first team.

Lindenwood then moved on the beam where they set a season-best team score of 49.275 which narrowed the gap heading into the final rotation of the meet. Kraus again led the Lions with a 9.900 finishing in second and garnering another first team All-MIC selection. Her score of 9.900 also tied her season/career high. 

Jaidan Kossuth stepped up big time for the Lions on beam setting a personal-best of 9.875 and finishing in a tie for fourth. She earned All-MIC second team on beam. Moon and Madison Rush also had big performances on beam posting a 9.850 ranking eighth.

Trailing heading into floor, the Lions managed to post a 49.275 team score pushing them just over Texas Woman's to claim their seventh MIC Championship. Baechle and Jaly Jones' performances both earned a 9.000 which ranked first at the meet and set them up to earn All-MIC First Team honors. Kraus also finished with a 9.875 on floor giving her another All-MIC honors this time on second team. For Baechle, it said a career high on floor. Jones also finished with an all-around score of 39.125 which ranked first out of six AA scores.

Lindenwood ended their 2024 regular season as MIC Champions for the seventh time in their 12-year history, the most in that span of any MIC school. The Lions also had the highest beam and floor scores.

Head Coach: Catelyn Branson 
Catelyn Branson was named the gymnastics head coach in July of 2021, and will enter her third season with Lindenwood in 2023-24. Orel is just the third head coach in program history. The Lindenwood gymnastics team saw continued success in 2023, earning the top-seed at the MIC Championships, finishing in second place. Lindenwood took home the USAG National Championship for the first time since 2019.

In her first season, the Lindenwood gymnastics team had yet another successful campaign, earning third at USAG nationals and advancing a student-athlete to NCAA nationals. Griswold became the first Lion in program history to qualify for the national event, as the junior capped her season on the vault in Fort Worth, Texas.

Branson comes to Lindenwood after serving two seasons on the staff at the University of Arkansas. She competed as a student-athlete at the University of Nebraska from 2015-19. As a member of the Nebraska gymnastics program, Branson was named academic all-Big Ten twice, and earned scholar-athlete honor roll four times.