College gymnastics Week 1 preview: First week of women’s, CGA All-Star Meet

College gymnastics is back!

In a tight turnaround after New Year’s, we’ll get a small slate of women’s meets and the men’s CGA All-Star Meet to begin the season. Keep reading for the top meets to watch, and see the full men’s and women’s schedules below.

• 2025 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Schedule & Scores
• 2025 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Schedule & Scores

Note: All rankings included this week are from preseason polls.

• Oklahoma tops women’s NCAA gymnastics preseason poll
• Stanford tops men’s NCAA gymnastics preseason poll

Women’s opening weekend slate marred by lack of viewing options

Some of the top women’s teams in the country are competing this weekend, but as of publishing, you won’t be able to watch many of them because of a lack of viewing options. We will update this story if that changes.

We’ll focus on the top matchups that will be on TV/streaming, but here are the other notable meets happening that don’t have viewing options:

• Saturday, January 4 @ 3 p.m. ET: #4 California, #19 Oregon State, #10 UCLA (American Gold Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Classic)
  • Olympic gold medalists Jordan Chiles (UCLA) and Jade Carey (Oregon State) return to NCAA action.
• Saturday, January 4 @ 6:45 p.m. ET: #17 Auburn, #27 BYU, #23 Nebraska, #1 Oklahoma (Music City Championship)
• Saturday, January 4 @ 9:30 p.m. ET: #30 Arizona, Rutgers, #31 Southern Utah, Wilberforce (American Gold Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Classic)
  • This meet is especially significant as it is Wilberforce’s program debut. Wilberforce is the third-ever HBCU gymnastics team and only one of two currently active HBCU teams. Fisk, the first HBCU program, is the other active team. Talladega’s program was shut down last summer after just one season.

The “best of the rest” is still compelling.

Getting the honor of kicking off the season are Ball State, Illinois State, SEMO, and #9 Missouri, with the Tigers hosting. Ball State infamously received the first 198+ of the 2024 season at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic last January. Although that isn’t expected here, the Cardinal did receive some points in the preseason poll – as did Illinois State. Host Missouri begins its season and returns a lot of star power: Amari Celestine, Hannah Horton, Jocelyn Moore, and Mara Titarsolej to name a few. Plus, the Tigers have redshirt senior and beam queen Helen Hu back after a temporary retirement in 2024. Head coach Shannon Welker was also able to snag some stellar transfer talent (in addition to a contract extension) in the offseason, including Lauren Macpherson (San Jose State) and Abby Mueller (Illinois).

The triple-header continues Friday with No. 32 Iowa State at No. 2 LSU. It’s a battle of star-studded coaches, with the Tigers’ Jay Clark and the Cyclones’ Ashley Miles Greig. Both had strong 2024 seasons under different circumstances. In her first season as Iowa State’s head coach, Miles Greig led the team back to the postseason after failing to qualify in 2023. Meanwhile, Clark led his squad to its first national championship. On the mat, the most notable storyline will be the lack of Haleigh Bryant, who is week-to-week with an elbow injury. It’s not a major concern for the reigning national champs right now, especially with stars like Aleah Finnegan, KJ Johnson, Konnor McClain, and a stacked freshman class available. On Iowa State’s side, watch for Noelle Adams, Hannah Loyim, and Josie Bergstrom-Te Slaa.

Closing out the night is an in-state rivalry with Utah State vs. No. 5 Utah. This will be a great look at the Red Rocks, who finished third at nationals last year for the fourth year in a row. This season, the team has returning stars, intriguing freshmen, and one major transfer. Of course, as far as returners go, there’s Olympic medalist Grace McCallum, who is a senior this season, Jaylene Gilstrap, Amelie Morgan, and Makenna Smith – to name a few. The freshmen are Brit Poppy-Grace Stickler, Canadian Clara Raposo, top recruit Avery Neff, and Zoe Johnson. Notably, 2018 world balance beam medalist Ana Padurariu transferred to Utah from UCLA in the offseason. (Note: 2022 NCAA vault champion Jaedyn Rucker medically retired in December after tearing her Achilles.)

Friday, January 3
7:00 p.m.	Ball State, Illinois State, S.E. Missouri @ Missouri – Live Stats | Video (ESPN)
8:30 p.m.	Iowa State @ LSU – Live Stats | Video (ESPN)
9:00 p.m.	Utah State @ Utah – Live Stats | Video (ESPN+)

Opening weekend comes to a close with No. 13 Michigan at No. 12 Denver – sure to be a competitive matchup. Denver will look to replace star all-arounder Jessica Hutchinson after losing her to graduation, but the talent pool is certainly there, including Rosie Casali, Mia Hebinck, Momoko Iwai, Bella Mabanta, and Madison Ulrich. Michigan is led by graduate students Carly Bauman, Reyna Guggino, and Jenna Mulligan.

Sunday, January 5
5:00 p.m.	Michigan @ Denver – Live Stats | Video (ESPN2)

CGA All-Star Meet offers men’s season preview

Disclosure: Gymnastics Now is a sponsor of the CGA All-Star Meet. Use code CGAALLSTARS for a $10 annual subscription (new subscribers only).

The third annual CGA All-Star Meet is Friday, January 3 at 7 p.m. ET, streaming on the CGA YouTube (free).

The meet, which serves as an overarching preview of the season to come, sees East vs. West, with athletes competing head-to-head for the title. Team East won the first two CGA All-Star Meets.

The format is as follows:

• 4v4 on each event
• 10.0 scoring system (6 skills per routine, base score of 7.6 with all element groups completed)
• Head-to-head format
• 4 athletes per team, per event

*Italics are inactive all-stars due to declining their position or their program hitting its max number of participants.