UM women's gymnastics repeat as Big Ten champs, 26th title in program history
The Michigan women’s gymnastics team has won the Big Ten championship for the 26th time in program history and seventh in nine years.
Michigan, the defending national champions, won the Big Ten title Saturday at the Covelli Center in Columbus.
The Wolverines set a Big Ten Championships record with 198.200 points, the first 198 team score in meet history, beating their former meet record of 197.850 in 2000, to win the title for the first time since 2019. It is coach Bev Plock’s 25th conference title, extending her record for the most championships by any Big Ten coach in any sport.
Michigan State finished second with 197.050 points, the Spartans’ best Big Ten championships finish since 2006, and Iowa was third with 196.950 points.
Michigan senior Abby Heiskell earned the 2022 Big Ten all-around title with 39.700 points, narrowly beating out two-time defending all-around champion Lexy Ramler of Minnesota (39.675). It was one of Heiskell’s three event wins on Saturday, along with her victories on the uneven bars and floor (both with scores of 9.95). It’s the second consecutive year and 16th time In Big Ten Championships history an individual has won three event titles in a single meet.
Michigan’s Sierra Brooks had the lone perfect score of the day with a 10.0 on the vault to earn her first individual conference title.
The Big Ten also presented its individual awards after the championships, as voted upon by the conference’s 10 head coaches.
Brooks, a junior, was names the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, marking the 13th time a Wolverine has earned that award and first since 2018, when Paige Zaziski shared the honor with Penn State’s Briannah Tsang (the last outright Big Ten Gymnast of the Year from Michigan was Nicole Artz in 2017).
Michigan State’s Skyla Schulte earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year, the third Spartan to win that award and the first since Victoria Iakounina in 2004.
MSU head coach Mike Rowe, who took over the program in 2018, received Big Ten Coach of Year.
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