Helen Hu Named WCGA Regular Season All-American
3/24/2020 9:05:00 AM | Gymnastics
Hu claimed first team honors on beam and second team accolades on bars
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou gymnastics freshman Helen Hu (Chicago, Ill.) was named a Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) Regular Season All-American, the organization announced on Tuesday. Hu claimed first team honors on beam and second team honors on bars.
Hu is the seventh Tiger in program history to claim All-America honors and the second to earn regular season honors since the WCGA (previously known as the NACGC/W) introduced the award in 2013.
Regular season All-Americans are determined by National Qualifying Score (NQS) rankings. The top eight gymnasts (including ties) on each event and in the all-around earn first team honors, while the next eight are named to the second team.
Hu concluded the year ranked fifth nationally on beam with an NQS of 9.955, and tied for 11th on bars with a 9.910 NQS. During her stellar freshman campaign, Hu won 15 event titles – six on beam, four on bars and two in the all-around.
She claimed Southeastern Conference weekly honors six times during the 2020 season, with four Freshman of the Week accolades and two Specialist of the Week honors. The six total awards were the second-most for an SEC gymnast this year and ties Mizzou's single-season mark of most conference weekly honors in one season.
Over the course of the shortened season, Hu tallied 14 total scores of 9.9 or better on the season, the highest individual total for a Tiger since 2010. Additionally, she went 9.9 or higher on beam in nine of 10 meets, with six scores of 9.95 or better.
Her nine 9.9s on the apparatus tied Mizzou's individual single-season record for most 9.9s on one event in a season. Three former Tigers also reached the mark: Sarah Shire on vault (2010), Alisha Robinson on vault (2004) and Lauren Schwartzman on beam (2004).
Overall, she tallied career-best scores of 9.975 on beam (twice), 9.95 on bars (twice), 9.875 on both vault and floor, and 39.525 in the all-around. Her two 9.95s on bars tie her atop Mizzou's record book in the event, while her two 9.975s on beam tie for third all-time. Additionally, her all-around total of 39.525 ranks third among Tiger freshmen.
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