University of Missouri
#14 Alabama
No. 9 Mizzou Gymnastics Travels to St. Charles for Zou to the Lou
2/13/2025 6:00:00 PM | Gymnastics
The Tigers will compete in the event for the second-consecutive year at Family Arena.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — No. 9 University of Missouri gymnastics travels to St. Charles, Missouri for the Zou to the Lou Quad to compete against No. 14 Alabama, No. 26 Illinois and No. 28 Iowa on Friday at 6:30 p.m. The meet will be livestreamed on ESPN+.
ZOU TO THE LOU RETURNS
-No. 9 Missouri returns to Family Arena to participate in the Zou to the Lou Quad for the second year in a row, taking on No. 14 Alabama, No. 26 Illinois and No. 28 Iowa.
-Illinois is the lone team from the 2024 rendition of the event, which also featured Florida and Lindenwood.
-The meet marks the first time the Tigers and Hawkeyes have competed in a regular season meet since March 9, 2018, where Mizzou took the win over Iowa where they also competed against Iowa State in a tri-meet.
-The result between Alabama and Missouri in the meet will count towards the teams' 2025 Southeastern Conference record.
-Mizzou and Illinois competed on Sunday, Feb. 9, where the Tigers matched their season-best team score of 197.200.
THE MATCHUP
-Mizzou will compete against its final non-conference opponents of the regular season in Illinois and Iowa at the Zou to the Lou Quad.
-In the team's most recent meet, the Tigers defeated the Fighting Illini in Champaign by a 197.200-196.675 margin, tying its season-best score.
-Illinois is 4-4 overall and 2-2 in conference action. The team has wins over UW-Eau Claire, SEMO, Nebraska, and, most recently, No. 18 Ohio State.
-Iowa's three wins came against Brown to start the season and over Nebraska and Rutgers in the past two weeks, with the Hawkeyes scoring a season-best 196.350 in the former.
-The Crimson Tide's lone win was against North Carolina in their season-opening meet, where they scored 197.075.
-Alabama finished its most recent meet against LSU in Tuscaloosa with a final score of 197.075—its highest thus far. |
-Mizzou has five individuals in the top 25 in scoring average for an event and Alabama has two, while Illinois and Iowa does not have any.
STARTING SEC ACTION ON THE RIGHT FOOT
-The Tigers won their conference home opener for the third-straight year and the fifth time in Welker's 12th year at the helm of the program against No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 26.
-Mizzou's win also marked the third year in a row the program earned a win in a dual meet over a top-10 team.
-Ninth-ranked Mizzou continued SEC action on Friday, Jan. 31 against third-ranked LSU and scored its second-straight score of 197.000 or better, marking the fourth season a team coached by Shannon Welker earned consecutive 197.000+ in conference action.
TIGERS MAKE HISTORY ON BARS
-Mizzou had a historic performance on uneven bars in its most recent meet at Illinois, posting a team score of 49.475 on the apparatus.
-Its result marked the third-best score on the event in program history.
-Mizzou's eight-best scores on bars have come since Feb. 24, 2023.
-The Tigers had three gymnasts score 9.900 or better in the final three routines of the rotation - Hannah Horton (9.900), Amari Celestine (9.925) and Mara Titarsolej (9.925).
WANT SOME MO'(ORE)
-Moore, a senior, has had a fantastic start to her 2025 campaign, setting the best vault score of 2025 thus far against No. 1 Oklahoma on Jan. 17, recording a 9.975. She holds the program's lone perfect 10 on vault and two additional scores of 9.975.
-The vault score against the Sooners marked the fourth time in her career to score or exceed a 9.975.
-The Hillsborough, New Jersey native has earned a 9.900 or better in an event in five of the team's six meets this season.
-She holds the most event titles on the team this season with six - four on floor and two on vault.
-Moore also notched a score of 9.925 on floor for the Tigers against Kentucky, marking her second score of 9.900 or better on the apparatus for the 2025 season and the 30th time in her collegiate career, which leads the team.
-Across her 46 collegiate meets throughout her career, Moore has scored 9.900 in one of the three events she competes in all but five of them. She has scored 9.900 an impressive 21 times on vault and 32 times on floor.
HU DID THAT? SHE DID
-Following up on her first career 10.000 against No. 1 Oklahoma, redshirt senior Helen Hu nearly achieved perfection in the past two weeks, earning a pair of 9.975 on balance beam in the team's meets against No. 6 Kentucky and No. 3 LSU.
-Hu made history in the team's meet against OU, recording the first perfect 10.000 of the 2025 NCAA Division-I women's gymnastics season and her career during her routine on balance beam.
-The redshirt senior is one of two gymnasts nationally with three scores of 9.975 on beam this season.
-She stands seventh in the country in beam scoring average of 9.908.
-Only one Mizzou gymnast has earned multiple 10.000 scores in a single season - Lauren Schwartzman on beam in 2004. Hu will look to join that list as the second in 2025.
-The Chicago native made the national spotlight since then, even being featured at No. 5 on the SportsCenter Top-10 the next day.
-Hu's performance is the fourth time a Mizzou gymnast finished with a 10 on beam, most recently done by Sienna Schreiber on March 3, 2024, against Arkansas.
-Five of the seven 10s in Mizzou gymnastics history have come since 2023.
-After the team's meet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hu became just the second gymnast in the award's history to win three-consecutive SEC Specialist of the Week awards.
-Hu previously scored at least 9.950 on 15 different occasions before her first perfect 10.
-The only other time a Mizzou gymnast recorded a 10 on beam on the road was by Lauren Schwartzman on March 12, 2004, at the Texas Women's University Invitational.
-Hu spent the past year backpacking in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Italy and Finland with her sister Elaine.
-In her most recent season of competition, the 2023 campaign, Hu competed in all 13 meets and posted a 9.900 or better on beam in 10. She earned second-team All-America status in the event and was on the end-of-season All-SEC team.
THE CELESTANDARD
-In her final season of competition, Amari Celestine has continued to impress in each meet of the year, most recently setting a new personal-best all-around score of 39.500 against Illinois.
-The senior posted a 9.900 on bars and a 9.925 on floor, earning the event title in both events to help lead the team to its first conference win of the year against No. 6 Kentucky.
-During the team's season opener, Celestine competed all-around for the first time, taking the event title with a score of 39.350. She holds five event titles in 2025.
JUST A FRESHMAN
-In her first time in the lineup for Mizzou, freshman Olivia Kelly looked like a seasoned vet while competing on bars and beam on national television against No. 6 Kentucky.
-She competed third on beam for the Tigers, notching a 9.900 in her first routine on the event, which was the first time a Mizzou freshman reached the threshold this season.
-Kelly followed up her performance with a 9.875 against No. 3 LSU on Jan. 31 and a 9.850 against Illinois this past week.
-She ranks 22nd nationally in average on beam.
-Kelly's first routine of her collegiate career came on the uneven bars, where she went fourth in the lineup and earned a solid 9.825 on Jan. 26.
IT JUST MEANS MORE
-The Tigers stayed put at ninth in the country on the week four RoadToNationals rankings with a 196.858 scoring average following the third-straight week posting a team score of 197.000 or better.
-Mizzou put up 197.200 for its season-high against No. 6 Kentucky and 196.790 as their average after competing at LSU this past week five.
-The Tigers are preceded by No. 8 Kentucky with an average of 196.975 and No. 7 California with an average of 197.257.
-Missouri claims a top 15 spot in every event, placing sixth in the nation on floor, 14th on vault, sixth on bars and 13th on beam.
-All nine of the SEC gymnastics programs are in the top 15 of the rankings, with every program holding an average of 196.500 or better.
-Missouri won its SEC home opener for the third-straight year when it beat No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 26.
STAR-STUDDED TIGERS JOIN THE AMBUSH
-After a historic 2024 season, Welker signed the sixth-ranked freshman class and top-ranked transfer class, according to CollegeGymNews.com.
-The freshman class was comprised of three-star Ayla Acevedo, four-star Kaia Tanskanen and Lisa Szeibert and five-star Railey Jackson and Kelly. Jackson and Tanskanen were the lone two first-year student-athletes to compete in the first week, with Jackson earning scores of 9.800 on beam and 9.825 on floor while Tanskanen notched a 9.750 on vault.
-The nation's leading transfer class featured Lauren Macpherson, Abby Mueller, Elise Tisler and Amy Wier.
-Welker has announced the program's 2025 recruiting class of four signees consisting of CollegeGymNews.com five-star Kimarra Echols, Bryce Kupbens, three-star Maiya Terry and four-star Hayli Westerlind.
-The Tigers' class ranks 11th nationally and fifth in the SEC, according to CollegeGymNews.com. This marks the third time since 2021 that MU has welcomed a top-11 class nationally.
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED
-Director of Athletics Laird Veatch announced on Thursday, Jan. 2 that gymnastics head coach Shannon Welker signed a contract extension to remain at the helm of the program through 2029.
-Since taking over Mizzou's program in May of 2013, Welker transformed the Tigers into a consistent contender on the national stage.
-He led the program to historic milestones, including multiple NCAA Championship appearances, record-breaking team scores, home attendance records and the development of numerous All-Americans and conference honorees.
UP NEXT
-Missouri gymnastics returns home to Hearnes Center to compete against the Georgia Bulldogs on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m., which will be livestreamed on SEC Network+.
-The two teams competed earlier this season at the Denver Quad on Jan. 12, where the Tigers took the win by a 196.126-195.975 margin.
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Players Mentioned
