Griffin Receives First SEC Specialist of the Week Honors
2/18/2025 12:00:00 PM | Gymnastics
A Mizzou gymnast has now won the Specialist of the Week award in four of the past five weeks.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri gymnast Kennedy Griffin (Strongsville, Ohio) was awarded the Southeastern Conference Co-Specialist of the Week award, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon.
Griffin made history during the team's Zou to the Lou Quad meet on Friday evening, earning the seventh 10.000 of the 2025 season and fourth on the floor exercise. The sophomore's first perfect score led the Tigers to their best team result on the apparatus in history with a 49.725.
Mizzou is now one of three schools to achieve the top mark in multiple events this season. Griffin became the second-youngest individual to achieve the score both this year and in program history.
As a team, the Tigers' National Qualifying Score (NQS) of 49.375 ranks fifth, Mizzou's highest first-week NQS ranking in any event in the history of the Road to Nationals poll. Griffin now ranks 28th nationally in the event.
Griffin's performance on Friday is the second 10.000 on floor a Mizzou gymnast has received, joining teammate Jocelyn Moore (Hillsborough, N.J.) who achieved the feat at the Illinois Quad on March 17, 2024. She is the sixth Tiger to score a 10, five of which have come since 2023. Five of the eight times Mizzou has earned a perfect routine have come in road or neutral-site meets.
The latest honor is Griffin's second weekly SEC award, earning Freshman of the Week on Jan. 30, 2024, following her previous career-best of 9.975 in the team's win over No. 3 LSU.
Missouri has won the SEC Specialist of the Week honors four times in the past five weeks and has now had a Tiger claim the award four times in a season for the second-straight year. Mizzou is one of three schools in the conference to ever have a Specialist of the Week four times in the same year.
Missouri gymnastics heads back home to Columbia to face No. 11 Georgia on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. in Hearnes Center, which will be livestreamed on SEC Network+.
Earlier this season, the Tigers faced the Bulldogs at the Denver Quad on Jan. 12. Missouri defeated Georgia and LIU but fell to Denver. The Tigers are currently on a nine-meet win streak against the Bulldogs, dating back to 2021.
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