University of Missouri
#12 Georgia
Eighth-Ranked Mizzou Gymnastics Welcomes No. 12 Georgia for SEC Showdown
2/20/2025 8:11:00 PM | Gymnastics
The Tigers return to Hearnes Center for its penultimate home meet of the 2025 season.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — No. 8 University of Missouri gymnastics returns to Hearnes Center for its next Southeastern Conference meet as it seeks to defeat No. 12 Georgia for the 10th-straight meet on Friday at 7 p.m.
The meet will be livestreamed on SEC Network+. Max Thoma will be calling play-by-play, while Adeliene Hufendyk will serve as the analyst.
THE MATCHUP
-The Tigers are on a nine-meet win streak against the Bulldogs from 2021.
-Missouri's first NQS this season is 196.995 compared to Georgia's 196.745.
-The Bulldogs are coming off a win against Arkansas on Friday, Feb. 14 earning a team score of 197.125.
-MU and UGA share the same highest team score of 197.200.
-Mizzou holds a higher national qualifying score (NQS) over Georgia on bars (49.280-49.255), beam (49.250-49.075) and floor (49.375-49.220).
-The GymDogs return SEC Freshman of the Year Lily Smith to their roster for 2025 and ranks t-19th in individual beam NQS at 9.865.
TIGERS AND DAWGS SQUARE OFF – AGAIN
-Eighth-ranked Mizzou continues its conference slate at home as it returns home to Hearnes Center and competes against 12th-ranked Georgia.
-This marks the second time this season the Tigers and Bulldogs will compete, with the previous matchup coming at the Denver Quad on Jan. 12, where MU took the head-to-head win over UGA.
-In the previous meeting at Magness Arena, Mizzou outscored Georgia on beam and floor by a total of 0.700.
-Missouri is 4-0 at home this season while Georgia will be searching for its first true road win of 2025.
KENN YOU BELIEVE IT?
-Kennedy Griffin (Strongsville, Ohio) scored 10.000 in her floor routine, becoming the fourth gymnast this season to achieve perfection in the event. She is the second Mizzou gymnast to score 10.000 on floor.
-The perfect 10 on Friday, Feb. 14. marked the seventh perfect score an NCAA gymnast has scored this season.
-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.
-Mizzou is one of three schools to achieve the top mark in multiple events this season.
-As a team, the Tigers' NQS of 49.375 ranks fifth. Griffin now ranks 28th nationally in the event.
-Griffin's perfect score on her floor routine made her the second-youngest Mizzou gymnast to receive a perfect score in any event. She is also the second-youngest gymnast to earn a 10 in 2025.
-Five of the eight times Mizzou has earned a perfect routine have come in road or neutral-site meets.
-She was named the SEC Co-Specialist of the Week following the result, marking the fourth time in five weeks a Tiger has received the honor.
-Griffin's SEC Specialist of the Week honors marks her second weekly conference 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.
FAB FLOOR TAKEOVER
-Missouri notched its best score on floor ever with 49.725, beating its previous best of 49.700 at the Illinois Quad last season.
- Griffin scored 10.000 in her floor routine, becoming the fourth gymnast this season to achieve perfection in the event. She is the second Mizzou gymnast to score 10.000 on floor.
-Senior Moore anchored the rotation and tied her season-best score of 9.950, marking the fifth time this season that she scored at least a 9.900.
-Amari Celestine (Wilomar, Calif.) notched a season-high of 9.950 in the event, her third score of 9.900 or better in 2025.
-Freshman Railey Jackson (Park Forest, Ill.) scored a career-high of 9.925, the second time a first-year Tiger reached a 9.900 this season.
-From the leadoff spot, redshirt junior Elise Tisler (Fairfax Station, Va.) opened the event for the Tigers with a season-high score of 9.900. This marked her fifth time on floor reaching or exceeding 9.900 in her career.
-Sophomore Rayna Light (Brandon, Fla.) tied her season-high of 9.850, making it her fourth consecutive meet posting the result.
NQS TAKE EFFECT
-The Road to Nationals rankings have switched over to NQS to determine its rankings following the seventh week of meets. NQS is calculated by taking a team or individual's top six scores, three of which come from away meets, dropping the highest score and averaging the remaining five.
-Mizzou's first NQS poll saw it positioned at No. 8 in the nation, its highest-ever first NQS ranking.
-The Tigers are also fifth overall in floor - their highest-ever NQS team ranking in any event. Mizzou earned the highest floor score in the SEC at Zou to the Lou and the second overall highest in the NCAA.
-Four Tigers are ranked in the top 10 individual event rankings - Celestine at eighth on bars, Hu at fourth on beam, Moore ninth on floor and Mara Titarsolej (Zutphen, Netherlands) 10th on bars.
-With Celestine and Titarsolej in the top 10 of the bars rankings, Mizzou joins four other schools with a pair of teammates in a single event.
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. The vault score against the Sooners marked the fourth time in her career to score or exceed a 9.975.
-She notched her season-best score on floor of 9.950 at Zou to the Lou, one of three Tigers to score a 9.950 or better on floor during the meet.
-She holds the program's lone perfect 10 on vault and two additional scores of 9.975.
-Moore has earned a 9.900 or better in an event in six of the team's seven meets this season.
-She holds the most single-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 47 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 33 times on floor.
HU DID THAT? SHE DID
-Following up on her first career 10.000 against No. 1 Oklahoma, redshirt senior Hu nearly achieved perfection in the following two weeks, earning a pair of 9.975s 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 fifth in the country in beam scoring an average of 9.904.
-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.
-Six of the eight 10s in Mizzou gymnastics history have come since 2023.
-After the team's meet in Baton Rouge, La., 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 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, Celestine has continued to impress in each meet of the year, most recently setting a new personal-best all-around score of 39.625 at Zou to the Lou on Feb. 14, which ties the seventh-best in program history.
-Celestine led the Tigers on bars with a career-high score of 9.950, the highest score for Missouri on bars this season, earning a share of the event title at Zou to the Lou. She also set a season-high on beam of 9.875.
-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 seven event titles in 2025.
JUST A FRESHMAN
-In her first time in the lineup for Mizzou, freshman Olivia Kelly (Bronx, N.Y.) looked like a seasoned vet while competing on bars and beam on national television against No. 6 Kentucky.
-Kelly 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.
-At Zou to the Lou, she competed on vault for the first time as a collegiate gymnast, scoring 9.750. She also notched a pair of 9.825s on bars and beam, respectively. Her result on bars tied her career-best result.
-Kelly followed up her performance with a 9.875 against No. 3 LSU on Jan. 31 and a 9.850 against Illinois on Feb. 9.
-She ranked 22nd nationally in average on beam before the team's meet on Feb. 14 at Zou to the Lou.
-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.
TIGERS MAKE HISTORY ON BARS
-Mizzou had a historic performance on uneven bars at Illinois on Feb. 9, 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 (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) (9.900), Celestine (9.925) and Titarsolej (9.925).
-Celestine followed up her performance on the apparatus at Zou to the Lou with a career-high score of 9.950, the highest score for Missouri on bars this season.
-Titarsolej entered the meet ranked 14th nationally in scoring average in the event.
IT JUST MEANS MORE
-The Tigers slid up to eighth in the country in the first week of the NQS rankings, with a score of 196.995 and an average of 196.900.
-SEC programs make up three of the top five and five of the top 10 in the week seven poll.
-Mizzou put up 197.200 for its season-high against No. 6 Kentucky and tied that against Illinois. Since the UK meet, MU has scored at least 197.000, extending its streak to five in a row following Zou to the Lou.
-Missouri claims a top 15 spot in every event - fifth in the nation on floor, sixth on bars, eighth on beam and 15th on vault.
-All nine of the SEC gymnastics programs are in the top 17 of the rankings, with every program holding an average of 196.600 or better.
-Missouri won its SEC home opener for the third-straight year when it beat No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 26.
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 Welker earned consecutive 197.000+ in conference action.
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 to SEC Network's Friday Night Heights for its next contest at No. 5 Florida on Friday, Feb. 28 at 5 p.m. in Gainesville at Exectech Arena.
-The Tigers last competed against the Gators at the 2024 rendition of the Zou to the Lou Quad, where Florida won the meet with a team score of 197.925.
-Mizzou will be looking to earn its first win against UF since March 2, 2018, where the Tigers took down the No. 5 Gators at Hearnes Center, 196.925-196.700.
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Players Mentioned
