The University of Denver gymnastics team finished the 2026 season ranked No. 23 in the final Road to Nationals rankings, according to an April 20 announcement.
This ranking marks the continuation of a long-standing achievement for Denver, as it is the 28th consecutive season that the program has ended with a top-25 national ranking under Head Women’s Gymnastics Coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart.
The final team rankings are based on advancement and scores during the NCAA tournament, including both NCAA Regionals and Nationals, combined with each team’s regular-season National Qualifying Score (NQS). Denver concluded its regular season with an NQS of 196.383, which was added to its score from the NCAA Second Round (195.950), resulting in a postseason NQS of 392.333.
Throughout the season, Denver recorded two wins over teams that ultimately finished higher in the national rankings, including a victory against Stanford, which ended at No. 8 and qualified for NCAA Nationals. All seven losses for Denver were against teams that also finished ahead in the final standings, such as Alabama (No. 9) and Utah (No. 10).
Denver participated in its 27th consecutive NCAA Regionals this year and had representation at NCAA Nationals for the 24th time in the last 25 seasons when competition was held. Freshman Shyla Bhatia advanced as an individual event specialist on vault out of Corvallis Regional and scored a 9.8125 on her Yurchenko one-and-a-half routine at Fort Worth.
Looking ahead to next year, Denver expects another large freshman class with seven first-year student-athletes set to join—a group that was ranked as having the No. 9 recruiting class nationally during fall signing.
