Members of the Boise State gymnastics team continue to rewrite history at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.
Boise State junior Courtney Blackson achieved individual national runner-up status on vault, scoring a 9.925 at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.
Blackson’s performance marks the highest finish by a Boise State gymnast in the national championships.
Prior to her historic vault, the best finish by a Bronco at nationals was a tie for seventh.
The Elk Grove, California, native shared runner-up honors with Denver’s Lynnzee Brown. The pair posted their scores during the first rotation of the competition’s first session.
Blackson’s 9.925 score remained at the top of the leaderboard until the final rotation of the second session when Oklahoma’s Olivia Trautman earned a 9.950.
“I think every gymnast has a goal coming into a competition, and it’s to do their best,” Blackson said post-meet. “I didn’t have the best warmup, so my goal was to turn that around, have a good attitude and stick the landing. So, I think I did pretty good with that goal.”
Blackson and Brown shared the podium as they held up their national championship trophies.
Alongside Blackson was another junior Boise State gymnast: Emily Lopez.
After being selected to participate in the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, the duo from Boise State made a mark on the collegiate gymnastics world.
With both having perfect 10s on their season resumes, the dynamic duo entered their afternoon championship semifinal making some noise for Boise State.
With Blackson’s historic performance and Lopez scoring a 9.900 on the bars, the juniors made a name for Boise State on a national level.
After praising her gymnasts on their performances, head coach Tina Bird commented on how impactful it is to represent mid-major schools at this level with the growing interest in the sport.
“It means everything. It’s going to help our team, our program, our recruiting, everything by having their name on the national stage,” Bird said.
Both juniors, the first Broncos to compete at the NCAA Championships since their last individual in 2018 will have a great shot at repeating the feat next season. The importance of appearing on podiums is not lost on Blackson either, as she encourages gymnasts at every level to “go for it.”
“I hope people can look at this and just be encouraged that you don’t have to be part of the big schools to have a name. You can create it for yourself,” Blackson said.
Corissa Campbell | The Arbiter
