Minnesota senior gymnasts Mya Hooten and Emily Koch have both announced they will be taking their COVID year for the 2024-25 season and will return to the Gophers for their final year of eligibility.
As a team, Minnesota (20-11, 6-3 Big Ten) finished second at the Big Ten Championships and made the NCAA Regional Finals for the third time in the last four seasons. Their No. 12 final ranking was the highest finish of any Big Ten team.
Both Hooten and Koch were freshmen on the 2021 Big Ten Championship team and helped the team reach nationals in consecutive years in 2021 and 2022 for the first time in program history. The Gophers finished sixth at nationals in 2022, which was the program’s highest-ever finish at the meet.
The lone Golden Gopher to qualify for nationals as an individual this year, Mya Hooten had a magical senior season in the Maroon and Gold, winning a career-high 20 event titles, including 10 on floor, seven on vault and three on bars.
The AAI Award Nominee was named a WCGA First Team All-American on Floor and Vault in the same season for the first time in her career. Overall, she is a seven-time WCGA All-American and a four-time NCAA Championships All-American. Hooten has won two NCAA Regional titles and six Big Ten titles in her career. The four-time All-Big Ten honoree has hit nine perfect 10s in her career on floor, including three this season. She has been named Academic All-Big Ten four times and was named a WCGA Academic All-American in 2023.
A senior from Bloomington, Minn., Emily Koch competed in all 14 meets this season as a staple on both the balance beam and floor teams. She posted career-best 9.950 scores on both beam and floor on senior day at the Pav. Koch went 9.850-or-higher five times on beam and 13 times on the floor. She won two event titles, including one each on beam and floor. The four-year letterwinner is a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, two time WCGA Academic All-American and a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
(info and photo courtesy of Gopher Sports)
