LOGAN — As the Utah State gymnastics team sat in the third-floor conference room in the West Stadium Center watching the NCAA Regionals selection show, there were no mysteries as to where the Aggies would be, and little mystery as to who it would face. The 36 teams participating across four regional meets had already been determined by national qualifying scores (NQS). And with the Aggies ranking 32nd in NQS, a spot had already been reserved.
The format has the top 16 teams by NQS get seeded and sent across the country, with the remaining 20 playing at the closest geographical location of one of the meets. With Salt Lake City being one of the locations for regionals, it was obvious that’s where the Aggies would be. So it came as little surprise when Utah State were announced on screen to compete in Salt Lake City in a first-round meet against BYU on April 2.
The @USUGymnastics team reacting to their placement in the NCAA Regional. They’ll be in a dual meet with BYU on April 2 for the right to advance to a Quad meet with Utah, Stanford and Denver. The Aggies are going to regionals for the first time since 2022. pic.twitter.com/TFzw1k8Zyo
— Jason Walker (@jwalker_sports) March 24, 2025
The winner of the dual meet with BYU (the Aggies and Cougars already met this season in the Best of Utah meet, with USU scoring higher in the quad meet 196.000-195.750) will advance to the second round and compete with No. 4 Utah, No. 14 Stanford and No. 18 Denver on April 3 at 7 p.m. The top two scoring teams from that meet will then advance to the third round, held on April 5.
“It has been a long time coming,” said graduate senior Brianna Brooks. “It is much more fun when you can have your team support there and I am really proud of this team, so I can’t wait to compete with them. We are excited to go back down to Salt Lake City. It is close to home for us and our fans can come with us. We are excited about that and ready to compete against the Cougars.”
A lack of drama that often accompanies selection shows in other sports didn’t damper the excitement of the moment, since the formality gave the team an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishment that’s been three years in the making, though also a one-year redemption journey for the team.
Almost a year ago to the day, on March 23, 2024, Utah State hosted the first-ever Mountain West Conference Championship meet on its own home floor. The Aggies had the third-best NQS in the conference in the regular season behind Boise State, San Jose, and just ahead of Air Force. Despite being third-best by the rankings, the Aggies were in the think of it for the inaugural Mountain West championship. But when the final scores were tallied, Boise State had the highest score with 196.550. Utah State was behind by the narrowest of margins at 196.500.
“We lost that championship by point zero five,” USU head coach Kristen White said, “which is the lowest deduction that you could possibly get in our sport.”
That margin immediately became the motto for Utah State gymnastics. PZF, standing for the point zero five margin of defeat, became the acronym the team identified with. New words for each of the letters were introduced as PZF took on multiple meanings, drawing upon both the narrow defeat and defining characteristics for the 2025 team.
“We wanted to prepare in the off season to be ready for this moment,” White said, noting that prepare became the new “P” in PZF. “The ‘Z’ stands for zealous. We want to have fun in the moment. We don’t want to forget how much we enjoy the sport. And then the ‘F’ stands for finish. And that’s what we’re doing right now.”
In White’s own words, this 2025 squad has “reached every goal this season we wanted to attain” and the Aggies have the hardware to back up her words. Just last weekend at this year’s MW championship meet, Utah State laid claim to the conference crown by recording a score of 196.100. USU also finished with an NQS of 196.025, good for 32nd in the country, up from having the 45th-best NQS last year that had the Aggies well outside the qualifying range for regionals.
Utah State Gymnastics coach Kristen White poses with the 2025 Mountain West Championship trophy
Although the whole team will compete, USU had four gymnasts achieve qualifying scores to compete in the regional regardless. Brooks earned spots on both the bars and beam, Avery Bibby on bars, Sydney Jelen on beam, and Nyla Morabito on both vault and floor. Last year, Brooks was the only Aggie to qualify, doing so on bars. This year will be Brooks’ fifth time appearing at regionals, the second with her team alongside her.
“These last couple of years, I’ve been going (to regionals) as an individual and I’ve been close to making that national mark,” Brooks said. “This year is the year. I wanna go to nationals. I wanna be in Fort Worth and I wanna represent Utah State there.”
“I want to see Brianna have the best gymnastics on bars and beam at that regional championship,” White said. “What she’s done for this program is incredible. She’s one of the best athletes that I’ve ever worked with in my career. She’s a phenomenal leader and she deserves every goal that she sets for herself. She wants to get (to the NCAA Championships) but most importantly her biggest goal was to get her team to regionals and so I think she’s gonna have fun in the moment and do the best she can.”
Unfortunately, the Aggies will be without a couple of athletes who suffered season-ending injuries at the end of the regular season according to White. Morabito is one with Hattie White being the other. Neither were available for the championship meet last weekend, with White saying it was “incredible” for the team to be able to do so without them.
“Nyla has been our top vaulter and floor performer for the last two years here at Utah State, so we were incredibly devastated to lose her. But the team rallied and they were able to step in and fill in those shoes that we were missing,” White said. “Unfortunately, we won’t have those two competing, but I know that they’re on the road to recovery and will be back next year.”
For White, winning the conference title and getting to the regional represents milestone in her rebuild of the program after the departure of Amy Smith after the 2022 season. Smith led the Aggies to great heights in her six seasons at USU, including two berths in the NCAA Regional. Following a 2022 season that included one of those two bids to regionals, and a Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference championship, Smith left to become the first head coach of the new gymnastics team formed at Clemson. She took many of USU’s top athletes to kick-start the success she’s had with the Tiger so far.
White was left to pick up the pieces and rebuild USU’s program that had become a perennial conference contender and fringe top 25 team. Three years later and White has gotten the team back into full form.
“I knew when I took this job it was gonna be incredibly difficult to lose several athletes and have to rebuild,” White said. “Our sport doesn’t rebuild quite as fast as maybe some of the other sports, and it takes time and you got to be patient. Just incredibly proud of my staff. I have two amazing assistant coaches and a phenomenal athletic trainer that believe in the vision for this program and they give their best every single day. So without our staff pushing and being on the same page for the last three years it would have been really challenging. But, incredibly proud of (winning the Mountain West championship), one of the highlights of my career as a coach obviously, and just in my journey of gymnastics. It’s been phenomenal and I couldn’t be more proud of our women.”
