Women’s college gymnastics doesn’t have the awards of college football or men’s college basketball.
Not in volume or in name recognition.
People know the Heisman Trophy and the Wooden Award. Most don’t know the AAI Award.
The AAI Award is the most prestigious award in women’s college gymnastics — it has been compared to the Heisman — and is presented to the “most outstanding senior female gymnast in the country” for over 30 years.
This year, two University of Utah gymnasts are in the running for it.
Seniors Maile O’Keefe and Jaedyn Rucker were both nominated for the AAI Award, along with 37 other nominees.
O’Keefe and Rucker are both national champions — O’Keefe on bars and floor in 2021, Rucker on vault in 2022 — and key figures for No. 4-ranked Utah, one of the chief national title contenders.
Currently, O’Keefe ranks No. 1 in the country on beam, while Rucker is tied for No. 30 on vault.
In the Pac-12, Madi Dagen (Oregon State), Nevaeh DeSouza (Cal), Margzetta Frazier (UCLA), Malia Hargrove (Arizona), Hannah Scharf (Arizona State) and Chloe Widner (Stanford) have all been nominated, along with O’Keefe and Rucker.
Locally, BYU’s Elease Rollins and Utah State’s Sofi Sullivan are also nominees.
Nationally, the list of nominees includes:
- Luisa Blanco (Alabama)
- Sierra Brooks (Michigan)
- Lynnzee Brown (Denver)
- Deja Chambliss (George Washington)
- Clara Colombo (Nebraska)
- Elizabeth Culton (North Carolina)
- Haley de Jong (Georgia)
- Hannah DeMers (Central Michigan)
- Makarri Doggette (Alabama)
- Elexis Edwards (Ohio State)
- Norah Flatley (Arkansas)
- Derrian Gobourne (Auburn)
- Gayla Griswold (Lindenwood)
- Natalie Hamp (Northern Illinois)
- Kiya Johnson (Louisiana State)
- Hannah Joyner (Rutgers)
- Jada Mazury (San Jose State)
- Alix Pierce (Texas Woman’s)
- Halle Remlinger (Minnesota)
- Payton Richards (Florida)
- Julianna Roland (Temple)
- Cassidy Rushlow (Penn State)
- Sienna Schreiber (Missouri)
- Emily Shepard (NC State)
- Ragan Smith (Oklahoma)
- Mia Takekawa (Illinois)
- Trinity Thomas (Florida)
- Chloe Widner (Stanford)
- Raena Worley (Kentucky)
The five previous winners of the AAI Award were Michigan’s Natalie Wojcik (2022), Minnesota’s Lexy Ramler (2021), Oklahoma’s Maggie Nichols (2020), LSU’s Sarah Finnegan (2019) and Stanford’s Elizabeth Price (2018).