Photo by: Alaska Anchorage Media Relations
Former Spartan Gymnast Alina Cartwright Joins MSU Coaching Staff
7/8/2021 11:26:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
Cartwright returns to MSU after four seasons at Alaska Anchorage.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State gymnastics head coach Mike Rowe announced that former Spartan standout Alina Cartwright has joined the MSU coaching staff as the Spartans' volunteer assistant coach.
A native of Naperville, Illinois, Cartwright returns to MSU from Alaska Anchorage, where she was an assistant coach for the last four years (2017-21). She was a four-year letterwinner at MSU from 2012-15, before starting her coaching career as a student assistant with the Spartans for the 2016 season.Â
Cartwright will be joining the Spartan staff that includes Rowe, associate head coach Nicole Jones and assistant coach Whitney Snowden.
"I'm excited to join an amazing Spartan coaching staff. Coach Rowe and Coach Jones were both my coaches when I was a gymnast at MSU, and I learned so much from them as an athlete that I took some of their philosophies and workouts back to UAA, which helped me get that team even better. This MSU team is getting so much better over the years. I've been watching from a distance and it's exciting to see their growth," Cartwright said. "I'm just really excited to work with them as a staff, and especially with Whitney, because I've heard that she is amazing, especially with vault, floor and drills. So I'm just so excited to hype up my alma mater, and the feeling of coming back to the school I went to, I just have so much pride for MSU, and I'm just excited to contribute as much as I can with what I've learned at UAA and I'm excited to work with the Spartan gymnasts and help them get as much success as I can."
Cartwright will work primarily with the Spartan beam and floor routines choreography, as well as several other areas.
"We are thrilled to have Alina back at her alma mater after having quite an impact on the UAA Seawolves program," Rowe said. "Alina comes to us forever bleeding green, with leadership, enthusiasm, technical as well as choreography skills that will immediately have a profound effect while also assisting us in addressing the intricacies and detail work we are pursuing to take the program to the next level."Â
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At Alaska Anchorage, Cartwright joined the staff under former head coach Paul Stoklos, and played a large role in helping  ease the transition for successor Tanya Ho's first season of 2018 of her three years at the helm of the UAA program, before resigning, and interim head coach Marie-Sophie Boggasch in 2021, as the Seawolves did not compete during the 2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cartwright played an essential part in helping the Seawolves' top season in program history in 2019, as they broke 17 school records, including season average and National Qualifying Score (NQS) marks on bars, beam, floor and overall. In 2020, Cartwright helped UAA improve program records for bars NQS and team score average.
Since joining the UAA staff in 2017, Cartwright not only helped the Seawolves to improving on their school record team marks on the balance beam, but also individually, mentoring five UAA gymnasts post top 13 marks in program history. Under Cartwright's tutelage, Sophia Hyderally joined the Seawolves record books, posting a school-record score, as part of six of the top nine marks in program history. Hyderally was ranked among the top beam scores in the country, winning Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) beam titles in 2017 and 2019, and finishing fourth at the 2019 NCAA Corvallis Regional Championships. Hyderally was one of 12 All-MPSF honorees that Cartwright helped coach during her time at UAA, along with 18 MPSF All-Academic award recipients.
In her debut coaching season of 2016 as a student assistant at Michigan State, Cartwright helped MSU qualify for the 2016 NCAA Athens Regional Championships. She also helped MSU to a seventh-place finish at the 2016 Big Ten Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska, marking its highest finish at Big Tens since 2013, while MSU's team score of 195.475 was its best at the Big Ten Championships since scoring a 195.65 in 2009.
As a gymnast for the Spartan, Cartwright was voted to First-Team All-Big Ten honors in 2014, the first Spartan to earn first-team accolades since 2010. She went on to finish fifth in the All-Around at the 2014 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional Championships. Cartwright hold three of the top eight vault scores in program history, posting a 9.950 three times (2013, 2014, 2015). She also earned three MSU gymnastics team awards, including the Outstanding Gymnast Award in 2014, the Spirit Award in 2015, and also joined the 1,000 Point Club in 2014, becoming just the second Spartan gymnast to do so in the decade and remains just one of eight members of the 1,000 Point Club.Â
Cartwright earned her bachelor's degree in advertising from MSU in 2016.
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A native of Naperville, Illinois, Cartwright returns to MSU from Alaska Anchorage, where she was an assistant coach for the last four years (2017-21). She was a four-year letterwinner at MSU from 2012-15, before starting her coaching career as a student assistant with the Spartans for the 2016 season.Â
Cartwright will be joining the Spartan staff that includes Rowe, associate head coach Nicole Jones and assistant coach Whitney Snowden.
"I'm excited to join an amazing Spartan coaching staff. Coach Rowe and Coach Jones were both my coaches when I was a gymnast at MSU, and I learned so much from them as an athlete that I took some of their philosophies and workouts back to UAA, which helped me get that team even better. This MSU team is getting so much better over the years. I've been watching from a distance and it's exciting to see their growth," Cartwright said. "I'm just really excited to work with them as a staff, and especially with Whitney, because I've heard that she is amazing, especially with vault, floor and drills. So I'm just so excited to hype up my alma mater, and the feeling of coming back to the school I went to, I just have so much pride for MSU, and I'm just excited to contribute as much as I can with what I've learned at UAA and I'm excited to work with the Spartan gymnasts and help them get as much success as I can."
Cartwright will work primarily with the Spartan beam and floor routines choreography, as well as several other areas.
"We are thrilled to have Alina back at her alma mater after having quite an impact on the UAA Seawolves program," Rowe said. "Alina comes to us forever bleeding green, with leadership, enthusiasm, technical as well as choreography skills that will immediately have a profound effect while also assisting us in addressing the intricacies and detail work we are pursuing to take the program to the next level."Â
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At Alaska Anchorage, Cartwright joined the staff under former head coach Paul Stoklos, and played a large role in helping  ease the transition for successor Tanya Ho's first season of 2018 of her three years at the helm of the UAA program, before resigning, and interim head coach Marie-Sophie Boggasch in 2021, as the Seawolves did not compete during the 2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cartwright played an essential part in helping the Seawolves' top season in program history in 2019, as they broke 17 school records, including season average and National Qualifying Score (NQS) marks on bars, beam, floor and overall. In 2020, Cartwright helped UAA improve program records for bars NQS and team score average.
Since joining the UAA staff in 2017, Cartwright not only helped the Seawolves to improving on their school record team marks on the balance beam, but also individually, mentoring five UAA gymnasts post top 13 marks in program history. Under Cartwright's tutelage, Sophia Hyderally joined the Seawolves record books, posting a school-record score, as part of six of the top nine marks in program history. Hyderally was ranked among the top beam scores in the country, winning Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) beam titles in 2017 and 2019, and finishing fourth at the 2019 NCAA Corvallis Regional Championships. Hyderally was one of 12 All-MPSF honorees that Cartwright helped coach during her time at UAA, along with 18 MPSF All-Academic award recipients.
In her debut coaching season of 2016 as a student assistant at Michigan State, Cartwright helped MSU qualify for the 2016 NCAA Athens Regional Championships. She also helped MSU to a seventh-place finish at the 2016 Big Ten Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska, marking its highest finish at Big Tens since 2013, while MSU's team score of 195.475 was its best at the Big Ten Championships since scoring a 195.65 in 2009.
As a gymnast for the Spartan, Cartwright was voted to First-Team All-Big Ten honors in 2014, the first Spartan to earn first-team accolades since 2010. She went on to finish fifth in the All-Around at the 2014 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional Championships. Cartwright hold three of the top eight vault scores in program history, posting a 9.950 three times (2013, 2014, 2015). She also earned three MSU gymnastics team awards, including the Outstanding Gymnast Award in 2014, the Spirit Award in 2015, and also joined the 1,000 Point Club in 2014, becoming just the second Spartan gymnast to do so in the decade and remains just one of eight members of the 1,000 Point Club.Â
Cartwright earned her bachelor's degree in advertising from MSU in 2016.
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