Stephen, MSU Coaching Staff Earn WCGA Regional Awards
4/9/2025 1:00:00 PM | Women's Gymnastics
PITTSBURGH – Michigan State gymnastics senior Gabrielle Stephen and the Spartan coaching staff combined for three Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) regional awards, the organization announced Wednesday.Â
Stephen was named the WCGA Region 1 Gymnast of the Year, while head coach Mike Rowe was tabbed the Region 1 Head Coach of the Year and associate head coach Nicole Jones and assistant coach Devin Wright were honored as Regional Assistant Coaches of the Year.Â
Stephen becomes the first MSU gymnast to be named Regional Gymnast of the Year after putting together an outstanding final season in the Green and White. The Elgin, Illinois, native was named First Team All-Big Ten for the fourth time this season to become just one of two gymnasts in program history to earn four B1G first-team honors. She has competed in the all-around for the Spartans in every meet this season and has tallied a pair of perfect 10.000s in two of MSU's last three meets – one on beam at the Big Ten Championships and another on vault in the second round of the NCAA University Park Regional. She collected three regional titles in University Park, earning the vault, co-bars and all-around titles and posted the second-best all-around score in MSU history with a 39.750 in the second round.Â
Rowe earns his second WCGA Regional Coach of the Year nod in the last four seasons after previously winning the award during the 2022 season. This season, he has led the Spartans to a 29-5 record, tying a program-high win total set in 2024. MSU has posted two of its top five team overall scores this season, including a road-high 198.150 set at the Big Ten Championships. MSU has also recorded three of its top-10 all-time scores on Rowe's primary event, uneven bars, in 2025.Â
Under Jones, MSU's primary balance beam coach, the Spartans tallied the fifth-best beam score in program history at the Big Ten Championships with a 49.500. Stephen's perfect score at the conference championships was MSU's first-ever 10.000 on the event. Jones also helped Stephen to the conference beam title, which was the second-straight B1G beam title for the Spartans. Â
Wright has led the Spartans to unprecedented success on vault and floor this season as the primary coach on both events. MSU has set its program vault record twice, most recently posting a 49.650 at the University Park Regional final, and recorded five of the program's top-10 event scores this season. Individually, junior Olivia Zsarmani won the Big Ten vault title this season, while junior Sage Kellerman earned runner-up honors on the event and senior Skyla Schulte earned silver on floor at the conference meet with a near-perfect 9.975.Â
This is the second time that Jones and Wright have been named Regional Assistant Coaches of the Year, following a selection in 2023, while Jones earns her third overall assistant coach of the year honor (2022).Â
MSU returns to action in its first NCAA Championships appearance since 1988 on Thursday, April 17 in the second of two semifinals at 9 p.m. ET against LSU, UCLA and Utah. The meet will be broadcast on ESPN2.Â
Players Mentioned
