Mizzou Gym picks up numerous SEC accolades WELLLLLLL [clap clap clap] DONEEEEEEEEEEEE, TIGERS!
It’s SEC awards time and the Tigers have picked up some WELL-DESERVED hardware after their historic season. A historic season that isn’t even over yet!
First things first… the man in charge. Shannon Welker was named 2025 SEC Coach of the Year, as voted on by the league’s coaches. Shannon has worked wonders with this year’s team, from bringing in incredible freshman and transfer classes to leading the Tigers to one of their best years EVER. The team’s fourth place finish at SECs tied its best ever finish at the meet, and their 197.510 NQS is its highest by a pretty large margin. Oh yeah, and they qualified for the SEC Championship’s evening session for the first time. No biggie.
Additionally, the team’s no. 7 national ranking is its best finish in the regular season. The team reached its first 198 this year, breaking its previous program high of 197.85 set in 2023 with an astonishing 198.100 against Auburn. They’ve also reached program highs on floor (49.725) and beam (49.575). I anticipate them breaking bars as well (they’ve been within 0.025 twice), but maybe that’s just me. Three Tigers have earned perfect 10s this year— Helen Hu (2x, beam), Mara Titarsolej (bars) and Kennedy Griffin (floor).
Moving on! For the second consecutive year, a Missouri Tiger has been named SEC Specialist of the Year. Beam specialist and SEC beam co-champion Helen Hu earned her third career All-SEC team honors and her second Specialist of the Year award (she also won in 2020). Helen, who took a year off after retiring from gymnastics to travel the globe with her sister, returned this year and earned the country’s first perfect 10 in Week 3 at Oklahoma, the first of her career. She earned her second 10 in the regular season’s final meet at Arkansas, and is currently the only gymnast in the country with two perfect 10s on beam. She also is the only gymnast in conference history to earn FIVE SEC Specialist of the Week honors. That’s HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE (not sorry). Had Hu not won this award, there would have been hell to pay, honestly. Currently, she ranks second nationally on the apparatus, behind only Olympian Jade Carey.
As for other All-SEC honors, there were plenty of Tigers to be found, as Amari Celestine, Mara Titarsolej and Jocelyn Moore (along with Helen, of course) earned All-SEC accolades for being in the top 8 NQS scores on each event and in the all-around. Amari and Joci, per MUTigers, are the first four-year gymnasts in program history to earn four All-SEC accolades. Wowsers.
Amari finished 15th nationally and 8th in the SEC in her FIRST year of doing All-Around, which is insane to think about, as most gymnasts will back off events as they get older; not Amari. She did more! Her All-Around NQS was 39.515, finishing just behind Oklahoma’s Audrey Davis. Her high score of 39.650 was 17th highest nationally, and 9th in the SEC. On floor, Amari finished the season ranked no. 11 nationally and tied for 7th in the SEC with a 9.935 NQS, just behind her teammate and fellow SEC honoree, Jocelyn Moore! Joci finished the season ranked no. 10 nationally and sixth in the SEC with a 9.94 NQS on floor. Both earned highs of 9.95 in the regular season. Meanwhile, Mara, the back-to-back SEC bars title winner, finished the regular season ranked no. 4 nationally and third in the SEC with a 9.945 NQS. She earned the third 10 of her career at the SEC Championships, after earning one last year at the team’s Zou to the Lou meet, and one at her former school.
