Super 16 invitational brings elite college gymnasts to Vegas

As far as Jill Preston can remember, there hasn’t been an event like the Super 16 in Las Vegas in almost 22 years.

Back in January, 2000, MGM Grand Garden hosted the RCA Gymnastics Challenge, an elite-level competition which was the first part of the American Cup Series that year. A lot has changed since then, both in gymnastics and in Las Vegas.

Preston, the Super 16 event director and a longtime gymnastics coach at Gymcats in Henderson, is excited to help reintroduce the sport to Southern Nevada.

“It’s been really cool to see the city come out as a sports city,” Preston said. “So I’m hoping we can add gymnastics to that.”

Monday, the inaugural Super 16 gymnastics invitational was announced. It will bring 16 of the best collegiate gymnastics teams from around the country to Las Vegas for a two-day competition beginning Jan. 6. It will serve as the start of the 2023 college gymnastics season.

The event will be held at the Orleans Arena. All-session tickets range from $79 to $291 plus fees and may be purchased online. If it’s successful, Preston hopes this will be the first of many Super 16 invitationals.

The Super 16 is the largest collegiate invitational in the country, featuring more than 300 gymnasts including Team USA Olympians Sunisa “Suni” Lee, the Tokyo 2020 all-around gold medalist, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles.

Additionally, three local gymnasts — UCLA’s Selena Harris and the Southern Utah duo Shylen Murakami and Trista Goodman — are expected to compete.

“Other than going to the Olympics, it’s almost impossible to see this caliber of athletes all in one place at one time,” Preston said.

The 16 teams participating are Oklahoma, Arizona State, Auburn, BYU, Fisk University, Oregon State, Rutgers, Southern Utah, Stanford, California, UCLA, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Washington. Oklahoma, UCLA and Michigan have combined to win the past six NCAA gymnastics titles.

Additionally, the Super 16 will be Fisk University’s first official NCAA competition, making it the first HBCU with a gymnastics team.

“This event checks all the boxes,” Oklahoma coach K.J. Kindler said. “You have the best of the best in the USA coming together to create an incredible field of talent in one location. This is definitely an event you cannot miss.”

Preston says college gymnastics creates a unique environment in the greater landscape of the sport. At younger and elite levels, it’s a very individual sport. In college, though, Preston believes it becomes much more team-oriented as each school sends six athletes to participate on each apparatus and the lowest score is dropped, so teammates can pick each other up.

College gymnastics is also still judged on a 10-point scale, meaning there are more frequent perfect 10s than at elite levels. The Super 16 will also be unique because of the size. Normal college meets include four schools at most.

“Gymnastics is one of, if not the most challenging and difficult sports in the world,” Preston said. “It’s a really unique opportunity for people to come and see these women do amazing things.”

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on Twitter.