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Meet The Staff

Jordyn Wieber
Head Coach

Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber was introduced as the head coach of the Arkansas Women’s Gymnastics program on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, by Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek.

Season five was the best yet for Wieber in her tenure, as she led the Gymbacks to their first NCAA Championships team appearance in eight years in 2024. Arkansas finished seventh of eighth to conclude the season ranked No. 7, the highest final rank for the team since 2012.

Sophomore Reese Drotar earned First Team All-America honors on bars with a sixth place finished and matched the program NCAA Championships bars record with a score of 9.925. Leah Smith and Cami Weaver garnered Second Team honors on vault as they tied for 13th overall with matching scores of 9.8875. Wieber has now coached six athletes to 10 All-America honors over the last five years, at least one each season dating back to 2021.

The road to Fort Worth began in Fayetteville as the Hogs hosted regional competition for the first time in seven years, and Arkansas set a then-regional high of 197.325 to advance to the final. With a nationals berth on the line, the Gymbacks punched their ticket with a new regional high of 197.825, also the second-best score in program history.

Arkansas began the postseason at SEC Championships, where the Gymbacks placed sixth with a score of 197.050, the first time ever scoring 197+ at the event and a new program best at SECs. Six athletes earned All-SEC honors: Lauren Williams on vault, Hailey Klein and Cami Weaver on beam, and Maddie Jones, Frankie Price and Leah Smith on floor. Six ties the program record for Gymbacks on the All-SEC list in a single season, and is the most under Wieber so far.

The season was filled with milestones for the program, including seven of the top 10 program high scores for Arkansas, including a new best of 198.100 set on March 15. Prior to that, the Gymbacks set and broke their program score record two other times, and finished 2024 with 11 marks of 197+, the most in a single season by six.

Arkansas also set new event records on vault (49.550), beam (49.575) and floor (49.725) in 2024, and five athletes matched the program-high 9.975 individual scores across all four events: Hailey Klein on vault, Reese Drotar on bars, Priscilla Park on beam and Maddie Jones and Frankie Price on floor.

The Gymbacks compiled an 8-6-1 regular season record and 15-15-1 record overall, the most wins for the program since 2012. Arkansas went 4-2-1 in SEC competition, the most conference victories in eight years, another high for Wieber in her fifth season at the helm.

Continuing to develop Arkansas as a premier program in all aspects, Wieber spearheaded marketing and promotions efforts for five home meets, including two at Bud Walton Arena, for a total season attendance of 35,367, ninth-best in the country. Barnhill Arena saw a sold out meet for the second consecutive season in 2024, and Arkansas’ 6,084 average fans across three meets at Barnhill is a new venue record. For the past three seasons, Arkansas has set new program season ticket sales records, this time 2,480 in 2024

During her fourth season in 2023, Wieber guided the Gymbacks to their 19th consecutive regional appearance. The team set a then-0new regional team score record of 197.275, and a new regional floor record of 49.500. The team finished the year ranked 17th in the country, maintaining the program’s 18-year streak in the top 20.

Graduate transfer Norah Flatley and freshman Lauren Williams both earned berths to the NCAA Championships as individuals, extending Wieber’s unblemished national appearance streak in each eligible year. Flatley earned her fourth All-American honor at the event on balance beam with a score of 9.9375, which is the best-ever score by a Gymback as an individual beam qualifier.
Arkansas’ 196.825 at SEC Championships in 2023 and placed seventh. Five Gymbacks earned All-SEC or All-SEC Freshman honors at the meet: Norah Flatley (VT, FX, AA), Lauren Williams (VT, FX), Reese Drotar (UB), Frankie Price (VT) and Cami Weaver (VT).

The Gymbacks continued to grow their fanbase with new single meet (11,031), home single season (36,619), and average attendance (7,324) records in 2023, the latter two ranking sixth and seventh in the country. Arkansas also sold out Barnhill Arena for the first time in program history on Jan. 27, when 7,147 fans were in the building to watch the Hogs take down the LSU Tigers.

Wieber has coached four regular-season All-Americans in Sophia Carter (2020), Maggie O’Hara (2021), Kennedy Hambrick (2020, 2021) and Frankie Price (2024). Hambrick became the new all-around score record holder (39.750) during the 2021 season, a record that had gone unbroken for seven years prior. Under her guidance in and out of the gym, the Gymbacks were awarded the Arkansas Athletics Lee Spencer Cup for the first time ever in 2022, which is awarded to the team that earns the most points in the areas of personal and career development, community engagement, and academic and athletic excellence. Arkansas also saw its first SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 10 years in 2022 with Bailey Lovett.

The Gymbacks earned their first-ever spot in the SEC night session in 2021 and advanced to the NCAA regional final after scoring a 197.250 on day one. In total, Arkansas registered fives scores of 197.000 or better in 2021, for the first time in program history.

In 2020, the Gymbacks ranked as high as fourth in the nation on floor and finished the season ninth in the nation. Arkansas scored a 49.00 or higher in 14 of 16 events over the course of four home meets, nearly 90 percent of all events.

The Razorbacks’ success on floor helped them lock in back-to-back SEC wins against No. 20 Missouri and No. 10 Georgia midway through the season. The consecutive wins marked the first time since 2017 that Arkansas won two-straight conference meets and consecutive meets against a ranked opponent.

Arkansas saw six Gymbacks wrap up the 2020 season ranked in the top 100 by Road to Nationals in at least one event, with four Hogs finishing with multiple top 100 rankings. With Wieber’s lead, Arkansas won 27 event titles through 10 meets. Hambrick finished the season with the most individual titles among the Gymbacks, securing 11 event titles including a team-high four all-around titles.

The first home meet of the Wieber era was held on Jan. 17 against No. 3 Denver, bringing a then-record crowd of 6,714 fans to Barnhill Arena. On Feb. 21, Coach Wieber and her Arkansas squad hosted Auburn for a Women’s Empowerment Meet, the first of its kind in NCAA gymnastics and now an annual tradition for the Gymbacks.

Wieber wrapped up her third season as a volunteer assistant coach at UCLA and her sixth with the program in 2019, assisting the team in a variety of roles during her first three years in Westwood following her Olympic career. Wieber coached the Bruins on floor exercise, an event in which UCLA finished the 2018 and 2019 regular seasons ranked No. 1 in the nation. In 2019, the Bruins recorded scores of 49.5 or better in 11 of 14 meets, averaging a national-best 49.604 on floor. Four Bruins earned regular season All-America honors in the event – Katelyn Ohashi, Kyla Ross, Gracie Kramer and Felicia Hano. At the 2019 NCAA Championships, Wieber coached future Arkansas assistant Ross to the individual floor title with a score of 9.950, the program’s second in as many years. After winning their semifinal session with a 197.650, UCLA finished third overall in the finals.

The 2018 Bruins scored 49.4 or higher in 11 meets and 49.6 or higher in three meets, including a national season-high of 49.775 set on Feb. 25. She and her fellow UCLA coaches were named the 2018 West Region Assistant Coaches of the Year, as they helped lead the Bruins to Pac-12, NCAA regional and NCAA national titles.

Wieber, who has been a vocal advocate for safe sport, has won many awards in the past several years, including the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs, the Rising Star Award by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and the Giant Steps A Hero Among Us Award.

A member of the “Fierce Five” United States squad that won team gold at the 2012 Olympics, Wieber was a two-time U.S. all-around champion (2011 and 2012) and the 2011 World all-around champion. Her illustrious elite career included three medals (all-around and team gold, beam bronze) at the 2011 World Championships, four U.S. senior national titles (all-around, bars and floor in 2011 and all-around in 2012). She was also the 2008 U.S. junior all-around, vault and floor exercise champion and the American Cup all-around champion in 2009, 2011 and 2012. She dominated the competition at the 2010 Pacific Rim Championships, winning four gold medals (all-around, uneven bars, floor exercise, team) and one silver (vault). In her first international competition at the 2007 Junior Pan American Championships, she won gold medals on uneven bars and balance beam, silver in the all-around and bronze on floor exercise. Wieber officially retired from competitive gymnastics in 2015.

Wieber, from DeWitt, Mich., graduated from UCLA in 2017 with a degree in Psychology. She was a 2016 inductee into the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame, a 2021 Michigan Sports Hall of Fame Inductee and is also a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Chris Brooks
Assistant Coach

Chris Brooks was named an assistant coach of Arkansas Gymnastics by head coach Jordyn Wieber on Friday, May 17, 2019.

Brooks is the primary uneven bars coach at Arkansas and has taken the event to historic heights in the four seasons since. En route to the team’s first nationals appearance since 2018, the Hogs earned a score of 49.450 in the Fayetteville regional final on bars, a new postseason high. In Fort Worth, Arkansas’ day at nationals was highlighted by sophomore Reese Drotar’s 9.925 on bars, which matched the program NCAA Championships record on the event and garnered her All-American honors. At SEC Championships in New Orleans in March, the Hogs registered a 49.250 on bars, the third straight year of setting a new bars high at SECs.

In 2024, the Gymbacks went 49+ on bars 14 times, including a season high of 49.525, which is the fifth-highest bars mark ever and contributed to the team’s program high team score of 198.100 set that day against Nebraska. Drotar earned a 9.975 on bars in the meet, which tied the program record on the event. Overall, Arkansas earned six bars titles and 21 9.9+ scores over the course of the season.

During the 2023 slate, Brooks helped lead the Gymbacks to another program top 10 event score in the regular season with a 49.475 against Georgia in March, which places six of Arkansas’ best 11 bars scores ever under Brooks’ coaching. Arkansas scored 49+ in 11 of 12 meets and had 19 9.9+ scores.

Brooks also assisted with vault in the 2023 season, in which Arkansas set a new program event record for the second year in a row, this time 49.525 at Kentucky on Feb. 17, 2023. At that meet, Leah Smith earned a 9.950 on her Yurchenko full, the maximum score for that vault and Arkansas’ first-ever perfect mark. Brooks helped guide freshman Lauren Williams to All-SEC honors after she scored a 9.900 at the conference meet, and Williams also earned an individual NCAA Championships berth on vault, the Gymbacks’ first since 2014.

Three of the top 11 bars marks came in 2022 alone, which included a new team regional best of 49.450, the seventh-highest score ever. At regionals, Brooks led sixth-year Hog Sarah Shaffer to a 9.950 outing on bars, which earned her a berth to NCAA Championships, Arkansas’ second consecutive bars qualifier and fourth ever.

In the 2022 regular season, Brooks guided Arkansas to marks of 49.500 and 49.550, which are the program’s third- and second-highest ever, The Gymbacks captured at least a share of three regular season bars titles and placed within the top three on bars in all but three meets. Along with Felicia Hano, Brooks was named a Regional Co-Assistant Coach of the Year by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association for his efforts in the 2022 slate.

In 2021, graduate transfer Maggie O’Hara made Arkansas history as the first Gymback to secure a spot as a regular season All-American on bars, closing out the regular season with an NQS of 9.925 on bars and ranked 11th in the nation to earn second-team All-America. After helping coach the Gymbacks to two record-breaking wins over Mizzou and Auburn, Brooks’ bars team scored a 49.375 at NCAA Regionals on day one, then the second-highest by the Hogs in postseason program history. During the regular season, Arkansas had three top-10 program scores on bars, ranking as high as No. 3 in the event by Road to Nationals.

Brooks spent the 2018 season as an assistant men’s gymnastics coach at the University of Oklahoma, and the 2017 season in a similar role for University of Nebraska women’s gymnastics. In 2016, Brooks made his Olympic debut in Rio after serving as an alternate on the 2012 London team and claiming first on the parallel bars and second in the all-around and on the high bar at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.  Brooks was selected by his teammates to serve as the captain of the U.S. Men’s Olympic gymnastics team and placed 14th in the individual all-around competition in Rio de Janeiro.

He claimed the Winter Cup all-around title in 2010 and was a member of the World Championships team in 2010 and 2015. Before announcing his retirement in Aug. 2017, Brooks finished first on high bar at the 2017 Winter Cup. Brooks, a member of the Sooners’ squad from 2006-2009, won two national championships as a Student-Athlete at OU in 2006 and 2008, was a seven-time All-American (including three on high bar), a 2006 MPSF Conference high bar champion, and served as captain of the team as a senior in 2009.

Kyla Ross
Assistant Coach

Olympic gold medalist and five-time NCAA champion Kyla Ross was promoted to assistant coach of the Gymbacks for the 2023 season and has kept the Hogs on historic pace since her arrival.

After primarily coaching beam since 2021, Ross pivoted to vault in the 2024 season and and got off to a hot start. The Hogs scored 49+ in every meet of the season, culminating with a 49.325 at NCAA Championships, Arkansas’ best event of the day in Fort Worth. Leah Smith and Cami Weaver both earned marks of 9.8875, which tied for 13th overall and garnered them Second Team All-America honors. En route to nationals, Arkansas scored 49.375 on vault in each day of regional competition, highlighted by Smith’s 9.950 in the Fayetteville regional final, the second time she scored a perfect mark for a Yurchenko Full vault. At SEC Championships in March, sophomore Lauren Williams earned a 9.850, which gave her All-SEC nods on the event for the second consecutive season.

The Hogs closed out the regular season with a 49.550 on vault on March 15, which contributed to a new program score record of 198.100 and marked three program event records for Ross in three seasons. Freshman Hailey Klein got a 9.975 on her Yurchenko 1.5 during the meet, which matched the program record and is the best score ever on the event by a freshman at Arkansas.
Throughout the 2024 slate, Arkansas earned 17 9.9+ scores on vault and saw five Gymbacks combine for 12 vault titles, including six by Williams.

Ross helped Arkansas post then-program records on beam in each of her first two seasons, 2022 and 2023. The latest high of 49.525 came on Feb. 24, 2023, five-tenths greater than the best of 49.475 set in 2022. The Hogs went 49+ in 10 of 12 meets on beam in 2023, and had 18 scores of 9.9 or better, with five career highs.

Graduate transfer Norah Flatley earned an individual NCAA Championships berth in 2023 after she posted a 9.950 at regionals, the highest mark ever by a Gymback on beam in regional competition. Ross’ guidance at NCAA Championships helped push Flatley to a 9.9375, good for All-American honors and a spot in the Arkansas record book as the best-ever individual beam qualifier score and third-highest ever in Arkansas NCAAs history.

Ross initially joined the staff as a volunteer assistant and immediately made a lasting impact on the program, as she led the team to a then-program high of 49.475 on beam against Florida on Jan. 28. Beam was Arkansas’ best event for much of the season, with a final ranking of 16th and placement as high as 8th throughout the regular season. The Hogs earned at least a share of the beam title six times over 13 meets.

Ross’ early success as a coach comes off one of the most successful careers in collegiate gymnastics history. During her four seasons at UCLA, Ross won four individual NCAA titles – one on each event – the 2018 team title with the Bruins, and finished as a 24-time All-American. She is one of just 13 gymnasts to record a Gym Slam – a perfect 10 on each event – and is one of only three to record multiple Gym Slams in their careers. She was also the first-ever women’s gymnast to own Olympic, world, and NCAA titles.
Ross’ presence on the staff continues a dynamic with head coach Jordyn Wieber that has seen the two as teammates, coach and athlete, and coworkers over the course of 10+ years from London 2012, to UCLA, and now at Arkansas.

With Wieber at the helm and Ross and Chris Brooks as assistants, Arkansas was the first and only NCAA women’s gymnastics program to have an all-Olympian staff in the 2022-23 slate. Brooks is a two-time Olympian and served as captain for the men’s squad at the Rio 2016 games, where he also placed 14th in the all-around competition. Wieber and Ross competed together as part of the Fierce Five, who won the United States’ first-ever women’s gymnastics gold medal on foreign soil on July 31, 2012 in London.

Catelyn Branson
Assistant Coach

A familiar face will help lead the Gymbacks next season as Catelyn Branson (Orel) has rejoined the staff as an assistant coach.

Branson has spent the last three seasons as the Lindenwood University head coach. She was named the 2024 Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) South Central Region Coach of the Year and the Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Coach of the Year and after she led the Lions to their fifth USAG national championship and seventh MIC title.

She also guided the Lions to a national rank of 44th – the highest since 2019, a new team record score of 197.075, and new team bars (49.375) and individual bars (9.925) and floor (9.975) records. Lindenwood saw seven athletes earn a total of 14 USAG All-America honors this season, and nine All-MIC nods were received by five Lions.

This year’s national title was the second for Branson at Lindenwood, as the Lions went back-to-back and took home the crown in 2023 as well. Two Lions also earned individual national titles last season: Nya Kraus on beam and Kaylee Cooper on bars. Branson coached 10 athletes to 16 All-MIC honors in 2023, with Kraus and Madison Rrush sharing the conference beam title.
Branson’s potential was seen immediately in St. Charles. In her first year, 10 athletes were named USAG All-Americans and then-junior Gayla Griswold qualified to the 2022 NCAA Gymnastics as an individual on vault, the first Lindenwood gymnast to ever earn a spot at the event in program history. The Lions came in third at the 2022 USAG national championships and second at the MIC championship in Branson’s first appearances.

Last December Lindenwood University announced that gymnastics, along with nine other athletic programs, would be discontinued following the 2023-2024 academic year.
Prior to taking the helm for the Lions, Branson spent two seasons at Arkansas, including the first under Wieber in 2020. In her time with the Razorbacks, she primarily coached beam and served a lead choreographer for beam and floor.

In 2021, the Gymbacks were ranked as high as third on beam throughout the regular season and spent seven of 11 weeks within the top five on the event, with a final NQS of 49.338, 11th-best in the country and fifth-best in the SEC. The Hogs claimed at least a share of seven beam titles over the regular season and saw 16 total beam scores of 9.900 or higher, and Kennedy Hambrick was named a Second Team WCGA All-American on beam with an NQS of 9.938.

The floor team was also extremely strong in 2021, as the Gymbacks logged the then-second best score in program history of 49.575 in back-to-back weeks, and were ranked second in the country on floor for four weeks during the regular season. Arkansas went 9.9+ in 45 percent of its floor scores in 2021 and ended with an NQS of 49.506 on the event. The Gymbacks scored an SEC Championships high of 49.425 on floor that season and Sophia Carter earned All-SEC honors. Arkansas finished the 2021 slate at the Tuscaloosa regional final and checked in at No. 13 in the country.

In the Gymbacks’ first season with Wieber’s staff, including volunteer assistant Branson, Arkansas was steadily ranked in the top 20 on beam and top 10 on floor until the schedule was cut short due to COVID-19. The Hogs checked in at No. 18 overall in the final week of competition.
Branson was an all-around gymnast for the Nebraska Cornhuskers from 2016-2019. In that time, the Huskers had three top 10 finishes, including a trip to the 2018 NCAA Super Six, and won a Big Ten regular season title in 2017. She was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, the 2017 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award Recipient, and a 2016 WCGA Scholastic All-American. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Nebraska in May of 2019.