Lynnzee Brown dazzled one last time, and brought the Pioneers to tears.
In her final event as a college gymnast and DU great at the NCAA national championships in Fort Worth on Thursday, Brown scored a 9.9500 on the floor routine. She walked off with tears streaming down her cheeks and was greeted by crying teammates and coaches, too.
Brown, a sixth-year graduate student who overcame two Achilles tears and the death of her mother over the past few years, is the heart and soul of a Pioneers team that made its sixth appearance at nationals and first since 2019, when DU advanced to the Final Four.
But Brown and the Pioneers wouldn’t get that far this time. No. 14 DU failed to get out of its semifinal, as No. 2 LSU and No. 6 Florida moved onto the Final Four while the Pioneers and Cal saw their seasons come to a close. No. 5 Utah and No. 1 Oklahoma advanced in the second semifinal.
Brown’s floor routine is an ode to two Black gymnasts who also went to DU. She won the 2019 national championship in the event, and nearly won another title in the vault on Thursday at Dickies Arena.
Entering the final rotation of the second semifinal, the DU star was tied with Boise State’s Courtney Blackson for the lead in vault at 9.925. But Oklahoma’s Olivia Trautman hit a 9.95 to give her the crown instead, and Brown finished tied for second.
Brown’s impact on college gymnastics was evident in the ovation the crowd gave her after her floor routine closed out DU’s season, and as she and DU coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart shared a long embrace. Brown is undecided on what she’ll do next, but Thursday might have been her final competition.
“That (floor routine) was a gift to all of us,” commentator Kathy Johnson Clarke observed. “The power, the grace, the heart — she just put it all out there on the floor exercise for everyone to take in this moment.”
Brown’s score of 39.6625 placed her fourth in the all-around race, which was won by Utah’s Maile O’Keefe.
