Four Rotations: Joyner, Leese, & Zannella at NCAA Gymnastics Regionals

Thursday, March 30

Norman, Okla.

3:00 PM

Rutgers University

NCAA Regionals

Four Rotations: Joyner, Leese, & Zannella at NCAA Gymnastics Regionals

Mar 20 | Women's Gymnastics

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Scarlet Knights send three to regionals for the third consecutive season

NORMAN, Okla. – Rutgers gymnastics will have three student-athletes compete at NCAA Regional Championships for the third consecutive year. Senior Hannah Joyner, and juniors Emily Leese and Stephanie Zannella have been selected as at-large individuals to compete in the regional in Norman, Oklahoma on Thu., March 30.

The Rutgers trio takes on the Norman regional in Session I at 3 p.m. ET (2 p.m. CT) on Thursday. The top all-around competitor and top event specialist from the session at each regional (who is not on a team advancing to nationals) will advance to the national championships. Event specialist qualifiers will only compete in the events they qualified.

The Four Things to Know...

Rutgers at Regionals
The Scarlet Knights have now sent the team or individuals to regionals for the 13th consecutive season dating back to 2011. Joyner will compete in her third consecutive NCAA Regional meet, Leese in her second, and Zannella makes her first appearance.

Hannah Joyner
Joyner qualifies for regionals with an NQS of 39.410. The four-time All-Big Ten First Team selection and program record holder in the all-around (39.575) has recorded the top three all-around scores in school history this season with two scores of 39.525 joining the school-record 39.575. She also holds the school record on beam with a 9.950, a mark she has reached three times, including once in 2023. This season, she has reached a 9.9 or higher in all four events, matching her career-highs 9.900 on vault, 9.950 on beam, and 9.950 on floor, while setting a new career-bests on bars (9.925). Overall, she holds another program record with 39 scores of 9.9 or higher – including 11 from this season.

Following her first all-around school record of 39.525 on Jan. 21, she became the program's first Big Ten Gymnast of the Week. She owns eight event titles in 2023 facing a gauntlet of nationally ranked gymnastics programs, and finished in the Top 3 a total of 21 times in the regular season. Her most recent all-around score of 39.525 in the regular season finale on Senior Day helped the Scarlet Knights shatter the program record for team score with a 196.875.

Emily Leese
Leese moves on to regionals with a 9.870 NQS on vault this season performing a Yurchenko 1.5. She has two vaults of 9.9 or higher on the 10.0 starting value maneuver, including a 9.925 on March 12 to tie the Rutgers program record as the Scarlet Knights tied the team record on vault with a 49.275. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania native has six Top 3 vault finishes in 2023, including two wins from the Jan. 30 dual meet against Illinois and the March 12 home tri-meet with UPenn and West Virginia.

Stephanie Zannella
Zannella's beam NQS of 9.885 clinches the junior captain's first NCAA regionals berth, powered by a strong finish to the 2023 season. The Belle Mead, New Jersey native has had three scores of 9.925 on beam, all in the final five meets of the year. That includes the last two meets – the regular season finale at home and the Big Ten Championships. Zannella placed seventh out of 60 in the Big Ten with her 9.925 routine, tying a career-high. Zannella has 10 beam scores of 9.8 or higher, and hasn't been scored below a 9.8 since Jan. 27. She has three Top 3 beam finishes during her junior season, including a title on March 12 in the tri-meet with UPenn and West Virginia.