Brooks, Hano Named Regional Co-Assistant Coaches of the Year
While the season has come to an end for the Gymbacks, the honors keep rolling in for the team and this time, the staff. Chris Brooks and Felicia Hano were named Regional Co-Assistant Coaches of the Year on Thursday by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association.
Brooks, a two-time Olympian, seven-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion, is in his third season as an assistant coach at Arkansas and leveled up bars in 2022. In the regular season, the Gymbacks tallied five scores of 49+ on the event, and three of those are now in the top six program bars scores of all time. Arkansas’ season high of 49.550 on Jan. 14 against Auburn was the team’s highest bars mark since 2018 and is the second-best ever.
Under Brooks, the Gymbacks had 14 9.9+ bar routines in the regular season, which included personal bests for Maddie Jones (9.925) and Sarah Shaffer (9.950). Arkansas captured at least a share of three regular season bars titles and placed within the top three on bars in all but three meets.
In the postseason, the Hogs continued to show strength on the event and added a 49.150 score at SEC Championships, which matches the program record at the meet. In the regional semifinal, Arkansas scored 49.450 on bars to start, which is another program best and helped carry the Gymbacks to their second-consecutive regional final. Shaffer matched her personal high of 9.950 in the session, and the score earned her a ticket to NCAA Championships as an individual for the first time in her six year career.
In the past two seasons with Brooks’ guidance, Arkansas has sent back-to-back individual bars qualifiers to NCAA Championships for the first time since 2009-10 and for just the second time ever.
Hano was promoted to assistant coach last summer and has already made huge strides in her first season. Hano, a UCLA alum and six-time All-American, primarily oversees vault and took the event to new heights in 2022. Arkansas never scored below a 49 over the course of the regular season and set a new program high on March 13 of 49.500. Prior to this, Arkansas hadn’t posted a top-five program vault score since 2015.
A four-time vault All-American herself, Hano guided the Gymbacks to 11 9.9+ vault routines on the regular season, which included personal bests for Amanda Elswick (9.925), Savannah Pennese (9.925) and Makenzie Sedlacek (9.900). Arkansas captured at least a share of three regular season vault titles and the Gymbacks placed within the top three on vault in all but one of their 10 regular season meets.
At SEC Championships, Arkansas posted a 49.250, which matches the second-best on vault in program history for the Hogs at the meet. Shaffer contributed a 9.875 to that total, which was good for second in the afternoon session and tied for eighth overall, Shaffer’s first All-SEC vault honor.
Hano also choreographed Arkansas’ floor routines in 2022, an event in which Arkansas earned at least a share of four regular season titles and extended a streak of meets at 49+ to 39, the second-longest active streak in the NCAA at the time. In Norman last weekend, the Hogs set a new regional floor record of 49.375 in the semifinal only to best it in Saturday’s final with a 49.400.
Also notable for Arkansas’ staff was the addition of Kyla Ross as volunteer assistant for 2022. Ross’ oversight of the Gymback beam team saw Arkansas reach a new program record on the event of 49.475 on January 28, and beam was the best event for Arkansas for much of the season, with a final regular season ranking of 16th and as high as 8th.
Brooks, Hano, Ross and head coach Jordyn Wieber helped lead the Gymbacks to their 18th consecutive regional appearance, fifth top 16 finish in the country in eight years, best record since 2018 and most SEC postseason honors (Shaffer, Kennedy Hambrick, Leah Smith, Kalyxta Gamiao) since 2018.
Arkansas also set new single meet (10,345), season ticket (1,711) and total home attendance (24,830) records in 2022.
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