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.
