Gymnastics Ireland star Emma Slevin in NCAA National Final

Gymnastics Ireland’s own Emma Slevin is headed to NCAA National Final Four with her team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. 

The Galway-born gymnast joined the Minnesota Golden Gophers this season as a graduate student and made an instant impact for the team. Emma competed on uneven bars in every meet of the season, bringing precious points to the team, with scores never below 9.85 out of 10 since 31st January. On 21st March, she became Big Ten Conference Uneven Bars Champion scoring a 9.95 out of 10.

She also competed on vault throughout the season and recently debuted on balance beam at the Corvallis Regional Championships scoring a 9.875 out of 10 and greatly contributing to her team's second place and qualification to National Semi-Finals (Elite 8) in Fort Worth, Texas.

Ranked No. 13 after the NCAA regular season, in the National Semi-Finals underdog Minnesota faced No.1 and current champions Oklahoma, No.4 UCLA and No.9 Arkansas. However, the spirit and skills displayed by Emma and her teammates was nothing short of that Elite 8 spot they achieved.

The decision on finalists came down to the very last rotation with Minnesota on uneven bars. Slevin was 5th up in the line-up and needed a hit routine. She soared through her routine scoring a 9.85 which secured their team spot into the Final Four and ousting Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles's UCLA team.

Emma Slevin final scores: Balance Beam 9.46, Vault 9.81, Uneven Bars 9.85

Minnesota Gymnastics Head Coach Jenny Hansen on Emma:
“Emma has been integral to our teams success this season. She seamlessly fit into our culture the moment she stepped on campus and has adapted incredibly well to NCAA gymnastics. We are so grateful she chose this path and the University of Minnesota!”

Emma and Minnesota Gophers will compete in Saturday’s National Finals. This is the first time Minnesota has made the Final Four in their history.

They will compete alongside Oklahoma, LSU and Florida on Saturday April 18th at 9pm Irish time. Competition will be streamed live on ESPN (Disney+).

Live Scoring at https://scores.virti.us/?s=MFrZ9epozB

Best of luck to Emma, her coaches and her teammates!

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