Yale Athletics

In a 2021 preseason poll, Yale’s gymnastics team was slated to be the second best team in the Gymnastics East Conference. The Bulldogs opened their season with individual first place victories over West Chester, Long Island and Brown — by Lindsay Chia ’22 on beam and by Sherry Wang ’24 SPH ’25 on bars. 

They capped off the season by placing first in the Ivy League championship and fourth at the GEC championship, with Chia taking home the all-around gold medal. At the end of a remarkable season, Head Coach Andrew Leis was named Women’s Coach of the Year by USA Gymnastics and Raegan Walker ’23 was crowned vault champion at the USA Collegiate Championships.

Building off the previous year’s momentum, the Bulldogs placed third at the 2023 Ivy championship and took second in the GEC championship. Walker and Sarah Wilson ’24 won multiple GEC Gymnast of the Week honors, and Riley Meeks ’23 placed second in the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Individual Finals on the balance beam.

In 2024, the Bulldogs secured the second-highest team score in program history at the Tonry Invitational meet, where Gigi Sabatini ’26 won first place all-around. That season, the Bulldogs took home second place again at the GEC championship, and Wilson and Ella Tashjian ’27 won individual championships in bars and floor, respectively.

To round out a record-breaking four years, the Bulldogs posted a season-high score at the 2025 Ivy championship and finished in third place behind Penn and Brown. The team earned second place at the GEC championship for the third straight year.

LILY BELLE POLING
Lily Belle Poling is the Managing Editor of the Yale Daily News. She previously covered housing and homelessness and was a production and design editor. Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, she is a junior in Branford College majoring in English.