Photo Gallery: Junior Women | Senior Women (Stay Tuned)
Full Results: Junior Women | Senior Women
Senior Event Leaders: VT – Jade Carey (14.2), UB – Charleigh Bullock (14.250), Hezly Rivera (14.3), FX – Reese Esponda (14.450)
Junior Event Leaders: UB – Eva Doherty (13.150), BB – Anslee McCauley (13.4), FX – Addalye VanGrinsven (13.6)
PHOENIX — It’s a tight race to the title for the senior women at the 2026 U.S. Championships, with Skye Blakely and Claire Pease (55.6) tied at the top of the leaderboard after Day 1.
For Blakely, it was her first all-around competition at the elite level since the 2024 U.S. Championships. Blakely ruptured her Achilles in practice on the floor exercise before Olympic Trials and only competed on bars and beam during the 2025 elite competition season.
After Day 1, she sits second on bars (14.2), third on beam (13.750) and sixth on floor (13.450).
“I knew it was my first one back [on floor], and I feel like in my mind it was more so thinking, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to score,’ but I try not to think about that, so I changed my mindset,” Blakely said. “But because it’s really similar to my college floor routine, I’m like, ‘You’ve been here, you’ve done this several times, just take a deep breath and just have fun.’”
Pease, a junior national all-around champion in 2024, had one of the best performances of her career so far. Her career best is a 55.750 from Pan Am Trials, while her next-best score was a 54.498 from the Pan American Championships earlier this year.
“I feel like the more meets I do, junior or senior, it all adds up and helps with my confidence,” Pease said after the competition. “The more meets I do, I feel like the more confident I get, and I just want to keep that going throughout my gymnastics career.”
Individually, Pease sits second on vault (13.950), bars (14.2) and beam (13.9), and fifth on floor (13.550).
Just two tenths back in the all-around rankings is first-year senior Charleigh Bullock (55.4), who also leads the way on uneven bars (14.250). With a strong Day 2, Bullock could absolutely challenge for the title.
Last year’s champion, Hezly Rivera, sits fourth after a fall on the uneven bars. She trails the leaders by six-tenths, so to defend her title, she needs to be stellar on Day 2.
Fresh off winning the U.S. Classic, Addalye VanGrinsven — who celebrated her 15th birthday Thursday — leads the all-around in the junior division (53.150).
VanGrinsven said warmups didn’t go the greatest, but she was able to silence the doubt and post a new career best when she took to the competition floor.
She holds a comfortable lead over Eva Doherty (51.2), Kyle Smith (51.150), Madelyn Eagle (51.1) and Paisley Ritger (51.0).
“Honestly, I think I just need to keep it steady, keep it my normal,” VanGrinsven said when asked what she needs to do on Day 2. “There need to be a few adjustments from today that I want to improve on, like bars, just being a little more calm, making sure I don’t give the judges any reason to deny.”
The competition resumes Sunday, Aug. 9 with the junior women at 1 p.m. ET (USAG YouTube) and at 6 p.m. ET for the senior women (Peacock & NBC).
Post-Meet Interviews