Lady Flames gymnasts shone brightest in gold medal finals performances

Thursday, April 9

Birmingham, AL

Liberty University Club Sports

NAIGC National Championship

Lady Flames sophomore Mali Campbell earned gold medals on the vault and floor exercise and placed sixth on the balance beam and uneven bars to finish second in the All-Around competition.

Lady Flames gymnasts shone brightest in gold medal finals performances

4/14/2026 3:35:00 PM | Gymnastics

Liberty set a new program record with its winning total of 113.975, with three individual event champions and numerous contributors.

Liberty women's gymnastics team photo at banquet — Liberty celebrated its first-ever NAIGC Championship title late Saturday night in Birmingham, Ala., after a record-setting 113.975 team total.

A breakthrough performance in Saturday's finals catapulted Liberty University's gymnastics team ahead of four-time defending National Intercollegiate Association of Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) champion Penn State University and Rhode Island University to its first-ever Level 9 team title over the weekend in Birmingham, Ala.

"This was probably the most stacked competition we have faced at Nationals," Lady Flames Head Coach Jessie Lowe said. "There was more talent and more depth on these teams that I have seen in recent years, and we knew we had to be outstanding to compete with them."

Liberty stuck most of its routines and combined for a record-setting team finals score. Complete results are available online.

"Our winning total of 113.975 is the highest score Liberty has ever put up at a national meet," Lowe said after the team exceeded its 109.825 preliminaries score by 4.15 points to eclipse Penn State (112.750), Rhode Island (109.8), and Texas A&M (109.125). "That is a huge jump, and our winning score was the highest on record for any team in the NAIGC Level 9 Team final at least in the last four years."

Besides sophomore Mali Campbell — who captured individual gold medals on the vault (9.85) and floor exercise (9.65) and finished second in the All-Around (38.2, behind only Grand Canyon University's Isabella Scott's 38.275) — and freshman Charis Ng, the gold medalist on the balance beam (9.6), the Lady Flames had several contributors who pushed them over the top in the final team totals.

Senior captain Annabella James finished fourth on the beam, landing just off the podium with her 9.225, and was one of three Liberty representatives in the All-Around finals placing 12th with her 35.775 total.

Junior captain Sarah Dyk was the other All-Around finalist, placing 10th (36.05) after finishing fourth in the uneven bars final with a score of 9.625, just .025 points away from a bronze medal.

Campbell also finished sixth in both the bars (9.525) and beam (9.174) finals. Ng didn't qualify for finals individually in the vault or floor exercise, but put up scores of 9.825 and 9.6, respectively, to boost the team finals total.

Junior Anna Messerschmidt, who has recovered from her second ACL surgery, started Liberty's team finals day off by performing the first routine on bars.

"She nailed it for a 9.2, which was a huge redemption routine for her from prelims where she took a hard crash," Lowe said. "She definitely set the tone for the whole day for us from that hit routine. Though she was battling a sprained ankle sustained earlier that week, (freshman) Grace Caldwell pulled through huge for us on floor for a 9.425 routine. And (senior) Sarah Baugher delivered a big vault for us on our last event, something she had only trained a few weeks prior due to a severe foot issue this semester."

That helped the Lady Flames score a 29.0 total on the vault, their highest of the four events.

"We have so many stories of resiliency on our team this year," Lowe said. "(Junior) Victoria Bradfield came back to compete on beam after both an ankle and knee injury plagued her season. (Sophomore) Kaylee Ockerman came back to do bars and beam after being out until late March with a foot injury. And, of course, Anna (James) pulled together a bar routine mid-season that would end up being clutch for our team performance."

She noted senior Izzy Sierra encouraged the younger gymnasts competing at nationals for the first time.

"She also spoke a lot of confidence into the underclassmen who were feeling a lot of pressure in their position, and that helped our team tremendously," Lowe said. "The girls who did not compete in the finals lineups played a huge role in creating the high energy, close-knit atmosphere on finals day for our team as we navigated each event — notably led by (senior) assistant captain Kailyn Rowland."

The team's performances in the finals set the standard and raised the bar for the Lady Flames to reach for next season when they seek to defend their crown.

"This team is absolutely defined by three things in my mind — toughness, commitment, and resiliency," Lowe said. "They showed it all season and proved it at nationals."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer