Star gymnast Selena Harris has been dismissed from the UCLA gymnastics team and has entered the transfer portal, the school confirmed Wednesday.

Harris, the 2024 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year and a 12-time All-American, has two years of eligibility remaining. During her time at UCLA, she was one of the top all-around gymnasts on the team. 

UCLA did not provide details about her dismissal. 

Harris has also not spoken about it, but did repost a Tweet on Wednesday confirming her entrance into the transfer portal. She has also removed any mention of UCLA gymnastics from all her social media bios.

When reached for comment by the Daily Bruin, she shared a message thanking UCLA fans for their support.

"Just wanna thank bruin nation fans for being the best supporters!" Harris wrote via Instagram.

A former No. 1 recruit, Harris was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2023 and earned four perfect scores during the 2024 season, while also winning the Pac-12 all-around title at the conference championships in March. She finished the regular season tied for first in the country on vault. 

She competed as an individual at the NCAA championships, finishing tied for third place on balance beam after UCLA failed to advance.

LSU came out on top at the 2024 NCAA women's gymnastics championship in Fort Worth on Saturday, besting Cal, Utah, and Florida to capture their first-ever title.

The Tigers' win was far from a landslide. LSU took the first rotation handily thanks to 2024 All-Around winner Haleigh Bryant's team-leading 9.9375 backed by four additional 9.9+ scores from her teammates. But Utah then responded with three strong beam performances of their own, causing the Red Rocks to slide confidently into second place by the end of the second rotation.

By the halfway point, all four teams fell within .288 points of one another before Utah overtook the pack with a dominant floor showing after three rotations. LSU then went on to ace the beam event with Konnor McClain's meet-leading 9.9625 score, coming away with the highest collective score ever awarded to the event in NCAA championship history. The achievement propelled the Tigers to victory, ensuring them the title after the final rotation.

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"This team is full of individuals that have incredible character and integrity and love for each other and all the things you hear from coaches when they sit at a podium like this in a moment of victory, but I promise you it's a real thing," said LSU coach Jay Clark in a post-meet press conference. "I'm just so happy for them."

Contributing to Saturday's atmosphere of excitement was the absence of last year's champion and this year's heavily favored Oklahoma Sooners. Hot off earning the highest team score in NCAA history just last month, the top-ranked Norman squad suffered a shocking loss in the semifinals, where five major mistakes contributed to a third-place finish and a season-low team score of 196.6625.

With Oklahoma out, it was truly anyone's game.

"Every team was out there fighting for their lives — all four teams, it could have gone any of four ways out there," Clark told reporters. "As much as I feel for what happened to Oklahoma in the semifinals, I think it made for a championship that became so packed with emotion because every team out there believed they could do it. It was just tremendous."

LSU is now the eighth program in the sport's history to earn an NCAA women's gymnastic championship.
They share the honor with Georgia, Utah, UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Michigan.

Tom Farden is out as Utah gymnastics coach nine days after he was placed on paid administrative leave. He was placed on leave weeks after allegations of abuse from former gymnasts Kara Eaker and Kim Tessen.

In a statement Tuesday night announcing the move, the university said the two sides had “mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately.”

“The past several months have been an extremely challenging time for our gymnastics program,” athletic director Mark Harlan said in the statement. “Changes like this are never easy, and only come after extensive analysis and discussion. In this case, the decision provides necessary clarity and stability for our student-athletes and prevents further distraction from their upcoming season.”

Farden’s exit comes after Eaker and Tessen detailed allegations of abuse from their time in the program. Separately, both wrote about their time with the team on social media.

Eaker, a former member of the U.S. national team and two-time world champion, retired last month. In an Instagram post, she wrote that she has been diagnosed with “severe anxiety and depression, anxiety induced insomnia,” and has experienced panic attacks, PTSD and night terrors, as well as suicidal thoughts due to the “verbal and emotional abuse” she experienced during her time on the team.

Her attempts to report the abuse were “completely dismissed,” she wrote, with one administrator telling her that Eaker and the coach “just don’t get along.”

Tessen, who competed with the team from 2017 through 2020, shared similar experiences, noting that the program fostered “an abuse and toxic environment.”

Previously, the school said that the decision to place Farden on leave was “not related to student-athlete welfare” but declined to share further details.

Earlier this fall, an independent law firm investigated the program, but found that Farden “did not engage in any severe, pervasive or egregious acts of emotional or verbal abuse of student-athletes” and “did not engage in any acts of physical abuse, emotional abuse or harassment as defined by SafeSport Code.” In her Instagram post, Eaker called the investigation “incomplete at best.”

Farden had been co-head coach of the program since 2016 and was named sole head coach in 2020. In a statement, he said that it is “difficult to say goodbye” to the university, “but the time has come for me to embark on a new chapter.”

Carly Dockendorf, who was named interim head coach in his absence, will continue in the position for the 2024 season.

The University of Utah has placed gymnastics head coach Tom Farden on paid administrative leave weeks after allegations of abuse were made by former gymnasts Kara Eaker and Kim Tessen.

The leave is effective immediately, according to ESPN. The university did not provide a specific reason for the decision to place Farden on leave.

“This action comes after recent conduct and actions by Coach Farden not related to student-athlete welfare, which simply do not align with our values and expectations,” the school said in a statement.

Associate head coach Carly Dockendorf, who has been with the team since 2018, will serve as interim head coach.

Eaker, who is a former member of the U.S. national team and two-time world champion, retired last month after two seasons at Utah. In an Instagram post, she described her time on the team, which included being a “victim of verbal and emotional abuse.” She says that she has been diagnosed with “severe anxiety and depression, anxiety induced insomnia,” and has experienced panic attacks, PTSD and night terrors, as well as suicidal thoughts.

In her post, she said the alleged abuse happened most often in individual meetings with an “overpowering coach,” though she did not give a name. She describes being “personally attacked, humiliated, degraded and yelled at to the point of tears in front of the whole team.”

Her attempts to report the abuse were “completely dismissed,” she said, with one administrator telling her that Eaker and the coach “just don’t get along.”

Tessen, who competed with the team from 2017 through 2020, shared similar experiences on social media. The program, she said, fostered an “abusive and toxic environment.” She, too, dealt with “crippling depression and anxiety” while on the team as well as “suicidal ideation.”

Farden, who was named co-head coach in 2016 and has been the program’s sole head coach since 2020, was the subject of and investigation into the team’s culture that concluded in September. An outside law firm, Husch Blackwell, found that Farden “did not engage in any severe, pervasive or egregious acts of emotional or verbal abuse of student-athletes” and “did not engage in any acts of physical abuse, emotional abuse or harassment as defined by SafeSport Code.”

It was determined that Farden made a derogatory comment to a member of the team, but other incidents couldn’t “be independently corroborated” and were denied by the coach. He also “more likely than not threw a stopwatch and a cellular telephone in frustration in the presence of student-athletes,” but the investigation said that the behavior was “not repeated or severe.”

Eaker called the investigation “incomplete at best” in her social media post and said it lacked credibility.

“The report omits crucial evidence and information,” she said, “and the few descriptions used are inaccurate.”

“I’m speaking out for all of the women who can’t because they are mentally debilitated and paralyzed by fear,” she added. “I can no longer stand by while perpetrators are still allowed in sports and are causing young girls and women to suffer.”

Oklahoma won the 2023 NCAA gymnastics team title on Saturday, the Sooners’ second straight national championship — and sixth title in nine years.

Oklahoma’s dynasty has become so strong that some fans at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, were sporting “anyone but Oklahoma” t-shirts — something the Sooners took in stride. They led after each rotation and topped the team standings with 198.3875 points, finishing 0.150 points ahead of second-place Florida. Utah (-0.450) and LSU (-0.862) finished third and fourth, respectively.

Oklahoma was steered by sophomore all-arounder Jordan Bowers and 2023 NCAA vault champ Olivia Trautman.

Also during Saturday’s NCAA team championship, Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas tied the NCAA record for career perfect 10s.

Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas recorded her 28th ‘perfect 10’ on Saturday to tie the NCAA record for most career perfect 10s. Thomas accomplished the feat during the NCAA team final at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, with this truly stellar vault (video below).

During her five-year career at Florida, Thomas earned at least five perfect 10s on each apparatus: 12 on floor, six on beam, five on bars and five on vault. She joins UCLA’s Jamie Dantzscher (2001-04) and Kentucky’s Jenny Hansen (1993-96), who also received 28 perfect 10s during their careers. (It should be noted that Thomas achieved the feat during her fifth year of NCAA competition — the result of an extra “COVID” year — while Dantzscher and Hansen both reached the mark in four years.)

Thomas’s status was uncertain in the lead-up to this weekend’s NCAA gymnastics championships after the 2022 NCAA all-around champion suffered a lower leg injury at Florida’s regional competition last month.

“I was not focused on that at all,” Thomas told ESPN of her record-tying accomplishment. “I was just focused on being out one last time with my team.”

A few minutes after tying the perfect 10 record on vault, Thomas fell just short of breaking that tie. The 22-year-old scored a 9.9125 on uneven bars, bobbling slightly on her landing.

Oklahoma won the 2023 NCAA team title, the Sooners’ sixth national title in nine seasons.

The NCAA gymnastics championships begin Thursday, with eight of the top teams in the country descending upon Texas to determine a champion.

Just Women’s Sports is taking a look at what you need to know and which storylines you should watch as the championships kick off.

When and where are the championships?

The championships are being held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

The semifinals are set for Thursday on ESPN2, with the first at 3 p.m. ET and the second at 9 p.m. ET. The top two teams from each semifinal will advance to the final at 4 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC.

Which teams are competing?

Florida, Cal, LSU and Denver will face off in the first semifinal. Oklahoma, Utah, UCLA and Kentucky will compete in the second semifinal.

Jordan Chiles, UCLA return to center stage

For the first time since 2019 and since Valorie Kondos Field retired from coaching, UCLA is back at the national championships. The Bruins finished third that year, and they could make another deep run this year. A team with a rich national championship history, it was only a matter of time before they returned to this level.

UCLA is led by Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles, who has been one of the best all-around gymnasts in the country this year and could very well take home the title. Of course, that also hinges on the health of Florida’s Trinity Thomas, who is the reigning all-around champion. Chiles’ performances this season include a perfect 10 on the floor at UCLA’s regional final, which helped place them amongst the top eight teams in the country.

But they’re in a semifinal with defending champions Oklahoma and No. 5 Utah, making it hard to predict which two teams to advance to Sunday’s final.

Oklahoma looks for back-to-back titles

Reigning champion Oklahoma looked a bit vulnerable in their regional final, suffering two uncharacteristic falls on beam. But the Sooners were able to rebound and advance as one of the first teams to secure a place in the national championship.

The Sooners know what it takes to win – after all, they’ve won four of the last six national titles. But they could find themselves in a tight competition if Thomas is healthy as Florida features one of the best – and deepest – lineups in the country.

Utah could also factor into the conversation with Grace McCallum expected to return from injury. Led by Maile O’Keefe and Jaedyn Rucker, they were the only team to score a 198 or better twice during regionals.

Will Trinity Thomas be healthy?

A lot at this year’s national championships hinges on the health of reigning all-around champion Trinity Thomas. Thomas stopped midway through her floor routine at Florida’s regional competition and did not feature in the regional final.

Still, Florida advanced even without its star, who remains day-to-day with a right lower leg injury, thanks to astounding depth. Kayla DiCello has been a standout freshman for the Gators, and their lineup also features Sloane Blakely, Leanne Wong and Riley McCusker.

But the questions about the team title and the all-around title remain, and they all hinge on whether or not Thomas is available to compete.

Also notable: Suni Lee will not be competing after Auburn failed to advance to the national championships. She’s been absent since the end of the regular season, and the Olympian has revealed that she’s been battling kidney problems.