Meet Madison Ward: The MRGC Floor Specialist of the Year
The Utah State gymnastics team has accomplished a lot this season. A second-place conference finish, a top 25 national ranking, several of the highest team scores in team history and qualifying for its fourth-straight NCAA regional tournament.
But perhaps one of the biggest storylines and highlights of the season for the Aggies was the performance of sophomore gymnast Madison Ward.
Through her career, Ward has been called many different things. A hard worker, a perfectionist, an excellent teammate, an Idaho state champion, a four-time high school national qualifier. But recently she was able to add another big one to her resume.
Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference Floor Specialist of the Year.
As just a sophomore, Ward has had unprecedented success in her young career and has been one of the key elements to the team’s success. Already etching her name into the Utah State record book in several categories, this is likely just the first of many major awards for the young gymnast.
“I’m just super honored to have received that award, and I’m grateful to my coaches for helping me get to where I am,” she said. “It just makes me excited because I still have a couple years left so I’m excited to see what I can do.”
With still one more opportunity to compete as the team travels to Seattle for the NCAA regional championship this weekend, Ward has the potential to set a new program record for highest average floor exercise score in a season. Currently averaging a 9.875 on the event, she trails only Liesel Kohler, who set the program record of 9.877 in 2004.
Not only does she stack up with some of the most elite gymnasts in USU’s program history, Ward has put up comparable numbers to some of top floor performers in the nation. She currently ranks fourth in the North Central Region and 29th nationally on the floor.
While Ward’s success has caught the attention of many around the world of gymnastics, for her coaching staff and teammates it has come as no surprise.
Utah State head coach Natalie Walsh, who had her eyes on Ward since taking the helm of the program in 2013, said that she could see a lot of obvious potential all along.
“We were just ecstatic,” said Walsh about receiving the news of Ward’s commitment to USU two years ago. “It was a do or die for me. It was like, I need this athlete. She’s a program-changing athlete.”
The Rexburg, Idaho native faced a tough decision when deciding which school to sign with, but had several motivating factors in choosing Utah State.
“I wanted to be close to home because I’m a homebody and I love hanging out with my family,” she said. “I also really liked it because when I visited it was so pretty, the school is right in the mountains, and I also really liked all the girls on the team and I liked the coaching staff.”
While this year was mostly smooth sailing, Ward’s Aggie career began off to a rocky start. After signing on with USU, but prior to ever suiting up to practice with the team, she suffered a foot injury which required a surgery that kept her off the mats for a while.
While recovering from a surgery, NCAA rules prohibit an athlete from training and participating in team activities. Though she could condition on her own and she was able to make a full recovery, this kept her sidelined for the first four months of her college career. Ward eventually joined the team in a full capacity in December, just weeks before competition started.
“I was frustrated at first,” Ward said. “I wanted to be with the team, and I was coming in and I didn’t really know the girls so I wanted to build that friendship and bond before the season, but I think I was still able to bond with the girls from the sidelines. They also reached out to me and they were all so friendly so that helped as well.”
Once she was fully recovered, Ward hit the ground running. She sat through the first two meets of her freshman season, but then competed and scored consistently well on vault and bars in the remaining 12 meets. She was also able to crack the team’s floor exercise lineup for the final five meets of the season, and averaged a 9.795.
After a successful freshman campaign and a full offseason to train and condition, Ward came out this season firing on all cylinders. With a year of experience under her belt and a new floor routine in store, she set a new career high of 9.9 in the third competition of the season, then repeated that score five more times throughout the season. She went on to capture 11 individual event titles, eight of which came on the floor.
On her way to being named MRGC Floor Specialist of the Year, Ward was recognized as the MRGC Floor Specialist of the Week six out of 10 weeks of the season, including the first five weeks consecutively.
Walsh said seeing a gymnast receive so many accolades helps to push and motivate the other girls on the team as well.
“I think it makes the team say ‘hey, I’m so happy for you’ and then they say ‘hey, I want to be that happy for me. I want some of those awards,’” she said. “I love that. I want them to know that we’re a team and it’s all for the team, but there are so many special awards you can get as an individual.”
Though much of her recognition and the majority of her awards have come as a result of her floor performances, Ward is far from a one-dimensional gymnast. She also competed on the vault and bars in every meet of the season, averaging 9.712 on the vault and a team third-highest average of 9.765 on the bars.
“Madi is a very consistent athlete,” Walsh said. “Every time she’s gone up, she makes her routines and we can depend on her whether it’s to lead us off or to anchor us or just to depend on her to shift the atmosphere. If somebody does a routine before and it’s not their best, she still does her best.”
Balance beam is the one exercise keeping Ward from the coveted title of a collegiate all-around gymnast. But with the offseason looming near, she plans to make adding the fourth event to her repertoire a major focus.
“That’s for sure my goal,” Ward said. “I’ve been working on it this year, but it just hasn’t been very consistent. I’m really working on hard on that over the summer and hopefully I’ll be able to do all four next year.”
She did perform two judged exhibition performances on the beam this season which do not count towards the team score, but has yet to be able to crack the team’s competition lineup.
“We’re kind of similar I think,” said Aggie senior Bailey McIntire, who was the only USU gymnast to compete all-around this season. “We both kind of struggled with beam at first, but it comes. I told her ‘Madi, it comes. And when it does, it’s going to be awesome.’”
McIntire is a gymnast very familiar with Ward’s situation. She also had a very strong start to her collegiate career, and she currently occupies third and fifth-place in the record books for highest floor exercise average in a season by an Aggie.
McIntire, along with the three other soon-to-be graduating seniors on the team will certainly be missed, but Aggie fans can rest easy knowing the future of the program is in good hands.
For Madison Ward, the sky is the limit. With still two years of college eligibility to look forward to, she has her sights set on the highest individual accomplishment a gymnast can achieve. The perfect 10.
“I want to get a 10 on floor,” she said. “That’s my top goal for my whole college career.”
Though in the 40-year history of Utah State gymnastics nobody has ever garnered the mark of perfection, Ward is not alone in believing she could be the first.
“There’s not a limit for Madi,” Walsh said. “A 10 is the ceiling that we’ve put on the sport, so that’s her max and that’s everyone’s max, but she actually can reach that.”
So what’s next for Ward? According to Walsh, things will only go up from here.
“She’s going to start even better next year than she finished this year.”
Aggie fans would be okay with that.