“I still have a little bit of processing left,” Missouri Tiger gymnast Amari Celestine said.
There was a lot to process for the senior after the Tigers placed third in the NCAA Gymnastics national championship. It was the first time Mizzou ever competed on the final day of the season, the best finish in team history, the best finish in Missouri women’s sports history, one of the best finishes in any Tiger sport history, not to mention it was Celestine’s final time competing for the school she travelled halfway across the country from her home in California to join four years ago.
“Being able to really sit down with the fact that that was truly my last time slapping a leotard on is a little bit of a bigger pill to swallow,” Celestine said. “But, I’d say that it kind of registered right after everybody in the crowd, like at our section, was cheering for us and the just being able to take that trophy home, watching our freshmen carry that trophy on the plane, it settled in a little then.”
After beginning her career with a run to the NCAA National Semifinals in 2022 and earning a silver medal on the vault, while earning All-American first team honors on the Vault and second team honors on the floor exercise, Celestine goes out after helping lead the Tigers to their best season in program history.
Throughout the year, the Tigers reset team record after team record, posting their program highs in individual events and as a team.
“I think we did a really, really impressive job of resetting for the next week,” coach Shannon Welker said. “As soon as we would do those things, I didn’t take inventory of all of it quite yet even, but I didn’t allow myself to take inventory of all the impressive things that we did this year until we were finished. Quite honestly, because I think you just have to stay in the moment.”
The record-setting season was the culmination of multiple years of highly-ranked recruiting out of high school and in the transfer portal. But now, there’s an even better recruiting tool in Welker’s toolbelt with the Tigers showing they can compete with the best programs in the country, including ones sporting olympians.
“I’m honestly excited just to see what they do when I’m not there,” Celestine said. “Because, I know this team is great. I know this team’s destined for amazing things. So just being able to watch from the side and really cheer them on and take in every moment, actually be able to, like, watch everybody and know what work it took for them to get there. I’m excited … there’s a lot of open spots, so it’s anybody’s game right now. So I’m very excited to see what they do with these opportunities and how they decide to grow.”
And Welker said he is confident in the team’s future, knowing that like Celestine before them, this year’s group of freshmen are starting their careers with a season to aspire to again.
“How fortunate are our freshmen to, No. 1, have that experience freshman year,” Welker said. “Similar, you know, Amari had a similar experience, but we didn’t quite get to Final Four. So, really excited for our seniors to kind of bookend their careers with such great experiences, but as a freshman, that’s your first experience in the postseason. I mean, that really sets the bar super high for those ladies. And I heard a couple of them say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do this again next year.’ That was their comment. … I’m like, ‘Year, that’s a good idea.’ … I think that is going to make it easier for them to just have that daily drive and they got to see some really fantastic upperclassmen and underclassmen as well. They were part of that, not only the postseason experience, but just what it took and they had a great example … what it takes on a daily basis, not only in the gym, but in the locker room and the athletic training room, nutritionally, conditioning wise, they got to see all that firsthand and just what it takes to get to that level. I think that is invaluable, that experience.”
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