Casey Jo Magee

Casey Jo Magee (b. July 17, 1988) is a gymnast for the Lady Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas. During her career, Casey Jo has become one of the leaders of the Arkansas gymnastics team, which is more commonly known as the Gymbacks.

Pre-college achievements

Casey Jo trained at the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics in Springfield, Oregon. She competed in the Junior Olympic National Championships four times. In both 2005 and 2006, Casey Jo became the JO National champion on balance beam.

Prior to this, she was a two-time all-around champion at the Region II Championships. These titles came in 2003 and 2004. Casey Jo also placed first in all four individual events in 2003.

College Career

2007

Casey Jo began to compete for Arkansas in the 2007 season. On January 13, she finished first on the balance beam with a score of 9.775 in a meet at Penn State University. This was Casey Jo's first of 6 individual event titles on the season. She also won the all-around with a score of 39.275 in a quad meet (a four-team event) at Barnhill Arena with West Virginia, Pittsburgh and New Hampshire on March 9. Her beam score of 9.950 in the meet on March 16 at Arizona State set a school record on the event.

Casey Jo concluded the year with an individual qualification for the National Championships as an all-arounder. She was only the second Arkansas gymnast (Dana McQuillin was the first in 2005) to accomplish this feat. Casey Jo scored a 38.725 in the all-around at the Nationals held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

2008

As a sophomore, Casey Jo was a solid performer for the Gymbacks. She won 3 all-around titles with scores of 39.200 on January 25 (vs. Penn State), 39.475 on February 15 (vs. Kentucky) and 39.350 on March 21 (vs. Michigan State.) In addition, she placed first on uneven bars twice and on balance beam five times for a total of 10 individual titles.

The Gymbacks qualified for the National Championships and finished 10th in the nation. Casey Jo achieved second team All-America status on vault and uneven bars. This made her and teammate Michelle Stout (first team on vault) the first All-American gymnasts ever at the University of Arkansas.

Casey Jo was presented with the Gymbacks' Most Outstanding Gymnast Award by the team's coaching staff.

2009

Casey Jo's junior year got off to a good start. She won the all-around in Arkansas's first five meets of the season. On January 9, her winning score of 39.300 was highlighted by first place scores of 9.850 on uneven bars, 9.875 on balance beam and 9.850 on floor exercise in a Gymbacks' win over Ohio State. She followed that up with another all-around win, scoring a 39.425 in her home state during a tri-meet with California and Oregon State at Corvallis, Oregon. Casey Jo then accumulated a school record score of 39.535 (including a 9.900 for the balance beam title) to top the field in an Arkansas win at Barnhill Arena over top-ranked Florida on January 23, scored 39.425 for the top all-around spot in her team's win at Oklahoma three days later, and then totaled 39.450 (finished off with a 9.925 on floor to clinch a win over Alabama) for another all-around title on January 30.

Casey Jo won her sixth all-around title on February 27 in a meet at LSU. She scored 39.400 while winning the uneven bars (9.875) and balance beam (9.900) event titles. Two weeks later, she won her seventh all-around with a 39.525, highlighted by event-winning scores on vault (9.950) and balance beam (9.900) in a quad meet at Texas Women's University. Twice during the season, Casey Jo was named SEC Gymnast of the Week.

At SEC Championships on March 21, Casey Jo earned a share of the balance beam title with a score of 9.900 on the event. On April 4, she earned event-winning scores of 9.900 on both beam and floor at the South Central Regionals at Barnhill Arena. As a team, the Gymbacks finished in first place to advance to the National Championships, from which they earned their first ever Super Six berth.

2010

As a senior, Casey Jo began the season with individual event titles in Arkansas's first four meets. In the opener against Arizona at Barnhill on January 9, she scored a 9.85 on floor to tie with teammate Jaime Pisani for first place on the event. She then added solo wins on beam in road meets at Florida (9.900) and Alabama (9.925). Against Kentucky on January 29, Magee shared (with Pisani) the bars title with a 9.875 and again scored a 9.925 for a solo win on balance beam.

On February 5 against Auburn, Casey Jo won her first all-around of the year with a school record score of 39.625 to lead the Gymbacks to a team score of 197.025, also a school record. Magee matched her career best scores on bars (9.925) and beam (9.95) to win each event and her 9.875 score gave her a tie for the floor title with Pisani. She won her second all-around title on February 19 with a 39.525 in a meet against LSU, scoring event-winning totals on bars (9.875) and beam (9.925) along the way.

In a tri-meet at the University of Washington on February 26, Casey Jo won her sixth balance beam title of the season with a 9.925 and shared the floor title with Pisani with a 9.900 against Washington and Seattle Pacific University. She also earned a #1 national ranking on beam for the week beginning March 1. Casey Jo then broke her own school all-around record from a month earlier with a meet-winning score of 39.650 at Minnesota on March 6, during which she won a solo title on bars and tied for the beam title with scores of 9.900 on each event. For this outstanding performance, she earned the award for SEC Gymnast of the Week.

Against Pittsburgh on March 12, Casey Jo won her fourth all-around title of the year with a total score of 39.625. She was also the winner of all four events with a 9.875 on vault (tied), 9.900 on bars, 9.900 on beam and a school record tying 9.950 on floor. Four days later, she was named SEC Gymnast of the Week again to make her the first Gymback ever to be so honored two consecutive weeks.

On March 19, Casey Jo set another Arkansas all-around record by totaling 39.675 in the Gymbacks' meet against Oklahoma. She also attained marks of 9.950 on vault, 9.950 on beam and 9.925 on floor, all of which gave her a share of first place for each event in her final meet at Barnhill Arena.

At the NCAA Regionals in Los Angeles on April 10, Casey Jo scored 9.900 on each of the four events and won the balance beam title.

References

http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6100&ATCLID=648549