Jade Carey has been simply sensational this season. As part of the formidable Oregon State, Jade has been nearly unbeatable this season. This has enabled her to take the #1 spot in the NCAA rankings. But despite her laurels, the Oregon head coach isn’t yet ready to calm down as the Missouri native is looking towards something legendary in the making. Yes, Tanya Chaplin believes that the Beavers are on the brink of something monumental.

Tanya has been continually working to drive her team towards their national debut since 2019. But this season is turning out to be even better. In their two recent meets on 10th February against UC Davis and Alaska, they ended up winning both matches. They even followed it up with one more triumph over #28 Washington.

The Beavers clinched both competitions and earned more than 197 points at their home meets during the weekend, one last Friday and another Monday. But Tanya is sparing no effort in ensuring every detail is perfect! With every score on the line, they soared, sweeping both events. And it is pretty easy to see that Jade Carey has been the main man in all of this.

The star player has shown why exactly she is a 3x Olympic medalist! While many speculated that the team would have an advantage since they were performing in front of their home fans at Gill Coliseum, Oregon State gymnastics coach Tanya Chaplin made sure to keep the team grounded. But was it enough to keep the scores fair amid the ongoing controversy surrounding recent refereeing decisions?

There had to be careful planning around judging for their home meets. “We had two competitions this weekend here at home, and not one of them was an Oregon judge. “We flew in judges from all across the country,” Chaplin explained, as quoted by the Gazette-Times. The rigorous approach Chaplin is taking to fair and accurate judging during competition demonstrates she devotes complete effort to the team’s success.

“It’s not just about hitting the routine. It’s about how well I can perform each skill and how well I can stick the landing,” she added, emphasizing her team’s focus on perfecting their craft. The judging process is getting special focus this season since the sport has adopted a tightened scoring system for evaluation. Videos of the performances are made to go through a supervisory team check.

This is to ensure that the assigned scores match the set standards. While Chaplin has yet to receive feedback, she has observed an increasing level of scoring inspection that has led to reduced scores nationwide. Despite this, Oregon State’s performance this collegiate season has been phenomenal, with Carey registering a season high score of 9.975. But that’s not all. Her teammates are also giving quite the great show.

Four of her fellow gymnastics teammates are also in the top 100 nationally. Sydney Gonzales sits in 59th, Lauren Letzsch in 66th, Sophia Esposito in 73rd, and Olivia Buckner in 100th. Carey’s top-ranking performance on the beam added fuel to this dominant fire lighted up by the team.

Perfecting the art with a bold move amidst the growing challenge

At the start of the 2025 American Gold Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Classic opening session, Jade Carey, along with her Oregon State gymnastics team, delivered an impressive showing with their score of 195.775. The team delivered their most successful score of 195.775, surpassing the tenth-placed UCLA (195.250). The performances of Jade Carey stood out as remarkable to the entire audience.

Her breathtaking competition ended with a game-winning all-around total of 39.625. The 9.950 she earned on the beam and the floor routine ended with a 9.900. She scored 9.875 during the vault. Carey’s Yurchenko 1.5 vault performance on January 11 really highlighted her versatility and skill.

Jade said, “Yeah, um, ultimately, I just wanted to try something new. Try something different. I knew it would be a bit easier for me to do every single weekend. So, yeah.” She is constantly pushing herself consistently at the highest level. However, the evolving landscape of NCAA scoring is raising concerns.

Controversy has surrounded NCAA gymnastics with claims of overscoring for SEC athletes. This has led to doubts about whether efforts from other teams, particularly West Coast programs, are being fairly rewarded. Speculation suggests that scoring changes may disproportionately benefit SEC athletes.

This shift comes after the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) introduced the Collegiate Judging Initiative (CJI) in 2024, tightening scoring and limiting perfect 10s. As a result, the first week of the 2025 NCAA season saw no 10s awarded, marking the first time in nearly four years. This is a significant drop from the 71 perfect scores in 2022 and 84 in 2023.

Fans are left questioning the new scoring system. What are your thoughts on this? Also the following weekend, the Beavers will be up against No. 7 California and No. 13 Stanford. Stay tuned and give your opinion in the comments below.