Published on Show Me Mizzou Sept. 16, 2025
Story by Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92
Gymnastics is a sport of incremental progress, with success or failure riding on minor fluctuations on the right side of a decimal point. Understandably, the pursuit of the next tenth-of-a-point occupies most of Coach Shannon Welker’s time.
But now and then, he pauses to appreciate how far Mizzou has come in his 12 years at the helm — a climb that reached new heights in 2025.
“When I first started, I went into some of the club gyms where we recruit around the state of Missouri, and these kiddos would have leotards on for different colleges from all over the country,” Walker says. “Very few of them had University of Missouri leotards. You know what is really cool now? I go into gyms all over our state, and 90% of the kids are wearing University of Missouri leotards. Little things like that signify tremendous progress in what we’re doing.”
It wasn’t a quick fix. The Tigers didn’t win a Southeastern Conference dual meet until his third season as coach. But Welker says that despite the early results, the athletes from those teams helped establish the positive culture that attracted subsequent stars, including all-time scoring leader Sienna Schreiber and national champion Helen Hu.
For the last five years, the Tigers have advanced at least to the NCAA Regional Finals. In 2025, they made their first appearance in the NCAA Championship Final, the gymnastics equivalent of the Final Four. Led by Hu, who won the balance beam national title, Mizzou placed third as a team.
All that incremental progress added up to a historic season that likely will inspire the purchase of many more Mizzou leotards.
“We got on the plane after that Final Four and immediately I’m getting text messages about recruiting,” Welker says. “I was like, ‘Oh, boy, 2026 is starting today.’ But you need to step back every once in a while and reflect on what we’ve accomplished and be grateful for that opportunity. I really feel gratitude to our coaches, our student-athletes and the University of Missouri for giving us this opportunity to compete at the highest level and really embracing the vision we walked in the door with back in 2013.”
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