Reese Esponda won the U.S. Classic, the biggest all-around victory of her career, as America’s top gymnasts prepared for next month’s national championships.
Esponda, a 17-year-old who trains at World Champions Centre in Texas (Simone Biles’ family gym), scored 54.9 points with the night’s best floor exercise (13.95) in Hartford, Connecticut.
Esponda, 16th at the 2025 U.S. Championships, prevailed Saturday by .85 over two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey, who is competing this season for the first time since the Paris Games.
Esponda won despite sustaining a foot ligament injury in late March, which put her in a boot and on crutches for a little bit and affected her for about two months. She also got sick the day before flying to Hartford.
Carey had the highest single vault score (14.3) and tied for second on floor (13.3).
The U.S. Classic is the primary tune-up meet for the Xfinity U.S. Championships from Aug. 6-9 in Carey’s hometown of Phoenix.
U.S. Classic highlights air Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on NBC.
Skye Blakely, who competed at the last three World Championships, performed strictly on bars (14.1) and beam (14.25) and had the night’s best scores on both events.
Leanne Wong, the 2025 World all-around silver medalist, competed only on beam due to a minor wrist injury. She didn’t do any skills that required putting her hands on the beam, came off the beam during her routine and scored 11.9.
Katelyn Ohashi, ending a seven-year break from competition this season, tallied 13.2 on both beam and floor. Ohashi needed 26.8 points combined from those routines to automatically qualify for nationals.
Before this year, Ohashi competed once on the senior elite level — winning the 2013 American Cup over Simone Biles in the senior international debut for both of them at age 15.
