The U.S. Classic, the top tune-up meet for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, airs live on CNBC and Peacock on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

NBC airs highlights Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.

Hezly Rivera, the youngest member of the 2024 Olympic champion team, headlines the field that will compete in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Rivera, now 17, is joined by 2024 Olympic alternates Leanne Wong, Joscelyn Roberson and Tiana Sumanasekera.

Plus Jayla Hang, who won the Pan American all-around title in June over a field that included Rivera.

Traditionally, not all of the top gymnasts compete on all four events at Classic, though at least Rivera is expected to do so.

Gymnasts are preparing for the U.S. Championships from Aug. 7-10 in New Orleans.

Then a two-day selection competition in early autumn determines the four-woman team for the World Championships in October in Indonesia.

Simone Biles won five of the last six U.S. Classic meets dating to 2018, with Wong taking the other in 2022 during Biles’ break from competition. Biles is now on another break from competition and has not announced whether she plans to return to bid for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

2025 U.S. Classic Gymnastics Field

Gymnasts are split between two sessions — the first on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on the USA Gymnastics YouTube page and the second at 8 p.m. ET on CNBC and Peacock.

Sage Bradford (Session 1)
Harlow Buddendeck (1)
Dulcy Caylor (2)
Ally Damelio (1)
Jordis Eichman (1)
Reese Esponda (1)
Catherine Guy (1)
Jayla Hang (2)
Gabrielle Hardie (2)
Myli Lew (2)
Nola Matthews (2)
Annalisa Milton (2)
Malea Milton (1)
Avery Moll (1)
Claire Pease (2)
Brooke Pierson (1)
Hezly Rivera (2)
Joscelyn Roberson (2)
Alessia Rosa (2)
Simone Rose (2)
Izzy Stassi (2)
Ashlee Sullivan (2)
Tiana Sumanasekera (2)
Maliha Tressel (1)
Audree Valdenarro (1)
Sabrina Visconti (1)
Camie Westerman (1)
Halle Shea Wittenberg (1)
Leanne Wong (2)
Alicia Zhou (2)

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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

They often say in life, you have to recognize an opportunity when it becomes apparent and do everything to seize it to find ultimate success. 

Penn State saw that with the ruling by the NCAA that allowed immediate eligibility for Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players, coupled with scholarship increases to 26 players, along with the ability to provide NIL opportunities, it saw an opportunity to make hockey another cornerstone program.

When Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada) native Gavin McKenna was open to the idea of playing in the United States and leaving the CHL, Penn State was ready to roll the red carpet out for the prodigy.

Penn State was already stacked with defensemen Jackson Smith, who was a five-star prospect and was selected 14th overall by the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, and Mac Gadowsky, who was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award last season. Add in goaltender Kevin Reidler and forwards Shea Van Olm, who led all WHL skaters with 49 goals last season, along with Calgary Flames prospect Luke Misa, coupled with the returns of forwards Aiden Fink, who was also a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, Charlie Cerrato, Matt DiMarsico, and JJ Wiebusch the chances of Penn State returning to the Frozen Four were excellent.

When you add in the hockey prodigy that is McKenna, things now have a chance to be historic. 

Typically, hockey prodigies reserved their talents up in the CHL in one of the three leagues: Ontario, Quebec, or Western, then went to the NHL because the NCAA there were no good avenues and its just how it was.

When megadonor Terry Pegula gifted Penn State nearly $102 million to jumpstart the ice hockey programs, it wasn’t meant for the programs to languish in mediocrity. The gifts took the programs from club level groups all the way to being able to compete amongst the nation’s best programs.

I don’t know how much influence Pegula had with the deal to lure McKenna from the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat, but the opportunity to bring the odds on favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft is enticing, and something Pegula would want to be part of for his alma mater that he has given so much to. 

When you think of the greatest players in NCAA history, you think of right off the bat Maine’s Jim Montgomery and Paul Kariya, Cornell netminder Ken Dryden, UMass defenseman Cale Makar, The Fusco Brothers from Harvard (Mark and Scott), or even Minnesota’s Neal Broten. 

Even with what each of those players accomplished, McKenna, Van Olm, and Smith have ample opportunity to set the bar higher. 

That is what the opportunity is in collegiate hockey with NIL and immediate eligibility, it is more lucrative opportunities for the best in hockey to play in the United States. 

The fact Penn State was able to poach so much high end WHL talent shows the direction it is going, but here in lies the opportunity to become the ultimate hockey superpower, where one typically doesn’t exist. 

In ice hockey, supremacy shifts from Denver, or one of the many Michigan, Minnesota, or Boston/Massachusetts schools, Penn State has the opportunity to be the ultimate hockey location. 

Winning a national championship and in style will only make Penn State much more aggressive for the high end talent. McKenna’s ceiling by many is Connor Bedard, John Tavares, or even Sidney Crosby. If McKenna delivers on that potential, that is the main attraction for all other hockey prodigies. 

In style, when you consider that the 1969-70 Cornell team is the only NCAA hockey team to go undefeated and 1992-93 Maine that went 42-1-2 fueled by Kariya and Montgomery is the top of the mountain for Penn State to achieve. The talent is there to do it in a dominant style that it is a legacy team for head coach Guy Gadowsky. The amount of talent he was able to secure puts him in an opportunity to have teams in the same vein as “Badger” Bob Johnson, Murray Armstrong, Red Berenson, or Jerry York. 

The key is, where the pressure is, this team will only be together once. This isn’t a team that the “band will get back together,” the NHL will be calling for all this high end talent in the 2026 NHL Draft.

Unlike football where there is a margin of error to breakthrough for them, hockey has stacked the deck so much, error is not an option. The opportunity is here for Penn State Men’s Hockey to achieve ultimate rink supremacy, not just for now but also for subsequent seasons. Penn State has the opportunity to perfect the “one and done” model for its program, something John Calipari did for a bit at Kentucky with Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. 

Fans will understand if football fails, James Franklin’s inability to win a big game is well documented, but the gap Penn State football has with its peers is not as wide as Penn State’s men’s hockey. You could even argue, hockey is only rivaled by wrestling by the talent disparity between them and the rest of the field. When you have such an advantage the pressure is great no matter how much football dominates the landscape.

As LSU coach Brian Kelly spoke with reporters at SEC Media Days, a reporter joked with him about his golf handicap. It was a bit of banter during a breakout session during Monday’s opening day of the SEC Kickoff.

Kelly responded by joking about how busy he’s been through June and into July. He said he “had other things to do” as the recruiting trail heated up.

June was a big recruiting month as official visit season ramped up. LSU was busy on the trail, as well, as the program builds out a class headlined by two five-star recruits. That means Kelly didn’t necessarily have time to work on his game.

“You know what? I’ve had other things to do in the month of June. … It goes quickly,” Kelly joked during the breakout.

SEC coaches’ golf games have been a topic of discussion as of late amid Auburn’s struggles on the recruiting trail. Hugh Freeze drew criticism for hitting the links, but he pushed back on that last week during an interview with David Pollack.

LSU has 16 players as part of its 2026 recruiting class, led by Five Star Plus+ athlete Lamar Brown, who committed last week. He is the No. 2 overall player from the cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking.

LSU is getting read for Year 4 under Brian Kelly and looking to rebound from an up-and-down 2024 season. The Tigers finished 9-4 overall and 5-3 in SEC play, but will have their starting quarterback in the fold once again. Garrett Nussmeier is back for one more year after opting not to declare for the NFL Draft, looking to take a leap in Year 2 as the starter.

Nussmeier threw for 4,052 yards and 29 touchdowns, to 10 interceptions. LSU has a strong history of second-year starters after Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels’ success, and the potential Top-10 pick will look to follow a similar path.

However, Brian Kelly pointed out the expectation isn’t to be either of those players. The goal, quite simply, is to win a championship.

“I would say that when you’re comparing him to Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow, that’s a high bar for anybody, right?” Kelly said. But Garrett is at LSU because he loves LSU. He wants to lead our football team to a championship. If the Heisman follows with that, I think he’s good with that.

“I answer the question this way because all of our conversations with him aren’t about individual goals. They’re about how do I lead this football team to a championship. All we’ve seen is him leading, him being selfless. His selflessness is going to be the differentiator from last year to this year, as well as the experience he had playing against really good SEC teams.”

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth rowing will have six total representatives at the World Under-23 Championships in Poland later this month. Men’s lightweight rowing is sending two athletes and a coach, men’s heavyweight rowing is sending two athletes, with one athlete from women’s rowing competing.
 
The Under-23 Championships are set for July 23-27 in Poznan, Poland. To learn more, please click here.
 
On the men’s lightweight side, Cosmo Hondrogen will compete for the United States as the lightweight single sculler, with Valentin Wang-Norderud rowing for Norway in the lightweight double. Head coach Trevor Michelson will also be heading to Poland as a coach of Hondrogen, and the heavyweight quad.

Hondrogen and Wang-Norderud were both key members of Dartmouth’s varsity eight that finished second in the varsity eight and in total team points at the IRA National Championship, marking the program’s top team points standing in program history. It was also Dartmouth’s first medal at nationals since 2012. The varsity eight finished with a time of 5:32.250 in the grand final, less than three seconds behind first-place Harvard and ahead of MIT, Penn, Princeton and Navy. Hondrogen sat in the six seat, with Wang-Norderud in bow.

 

For multiple years, Michelson has coached with the U.S. Under-23 team through selection camp and competition. Last year, he led the men’s four to a gold medal at the world championships.

 

Meanwhile, James Frederikson of men’s heavyweight rowing will compete for Australia in the eight, with Aron Kalmar a member of the coxless four for Hungary.

 

Frederikson was a member of the second varsity eight this past season that finished third at Eastern Sprints to earn a bronze medal. Kalmar rowed in the varsity eight, which came in second to earn silver at sprints, along with a third-place finish at the IRA National Championship — marking the Big Green varsity eight’s best finish since 1994. The varsity eight had an undefeated dual season as well.

 

On the women’s side, Áine Ley is a member of the United States Under-23 team and the eight for a second straight summer. Last year, she helped the Red, White and Blue place second in the World Championships. This past school year, Ley was a key member of the varsity eight, which finished in fourth place at the Ivy League Championship — the varsity’s best finish at Ivies since 2014. Ley was a first team All-Ivy honoree as a junior. The Big Green advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2011.

 

Johnny Manziel was one of the most prolific college quarterbacks in recent memory, both in his ability on the field and his stardom off the field, but he missed out on the NIL era.

If Manziel’s success at Texas A&M came a few years down the road, he thinks he would’ve had a hard time leaving college for the NFL.

“I really feel like I would’ve taken a pay cut had I gone to the NFL,” he told ESPN’s Greg McElroy (9:20 mark). “That’s really what it would’ve been… I feel guys who are playing at a high level, who are really noticeable and really marketable are making a great amount of money to the point where guys have the opportunity to stay in school rather than go to the NFL early.”

Manziel took over as Texas A&M’s starter in 2012 and had a season for the ages, throwing for 3,706 yards and 26 touchdowns while adding 1,410 yards and 21 touchdowns on the ground, enough to earn him a Heisman Trophy.

He had a great final season with the Aggies in 2013, throwing for 4,114 yards and 37 touchdowns and rushing for 759 yards and nine touchdowns.

According to a 2013 report from ESPN, Texas A&M generated $740 million in donations from Sept. 1, 2012, to Aug. 31, 2013. Of course, some of those donations likely came out of the excitement about recently moving to the SEC, but it’s hard to deny Manziel’s impact.

Nowadays, boosters and fans can donate to NIL collectives that are used to pay top players. It’s safe to say Manziel being in College Station would have given Texas A&M one of the biggest collectives in college football.

But Manziel was arguably just as prolific off the field as he was on it. He sat courtside at NBA games and hung out with celebrities like LeBron James and Drake. If he played in the NIL era, nearly every company would have been trying to sign him to a marketing deal.

Manziel ultimately didn’t pan out in the NFL, but how much money he could have made in the NIL era remains one of the biggest hypothetical questions.