NCGA Championship Results
ITHACA, N.Y. (March 26, 2022) - For Mikala Bugge, the day was the perfect ending of a fairy tale as UW-Stout's lone senior became a national champion on the vault in her final collegiate gymnastics meet Saturday at Ithaca College.
Bugge, a senior from Oakdale, Minn., won the the 2022 National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) vault title in her sixth year of competition. The final scenario could not have played out any better for Bugge, who throughout her career endured several injuries and three surgeries that kept her out of competition for parts of several seasons. During her six years of competition, Bugge was granted a medical redshirt for one season and battled through an injury plagued COVID-19 season. The pandemic caused the national championship to be canceled the last two years.
But that pandemic year may have been a silver lining in Bugge's career, a career where she had already won four All-America awards. Because of the pandemic, athletes were granted an extra year of eligibility. Bugge had finished her undergraduate work in vocational rehabilitation, but decided to take advantage of the extra year of athletic eligibility and began her advanced work in rehabilitation counseling.
Bugge qualified to the 2022 NCGA Championship as one of the top qualifiers in the vault and lived up to her seed when competing in the second rotation of the day, she landed a perfectly stuck hand front half, resulting in a score of 9.800, not only a personal-best but the second best vault score in school history.
Bugge had to wait out the remaining four rotations to see if she would be surpassed. Winona State's Kennedy O'Connor matched Bugge's score in the final rotation of the day and the two will share the title.
"It was pure joy, relief," Bugge said about nailing the exercise. "I was proud of myself. It was a long time coming."
Bugge was elated to be on the top step of the victory podium and also congratulated her co-champion.
"It was super cool; it was awesome," Bugge said. "I got my happily-ever-after moment, but it was really cool to share that with someone else. She deserved it."
This was Bugge's fifth All-America award and her third on the vault. As a freshman, she earned vault All-America honors when Stout hosted the 2017 national meet. The 2019 meet at UW-Oshkosh was Bugge's splashiest meet, earning three All-America awards - finishing second in the all-around, seventh on the vault and eighth on the balance beam.
Bugge is Stout's fifth competitor to win an individual national women's gymnastics title and her first place finish was Stout's eighth overall individual championship. Bugge is Stout's third vault champion. Her score of 9.80 on the vault is the second best in school history, exceeded only by her former teammate Shadae Boone, who scored a 9.825 in winning the national title in 2019. Bugge's 9.800 score ties with Boone, Shaquilla Payne and Kaylee Jondahl on the UW-Stout list.
