While 2025 may not have been UCLA’s year for an NCAA gymnastics trophy, 2026 looks promising as senior Jordan Chiles and her fired-up teammates, including standout freshman Ashlee Sullivan, are ready to give it their all. In fact, the 18-year-old helped Team Jolly take an early lead at UCLA’s Meet the Bruins event against Team Holly as she shared her thoughts on the new season.

At UCLA’s Meet the Bruins intrasquad competition, Team Jolly, featuring Chiles, Sullivan, Riley Jenkins, and more, defeated Team Holly, led by Katelyn Rosen and Mika Webster-Longin, with a final score of 9-8. And much credit goes to Sullivan, who gave her team a huge boost, leading them 6-1 early on. She and fellow freshman Nola Matthews each took home two event wins – uneven bars and vault.

After the event, Ashlee captured the team’s energy on Instagram, sharing a photo of the celebration with the caption: “Incredibly grateful.” And in the post-event presser, she reflected on the win, humbly deflecting from the freshmen’s role in it.

“The freshmen class, I feel like we’re only as good as our whole team is,” said Sullivan. “There’s such a great team dynamic, and everyone wants it so bad this year that I’m able to build and feed off of that.”

Ashlee Sullivan joined UCLA in May 2025 after decommitting from Michigan, beginning her college gymnastics career just months later. Yet she already has an impressive list of accomplishments: 2025 U.S. floor exercise bronze medalist and 2025 Winter Cup all-around champion. And being at UCLA has only bolstered that drive to compete.

“I love the atmosphere, team dynamic, and the university’s commitment to athletic and academic excellence,” said Sullivan of her decision to choose UCLA.

Looking ahead to the season, she said in a recent interview, “I’m just really excited going into this year to make more memories, and again, like Katelyn [Rosen] said, winning stuff. But yeah, that’s kind of my goal is to just kind of enjoy the moment and keep the momentum going that we already have.”

With leaders like Chiles and rising stars like Sullivan, the Bruins are already positioning themselves as strong contenders for the 2026 title. But interestingly enough, Sullivan is a gymnast who might have never had this opportunity at all had she gone through with her earlier plan to leave the sport entirely.

Ashlee Sullivan’s journey from nearly quitting to leading Team USA to medals

Earlier this year, Ashlee Sullivan from Texas came close to walking away from elite gymnastics. Injuries and mental and emotional pressure weighed heavily, as she had to deal with doubts, fears, and the stress of maintaining top performance while planning for college.

In 2021, a back injury kept her out most of the season, and another workout injury before the 2022 Jesolo Trophy ended her 2022 campaign early despite being selected to compete internationally.

These repeated interruptions made maintaining confidence and consistency challenging. “Earlier in my career, setbacks hit me a lot harder emotionally. But now, I’ve been through it. I know I can come back. I’ve done hard things before, and I can do them again,” she said.

Uncertainty about the future played a role. She wasn’t sure if continuing at the elite level was realistic or sustainable alongside her NCAA plans.

“I’m able-bodied. I’m in a good spot to continue my elite career right now. I don’t know what the world will look like in the future if elite will even be an option,” Sullivan said.  For a moment, it seemed like her career at the highest level might end before it really began. “It was definitely a long and difficult choice,” Sullivan admitted. “But we settled everything in around November and were like, ‘Okay, we’re going for it.”

She had nearly given up, but the opportunity enabled her to remain in the sport. “I was just grateful to even have the choice to continue,” she said.  That decision helped her to win the Winter Cup.

“It was definitely very surreal considering what I had been facing before that meet,” she said. But passion can make even the most impossible odds favor victory.