2018 NCAA Season

Sidney Dukes Utilizes Experience In Kentucky's First Nationals

Sidney Dukes Utilizes Experience In Kentucky's First Nationals

Sidney Dukes and her Kentucky teammates made school history in 2018 when the Wildcats advanced to the NCAA championships as a team for the first time.

May 24, 2018 by Lauren Green
Sidney Dukes Utilizes Experience In Kentucky's First Nationals

The Kentucky Wildcats finished the 2018 season ranked No. 12 in the country and traveled to Minneapolis to contend for a spot at the NCAA championships. The top team in the country turned out to be in Minneapolis as well — a squad that was all but a lock to head to St. Louis for the NCAA championships.

The spot was eerily familiar for Sidney Dukes and her Wildcats teammates.

Kentucky traveled to Washington for regionals in 2017, ranked in the No. 12 spot. The top-ranked Sooners were in Washington, too. Both meets pitted 12th-seeded Kentucky in the nail-bitingly close 12/13 matchup to secure the Wildcats’ first team appearance at the NCAA championships.

In 2017, Kentucky was edged by three and a half tenths. Mollie Korth and Alex Hyland advanced to the NCAA championships as individuals. The Wildcats season as a team was over.

Being heartbreakingly close to nationals proved to be plenty of motivation.

“We had that kind of bad taste in our mouth to end the year [last year],” Dukes said. “It was still a successful year, but ending the year on that note I think just made everyone more motivated in the preseason to work on skills, clean up routines, and that really paid off for the postseason.”



The Wildcats had a solid meet at regionals in 2018 with their performances building throughout the meet. After a solid-if-not-spectacular opening rotation on balance beam where Dukes picked up a team-best 9.900, Kentucky came back with a strong rotation on floor with all five scores going 9.875 or better and a steady vault performance.

Entering the final rotation, Kentucky trailed Denver by a tenth and a half—147.800 to 147.650—as the Wildcats headed to uneven bars while the Pioneers finished on balance beam. Dukes was aware that the scores were close.

“I tried not to look up at the scores, but I did. So yes, I did know how close we were going into our last event,” she said. “But I also knew that Denver was going to beam and [the judges] had been scoring really low on beam because we started off there and we had seen the scores throughout the meet. … I watched our first routine go and Katie Carlisle hit her normal routine. You can’t really ask for much more from a lead-off and everyone else built off of that.”

Carlisle picked up a 9.800 followed by Katrina Coca’s 9.900, Ella Warren’s 9.900, Katie Stuart’s 9.825 and Alex Hyland’s 9.875. Mollie Korth anchored the lineup with a 9.900. And that’s when the celebration began.

Kentucky had made history.



“This is our first nationals," Dukes said. "The meet wasn’t over until it was over so I didn’t really want to say anything. But after Mollie [Korth] finished her routine we all just went crazy.”

The excitement bubbled over once the team arrived back in Lexington.

“In the past few days, nothing could really bring our team down,” Dukes said three days after regionals. “Everyone has been in such good spirits, finally making it as a team and finally putting all the pieces together. Looking forward, we’re going to go to nationals and just have a great time. That’s when we compete best, when we’re just having fun with the sport and feeding off of each other.”



For Dukes, who competed at the NCAA championships individually as a freshman, the 2018 season brought on a new role: three-event specialist. The junior competed in the all-around in 25 of 27 meets as a freshman and sophomore. She competed on vault, beam, and floor in every meet as a junior.

“I think the biggest challenge for me personally has been stepping out off that all-around spot and stepping into a different role,” Dukes said before the NCAA championships. “As a team leader, maybe I don’t get the recognition that all-arounders get but that just means that I need to be a motivator for the girls who are on bars because I know how difficult it is to compete that event and be successful on that event.”

The Wildcats struggled at the NCAA championship semifinals on uneven bars with two mistakes in the opening rotation. But Kentucky fought back throughout the rest of the meet and finished with great performances on both floor exercise and vault. Dukes scored a 9.775 or better on beam, floor, and vault for Kentucky.



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