Lindsey Bruck Ayotte - Head Coach - Women's Gymnastics Coaches

Photo by: Stu Horne

Lindsey Bruck Ayotte

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
lindsey.ayotte@unh.edu
Phone:
603-862-3834

Lindsey Bruck Ayotte is in her seventh season as head coach of the UNH gymnastics program in 2025-26.

In 2025, the UNH gymnastics team placed 51^st nationally with a 195.005 NQS. The Wildcats closed the season with their three highest scores of the season in their final three meets: 195.525 at Nebraska (March 8), 195.750 versus Rutgers (March 16), and a third-place 195.700 at the EAGL Championship (March 22), which was just 0.25 points away from winning the league crown. Junior Serena Mullin (Hamden, Conn.) was named Team MVP after a season in which she was named All-EAGL First Team on balance beam and all-around and All-EAGL Second Team on floor exercise. Sophomore Anne Challman (Lewisburg, Pa.) and freshman Aine Reade (Merrimac, Mass.) were each selected to compete as floor exercise specialists in the NCAA Alabama Gymnastics Regional Championship. Reade, an eight-time EAGL Rookie of the Week, ranked No. 3 on floor in EAGL's regular season with a 9.865 NQS. Led by four-time honoree Gracy Mowers (Middleton, Mass.), all 18 members of the team were named to the EAGL All-Scholastic Team.

Under Bruck Ayotte's leadership in 2024, grad student Kylie Gorgenyi (North Reading, Mass.), a four-time NCAA Championship competitor, became the fourth Wildcat, and the first since Meghan Pflieger in 2015, to win the EAGL Gymnast of the Year award. The four-time EAGL All-Scholastic Team honoree registered a career-high 9.950 on floor (March 17, tied for fourth in school history) and posted a PB 39.475 in all-around (Feb. 25) that tied UNH's highest score ever (Amanda Hall, March 6, 2004). The 'Cats scored a season-high 196.150, its highest EAGL Championship score in six years, and placed runner-up to host and back-to-back league champion Towson in the 2024 EAGL Championship.

In 2023, senior co-captain Robyn Kelley (Wakefield, Mass.) tied the highest balance beam score in EAGL Championship history and was named to the EAGL All-Tournament First Team on beam and Second Team on vault and floor exercise to highlight the UNH gymnastics team's fourth-place finish in the EAGL Championship at the Whittemore Center. Gorgenyi was selected Team MVP following a season in which she earned All-EAGL First Team accolades on uneven bars and Second Team on vault and floor exercise. She scored a personal-best and school-record-tying 9.950 on bars at Texas Woman's University on Feb. 5. Gorgenyi subsequently earned UNH's Jim Urquhart Student-Athlete of the Year Award,given to the most outstanding senior student-athlete based on athletic success, community involvement and academic achievement through her Wildcat career.

In 2022, the Wildcats set the program's all-time highest score on uneven bars in its Senior Day/Alumni Day quad meet on March 13 before a crowd of 1,660 at the Whittemore Center. UNH's 49.325 bar score eclipsed the previous school record of 49.300 set in 2010. Graduate student co-captain Kylie Kratchwell (Sewell, N.J.), in her final home meet, and junior Kylie Gorgenyi (North Reading, Mass.) headlined the lineup with a 9.900, which equaled Gorgenyi's personal best. Hailey Lui (Collegeville, Pa.) was named team MVP and was EAGL's regular-season balance beam champion. Lui graduated as a four-time All-EAGL honoree on beam, including three consecutive First-Team berths.The Collegeville, Pa., native competed as an event specialist on beam at the NCAA Regional Championships, hosted by Auburn, and was a finalist for UNH's Jim Urquhart Female Student-Athlete of the Year award.

In 2021, the Wildcats were ranked No. 35 nationally in the RoadtoNationals.com poll on March 19 when the team had to withdraw from the 2021 EAGL Championship -one day prior to the championship meet at Pitt- due to COVID-19-related protocols. With no ability to compete in that EAGL meet to defend their 2019 championship or add one more score to lock up an NCAA Regional Championship berth, the 'Cats fell out of the Top 36 and finished the season ranked 38^th (195.719 National Qualifying Score). Sophomore Robyn Kelley (Wakefield, Mass.) was named the EAGL Specialist of the Year, the first in school history. Kelly was tabbed team MVP and received the Katie Baldwin Academic Achievement Award to highlight the 2021 UNH gymnastics virtual team awards banquet.

In 2020, Bruck Ayotte's first season at the helm, the Wildcats earned a share of the inaugural EAGL regular-season championship along with North Carolina State, but UNH was prevented from defending its 2019 EAGL Championship when the season was canceled abruptly March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Seniors Riley Freehling (Southington, Conn.) and Emma Winer (Georgetown, Mass.) were crowned team co-MVPs. The EAGL Championships and NCAA Championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 public health threat.

Bruck Ayotte was named head coach of the Wildcat women’s gymnastics program July 10, 2019, by Director of Athletics Marty Scarano. Lindsey, who served as associate head coach under legendary Gail Goodspeed for three seasons (2017-19), replaced Goodspeed, who retired July 1, 2019, after a 40-year career at the University.

"We are very fortunate to have someone of Lindsey's capability and unique background succeed Gail Goodspeed,” said Scarano. “Gail set a standard that will be difficult to meet, but Lindsey's time spent with UNH prepares her well to do so. Most of all, Lindsey has been a valued member of our UNH family, and she will continue to lead this fabulous program with class."

"I am extremely honored and excited to be named the next head coach of women’s gymnastics at the University of New Hampshire, and I thank Marty Scarano for this opportunity,” said Bruck Ayotte. “I have been very fortunate to coach this program for over five years and to have used my experience as a Division I gymnast at the University of Michigan and performer/coach at Cirque du Soleil to assist our student-athletes.”

As associate head coach from 2016-19, Bruck Ayotte oversaw all team choreography, handled in-season team travel arrangements, worked alongside Goodspeed in all facets of the training program and was the gymnastics summer camp director. Previously, she was a UNH assistant coach for two seasons (2008-10). The Wildcats reached the NCAA Regional Championships all five seasons that Bruck Ayotte has been on staff.

In 2019, Bruck Ayotte was named NCAA Northeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year after helping the Wildcats win their third EAGL Championship in program history at the Whittemore Center. She shared the award with assistant coach Sunny Marchand and Datti, the volunteer assistant coach who rides off into the sunset of full-time retirement with Goodspeed, his wife, after 38 years of service to UNH.

From 2008-10, Bruck Ayotte was the Wildcats’ primary choreographer. Her other responsibilities included co-teaching the movement and gymnastics exploration class, overseeing the UNH community gymnastics class program and coordinating the program’s paperwork for numerous aspects. She then left UNH to pursue a life-long dream of performing with Cirque du Soleil and joined a show called Amaluna, where she was an Amazon character. She was captain of the squad, performed a unique uneven-bar act and was promoted to artist coach. She also learned numerous other disciplines and coached contortion, the water bowl act, suspended pole and corde lisse.

A native of Marietta, N.Y., Bruck Ayotte was a two-time All-American for head coach Bev Plocki at the University of Michigan from 2004-08. She was a Honda Award finalist, 2008 NCAA Woman of the Year nominee and a two-time NCAA Northeast Region Gymnast of the Year. Her other accolades included 2008 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, three-time All-Big Ten First Team honoree, NACGC/W Academic All-American, ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team and four-time Big Ten All-Academic Team.