Arizona gymnastics honored four seniors on senior day, but there was a chance that one of them could be back for a fifth year. Elizabeth LaRusso announced today that she will return for her redshirt senior season and to work on her master’s degree in speech language pathology.
@UACoachJohn is so coy about this stuff. I asked before they went to Seattle, but I told him I knew he wasn’t going to say. He didn’t. Anyway, @lizzylarusso will be back for her redshirt senior year. Huge for the @ArizonaGymCats on vault and floor.https://t.co/6uD6durdHY
— Kim Doss (@KimDoss71) April 10, 2025
LaRusso missed her junior season due to an injury. Arizona head coach John Court acknowledged that she had eligibility left, but he is never one to talk about potential returners until after the season. He followed that pattern last week before the team left for regionals.
When asked if she would return, he smiled and said in his typical joking manner, “Maybe she will. Maybe she won’t. Maybe I just don’t want to tell you.”
LaRusso is an event specialist on the leg events. She typically leads off on vault and floor exercise, helping to establish the GymCats’ rotation with veteran leadership.
“She could score higher if she went later in the rotation,” Court said several weeks ago. “Everyone knows that. Someone has to go first.”
Arizona was set to lose 12 of its 24 routines with the graduating class. With LaRusso returning, that number should drop slightly to 10. Most importantly, her return fills holes in the rotations for the leg events. Those tend to be the GymCats’ lower-ranked events.
She has career highs of 9.875 on vault, 9.800 on uneven bars, and 9.900 on floor exercise. This year, she had a high of 9.850 on vault and 9.900 on floor.