National qualifier.
350 individual awards.
Yet, competing at the collegiate level wasn’t something senior Georgia Dunlap always wanted.
“My sophomore year, I was not planning to do gymnastics in college,” Dunlap said. “I definitely wanted to quit. But after my junior season, when I started getting the scores I wanted, I knew I was actually ready to do this in college.”
Her relationship with gymnastics began much earlier — the thought of flipping and tumbling was almost instant for Dunlap.
“I’ve been doing gymnastics since I was 5,” Dunlap said. “My dad was a cheerleader, so he put me into cheerleading.”
Dunlap trains at Stars Gymnastics Training Center and is coached by Dan Baker. Baker, being a vault coach for the U.S. national team, allowed Dunlap to have exposure to elite level gymnasts such as Simone Biles, Jade Carey and Sunisa Lee. Baker played a major role in helping her navigate the recruitment process.
“[Dan Baker] has a lot of connections with coaches,” Dunlap said. “He could text a college coach, making it a lot easier to contact coaches throughout my recruitment process.”
Even though Dunlap had Baker as an influential force, it was her other coaches and teammates that pushed her to keep going.
“My coaches are very supportive, so I was really lucky for that,” Dunlap said. “The older teammates I’ve had that are already in college are part of my inspiration. I’d see teammates go to LSU, Missouri, Stanford, Minnesota, and that helped expand my connections to the college coaches.”
At school, counselor Sarah Ray was a constant and dependable individual for Dunlap. Ray knew Dunlap’s father before she formally met Dunlap. Since schools do not have the specialized equipment and necessary space for training, Ray helped get Dunlap “off campus-gym” privileges and would stay informed when Dunlap would compete in large national competitions.
“Her dad would tell me when the big things came, so we would put it on the announcements or in the newsletter,” Ray said. “I would send her notes on her schedule saying good luck or congratulations on her different events.”
Division I schools start reaching out to athletes on June 15 of their junior year.
By June 15, Dunlap had already managed to attract the attention of several Division I schools.
“My main schools were Clemson, Missouri, Arizona State, Arkansas and Minnesota,” Dunlap said. “I had a call with Yale, but I realized I wasn’t looking for an Ivy.”
Despite these early opportunities, Dunlap still had her reserves of competing at a college level during her sophomore year.
“Some colleges are pretty slow at recruiting, and it’s frustrating if you don’t get a response back,” Dunlap said. “Sometimes it feels like a college doesn’t want me or I’m not good enough.”
However, Dunlap was able to lean on the people around her — especially her best friend Dasha Mangupli.
“I was trying to quit and Dasha told me, ‘No, just keep going, you’ll be okay.’ She kept pushing me to be a good athlete.”
Mangupli supported Dunlap through the recruitment process, even in the early stages.
“Every single time she would go tour schools or have a call, I would force her to make a pros and cons lists of the schools,” Mangupli said. “She’d be very indecisive because she had so many options, and she didn’t know what she wanted. I helped her figure out what kind of school fit her best.”
The stars aligned for Dunlap when former Berkeley coaches announced their move to Clemson – the very place she felt most drawn to all along.
“I was already talking to the coach at Berkeley, and so once they moved to Clemson, they advocated that they were still interested,” Dunlap said.
Clemson gymnastics had its inaugural season in 2023. However, a coaching change occurred in 2025 when husband-and-wife duo, Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell, became co-head coaches for the 2025 season.
“The new coaches won the Pac-12 coaches of the year,” Dunlap said. “They have created a special culture, and it has been brought over with them to Clemson.”
In addition to multiple unofficial visits to both Clemson and the University of Missouri, Dunlap had the opportunity to attend an official visit to Clemson this fall. Official visits are all paid for by the university including food, housing and flights. However, unofficial visits are self-funded. Athletes are allowed unlimited official and unofficial visits, with the only expectation being one official visit per school.
“After my Clemson visit, I had another visit with a different college,” Dunlap said. “But the resources they had at other colleges just weren’t as exciting. I wanted to go to a school that was academic and athletic-based. I have to think about what happens if I get injured.”
Looking back, Dunlap knows that the road to her commitment to Clemson wasn’t easy, but now, she feels both relief and excitement about what lies ahead.
“I know my future teammates and coaches will provide a good support system,” Dunlap said. “I’m not stressed about the possibilities anymore.”
