Coaching Staff
Head Coach Kristin White
Kristin White, who was named the head gymnastics coach at Utah State on May 20, 2022, is in her second season with the Aggies.
During her first season at the helm, White coached Brianna Brooks, who was named the North Central Region Gymnast of the Year. The junior from Las Vegas, Nevada, garnered first-team all-Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference accolades in the all-around and second-team honors on bars.
Under White’s tutelage, two Aggies competed at the NCAA Regional Championships in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brooks competed on bars and tied for third in Session I with a career-best 9.925, which is tied for 11th all-time in school history and ranks second all-time for a regional meet. Sofi Sullivan capped her Utah State career by placing seventh out of 27 competitors with a 9.875 on beam.
Three other Aggies joined Brooks in earning all-MRBC honors as Sullivan garnered first-team accolades on beam, while Alivia Ostendorf and Ariel Toomey picked up first-team honors on floor.
Behind Ostendorf and Toomey, who each averaged 9.863 on floor, which is tied for sixth all-time in single-season program history, Utah State averaged 49.003 as a team on the event, good enough for seventh-best in school history.
Brooks averaged 9.855 on bars (third-best in school history) and 9.820 on beam (ninth-best), while Sullivan averaged 9.861 on beam (fourth-best), Ostendorf averaged 9.808 on vault (tied for ninth-best) and Grace Rojas averaged 9.786 on bars (tied for 11th-best).
Utah State placed fourth at the 2023 MRGC Championships with a score of 195.825 – its third-highest score of the season.
White joined the Aggies after spending the last two seasons as an assistant coach under co-head coaches Jay and Jess Santos at Arizona State as the Sun Devils finished the 2022 season ranked No. 22 in the nation and captured a share of the Pac-12 regular season title. ASU finished the 2021 season ranked No. 9 in the nation as White was named the WCGA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year.
With White working with gymnasts on beam and floor, Arizona State finished the 2022 season scoring 49-plus in nine-straight meets on beam as junior Hannah Scharf led the Sun Devils with a team-best 9.950 on the event and earned WCGA second-team All-American honors and first-team all-Pac-12 accolades.
Prior to Arizona State, White was an assistant coach at Iowa State during the 2018-20 seasons as the Cyclones finished among the top-25 teams in the nation each year. During her final season in Ames, White mentored a floor lineup that finished the year ranked No. 16 in the nation, an improvement of 23 spots from the season before. Individually, junior Andrea Maldonado was named a 2020 WCGA first-team All-American on floor, as well as earning first-team all-Big 12 honors on the event as her 9.935 national qualifying score ranked seventh in the nation and second in the league.
Before entering the college ranks as a coach, White spent five years at the club level, where she mentored club gymnasts with Dynamo Gymnastics in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Dynamo, one of the top clubs in the nation, was awarded a pair of Region III Program of the Year honors in 2015 and 2016, as White was recognized individually as the 2016 Oklahoma State Coach of the Year.
A 2010 graduate at Oklahoma, White remained at her alma mater as a graduate assistant during the 2011 and 2012 seasons as the Sooners finished among the top 10 each year. At OU, White completed a master's degree in adult and higher education.
As a student-athlete at Oklahoma, White helped lead the Sooners to a trio of Big 12 team championships from 2008-10, and a runner-up finish at the 2010 NCAA National Championships. Individually, White was recognized with All-American honors on beam and floor as a senior in 2010. In addition to her excellence in the gym, White also earned three Outstanding Community Service Awards and spent three years as a member of Oklahoma's Student Athlete Advisory Committee and two years on OU's Athletics Council.
White and her husband, Trent, have three children: a son, Brayden (2), and twins, Blakely and Boston, born in September of 2023.
Kristin White File
Coaching History:
2023- Utah State - Head Coach
2021-22 Arizona State - Assistant Coach
2018-20 Iowa State - Assistant Coach
2013-17 Dynamo Gymnastics (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) - Coach and Choreographer
2010-12 Oklahoma - Graduate Assistant
Education:
2010 Oklahoma - Human Relations
2012 Oklahoma - Masters in Adult and Higher Education
Assistant Coach Robert Ladanyi
Robert Ladanyi (pronounced la-duh-nee) is in his second season as an assistant coach at Utah State. He is the primary coach on bars, while also spotting.
During his first season at the helm, Ladanyi coached Brianna Brooks, who was named the North Central Region Gymnast of the Year. The junior from Las Vegas, Nevada, garnered first-team all-Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference accolades in the all-around and second-team honors on bars.
Brooks competed on bars and tied for third in Session I of the NCAA Regional Championships in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a career-best 9.925, which is tied for 11th all-time in school history and ranks second all-time for a regional meet.
Brooks averaged 9.855 on bars, which ranks third all-time in school history. Ladanyi also coached Grace Rojas, who averaged 9.786 on bars, which is tied for 11th all-time, in her final season of the Aggies.
Ladanyi arrived in Logan after spending the previous three seasons as an assistant coach at Nebraska, working primarily with the vault and floor specialists.
The COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign highlighted Ladanyi's time in Lincoln, Nebraska, as the Huskers ranked eighth on vault and 12th on floor. He played a major role in Taylor Houchin earning All-America honors on vault, while she was the WCGA Region 4 Gymnast of the Year and a finalist for the AAI Award.
Prior to Nebraska, Ladanyi was an assistant coach for two seasons at Utah, where he coached one individual NCAA champion (vault) and four Pac-12 champs (two on vault, two on floor).
The Utes placed fifth at the 2018 NCAA National Championships as MyKayla Skinner became Utah's first individual national champion on vault since 1992. Skinner became Ladanyi's fourth NCAA individual champ overall.
In 2019, the Red Rocks ranked second in the nation on vault (49.465) and produced two first-team vault All-Americans in Skinner and MaKenna Merrell-Giles.
Ladanyi spent two seasons as an assistant at Denver in 2016 and 2017. He primarily coached vault and floor, helping the Pioneers to their first team qualification for the NCAA National Championships in 2017 and coached the first NCAA individual national champion on floor in Denver's history (Nine McGee, 2016).
Ladanyi spent a decade as an assistant at Florida coaching vault, bars and floor for the Gators. While at Florida, he helped the Gators reach the NCAA National Championships all 10 years he was on the staff, winning three national titles and coaching two individual national champions on bars. Throughout his tenure in Gainesville, Ladanyi coached 43 All-Americans on vault, bars and floor.
Before coming to the United States, Ladanyi was the head coach of the Romanian Junior National Team and the Romanian club team CSM. He also competed with the Romanian National Team for six years before retiring from competition at the age of 19 due to injury.
Ladanyi graduated from the Romanian National School of Coaching with a degree in International High Level Gymnastics. He has two daughters, Gabby and Laila.
Assistant Coach Rachel Slocum
Rachel Slocum is in her second season as an assistant coach at Utah State. She is the primary coach on vault and also assists head coach Kristin White on floor.
During her first season at the helm, Slocum coached Brianna Brooks, who was named the North Central Region Gymnast of the Year. The junior from Las Vegas, Nevada, garnered first-team all-Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference accolades in the all-around.
Slocum also coached Alivia Ostendorf, who averaged 9.808 on vault, which is tied for ninth all-time in school history. Ostendorf, along with Ariel Toomey, also averaged 9.863 on floor, which is tied for sixth all-time in program history, Utah State averaged 49.003 as a team on the event, good enough for seventh-best in school history.
Slocum joined the Aggies after spending the previous two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach at Arizona State, where she worked with White, who was an assistant coach with the Sun Devils before becoming just the fifth head coach in Utah State history.
Slocum helped the Sun Devils finish ranked No. 22 in the nation and qualify for the 2022 NCAA Regional Championships in Norman, Oklahoma. The team scored a 196-plus in all but one meet, including three 197s. Arizona State recorded five conference wins to tie for the Pac-12 regular-season title – the first in program history. It was also the most conference wins in a single season in 2001.
In her first season at ASU, Slocum helped guide the Sun Devils to their most successful season in 15 years in 2021, wrapping up the year ranked No. 9 on Road to Nationals, the best finish since 2006. The team ended the season with an National Qualifying Score of 197.088.
Slocum was a four-time All-American at Florida, competing from 2017-18 and graduating cum laude with a degree in health education and behavior.
While with the Gators, Slocum primarily competed on vault and floor, earning All-America second-team honors on vault at both the 2017 and 2018 NCAA Championships. On vault, she also earned NACGC All-America first-team regular-season recognition in 2017 and made the second team in 2018.
In both of her seasons at Florida, Slocum was an all-SEC gymnast, and in 2018 she also made the SEC Community Service Team. She won NCAA regional titles on floor (shared) and vault in 2018, as well as a share of the vault title in 2017.
Prior to Florida, Slocum spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons at Eastern Michigan, earning MAC Specialist of the Year honors as a sophomore. That season, she made the all-MAC and all-Tournament teams, and qualified for the NCAA Championships as an individual on floor after earning the regional title, the second Eagle in program history to do so.
The native of Holly Springs, North Carolina, also shined in the classroom as she made the 2018 SEC Academic Honor Roll, the 2017 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll and was an NACGC Scholastic Academic All-American in 2015 and 2018. At Eastern Michigan, she earned academic All-MAC and Distinguished Scholar Student-Athlete honors, as well as earning two MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week nods.