SUNY Cortland Athletics

Former Cortland national champion Sulekha Modi Zaug enters her seventh year as the Red Dragons' women's gymnastics head coach in 2025-26.

In 2025, Zaug led the Red Dragons to their second consecutive national meet appearance and their highest national finish since 2014. Cortland finished in fourth place at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Championship, and as the top scorer among three East Region teams. Two Red Dragons, Tayah Graham (3rd place on vault) and Autumn Adkins (T8th place on uneven bars), garnered All-America honors, and Adkins was also selected as a WCGA Regular Season All-American on uneven bars. Cortland posted the top four team scores in program history during the season, including the school record of 192.075, and broke the school record for team balance beam score. Additionally, Samantha Meadows broke the individual balance beam school record with a mark of 9.85. 

Zaug was named both the NCGA National Coach of the Year and the NCGA East Region Coach of the Year during the 2023-24 season after her Red Dragon squad finished second at the NCGA East Region Championships and earned its first national berth since 2019. Cortland reached the 190-point mark in six of its last seven meets during the season, including a school-record tying 191.65 team score and a school-record 48.65 uneven bars score at the regional championship. Cortland had two All-Americans, including the national runner-up on balance beam, Taylor Goldstein, who also was the NCGA East Rookie of the Year.

During Zaug's inaugural season at the Cortland helm in 2019-20, five Red Dragons earned NCGA All-America honors, including Emma Schulz as East Region Gymnast of the Year. Cortland ranked seventh nationally, and third in the East, in Seasonal Average Score and scored higher than 188 four times. The NCGA East regionals and national championship meet were canceled, as was the entire 2020-21 season.

In 2021-22, the Red Dragons finished fifth at the NCGA East regionals and had three national qualifiers, including one All-American. During the 2022-23 season, Cortland also placed fifth at regionals and boasted two All-Americans, including the national runner-up on uneven bars.

Zaug earned a bachelor's degree in outdoor recreation from Cortland in 2000 and a master's degree in recreation management from the College in 2002.

Zaug was a three-time national champion on uneven bars in 1997, 1998 and 2000 and finished second nationally in the event in 1999. She was the first gymnast in the history of the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) to win three individual national titles in the same event. Her score of 9.80 on bars during her a regular-season meet in her senior year held up as a school record for 18 years before being eclipsed during the 2017-18 season.
 
In addition, Zaug earned first team All-America honors with a fifth-place national finish on balance beam in 1997 and a fourth-place showing in the all-around in 2000. On the regional level, Zaug won ECAC titles on uneven bars in 1997 and 1999 and was a four-time All-ECAC performer in the event with top-six finishes.
 
She was inducted into the NCGA Hall of Fame in 2018 and is one of only three Red Dragons, to date, to achieve that honor. A team captain during her senior year, Zaug was an NCGA All-Academic Team member and earned Dean's List honors at Cortland multiple times. She also initiated and coached the first SUNY Cortland women's gymnastics club team.
 
A Queens native, Zaug has served as head gymnastics coach for the Kennetts Gymnastics School in Goshen, as well as the nationally ranked Flushing YMCA team levels 8, 9 and 10 for nearly a decade.
 
Zaug served as the Director of Recreation at Glen Arden Retirement Community in Goshen from 2017-19. She was the Engage Life Director for Atria Senior Living in Ossining from 2012-17 and the Director of Recreation for Wingate Healthcare in Fishkill from 2007-12. She went on to become a leader in the field of activity professionals, becoming the New York State representative and presenting each year at the New York State Health Facilities Organization (NYSHFA) annual conferences.

updated 6/6/2025