Alabama v. Missouri at 7:30 ET
Florida v. LSU and Georgia v. Arkansas at 8:00 ET.
I’ve missed the beginning of the meet, so I don’t have the chance to set the stage or have thoughts about what I expect. Whatever. Alabama and Missouri are already underway.
Kim Jacob on bars for Alabama. Not quite there on any of her handstands yet, but otherwise this is a strong routine with a single step on the DLO dismount. It should be worth 9.850s before too long.
Clark is a little past on her first handstand and, like Jacob is missing her handstands mostly. This is normal for the first meet of the year. Good DLO to finish, I liked the flight.
The scoring has updated, Alabama begins with a 9.825 from Sledge (I thought she was supposed to be going later this year?) and a 9.750 from Alexin.
The quality of this stream is not my absolute best friend as there are a lot of audio and buffering problems, but I’ll give updates as I can. Low scores from Clark and Jacob, in the 9.7s. They are missing all of their handstands, so it’s difficult to score very high. I missed Demeo, but she gets a 9.900, so well done.
Priess is on a different level to the rest of the team on bars. Hits all handstands but one. I liked to see a bit tighter legs on the pak, and she took a sizable step on the DLO, so it won’t be a higher score than Demeo, but it will be. The score from Demeo is encouraging because this team needs three bars workers. Priess is one and Sledge can be another, but Demeo needs to fill that third spot.
Alabama goes 49.050 in the first rotation, leading Missouri by .425.
We have the lineups for Florida and LSU. Hunter, Johnson, and King are coming in for the AA for Florida as expected. Sloan is still not competing on floor. Ashanee is off beam, which is interesting but not entirely unexpected. I’d probably keep her over Stageberg, but I don’t think they’re sacrificing much if anything.
Alabama is getting ready on vault with Jacob. I’m interested to see how many of those potential Y1.5s we see. Jacob has a little bit of leg form and a large step back. Just sort of fine. Many form breaks on bars for Missouri from Ostad, so I don’t expect a counting score (at least ideally).
Clark does her Yfull well with a hop. From the angle, it looked like she might be missing amplitude, but I don’t think she was. It certainly didn’t show in the landing. Should score much better than Jacob’s 9.800 if that’s our starting standard. The second Missouri bars worker goes over on a handstand and comes off. Clark gets a 9.825, but her vault was more than .025 better than Jacob’s. Same problem again for Missouri and she just salutes. Rough days.
Beers goes for Alabama and unexpectedly does a Yurchenko back tuck. So this is the world. 9.425. Acting like they planned that? Conkle is much better from Missouri on bars. Sufficiently clean. Sledge vaults, great amplitude as always, a very little but low and some leg form and a step, but that makes it seem worse than it was. Good first meet vault. The judges are being sufficiently critical.
Over at LSU, Florida on a good track on bars led by another 9.900 from Hunter, matching her success from last week. Savona and Mathis have vaulted 9.850s, but LSU is already a touch behind.
Gutierrez does her Yfull. A bit more piked than it usually is with a sizable step back. Otherwise, it was her normal excellent vault.This will be a very low bars score for Missouri, but I can see the potential 9.8s later in the lineup.
Milliner is our only Y1.5 of the day (not surprising) and it looked bufferingly excellent. A stick with the usual knee bend. It would be a 9.950 at home, so let’s see what it is here. 9.925. Fair.
Once again, Florida had a big start on bars but didn’t capitalize. An unexpected fall from Caquatto is dropped (is this the first time she’s fallen on bars? I can’t remember another one). 9.9s from Morrison and Courville give LSU a .050 lead after the first rotation. Expect some big scores here all night long.
Low scores from Hires and Cheek on bars for Georgia. Lineups overall are very reminiscent of the first meet, except no Worley on beam according to these scores. Why, exactly?
Alabama looking on pace for an expected mid-196s for the meet, 98.225 after two rotations. Missouri will not be able to overcome that bars disaster.
Arkansas has to bury Erin Freier at the end of vault (she probably shouldn’t be vaulting), but they drop the score and score 49.100, led by the 9.875 from Grable. They should be pleased with that start. Christa Tanella tied for the highest bars score for Georgia, which should tell us everything and more. 49.025.
Lauren Beers is debuting on floor for Alabama. This is one of her better events. A bit bouncy out of the first two landings, the switch ring is a real problem, and a lower double pike. Not a great routine but nothing to worry about.
Some wobbles everywhere from Missouri in the first few beam routines, but it’s much more proficient work than on bars from the first couple. You can at least see these routines scoring not terribly at some point. Clark goes on floor for Alabama and has similarly bouncy landings but a bit stronger routine than from Beers.
Florida takes a .150 lead over LSU after vaults of 9.900 from Dickerson and 9.950 from Hunter. Sounds about right. LSU avoids having to count a fall on bars this week (just the one from Wyrick), so victory! Both teams still around 197 pace after two events.
Brooke Parker has improved on floor. Good for her. That should be the highest score yet. Missouri looks to have about three to four competition-ready routines on each event right now, which is not enough even to get 195s. Jacob is moving up in the Alabama floor lineup, but that may be a result of several top workers not yet being ready. Good routine from her. I believe she is going to upgrade that mount at some point this season, at least allegedly.
Missouri just had a bhs loso series that wasn’t close. Second fall. We’re looking at a potential 192 here.
Georgia is going well on vault with a 9.900 from Cheek and a 9.875 from Rogers. Arkansas is struggling a little on bars, which we always knew would be a problem without Howdeshell and Pisani.
Demeo hits floor well and Missouri’s beam is like a Saw movie. Tough to start this way, especially with a lot to prove as a new SEC team. Milliner anchors floor (no Sledge, Gutierrez, or Priess because no seniors allowed), and she hits to confirm that Alabama will go easily over 49. That mid 196 pace looks solid as long as they hit beam. Is this Sims doing an exhibition? Nowhere close on the double pike, but they are grooming her to be lineup, that’s for sure.
Georgia hits another big vault score with 49.325. They have at least four who can go 9.9, so I expect this to be a trend all season. This is the best event for both Rogers and Jay (or should be). Arkansas can’t get above a 9.775 on bars and now has a deficit of over half a point.
Florida has started poorly on floor with a 9.675 and 9.700, all but giving the lead back in just a routine or two.
Okay all, have fun watching the rest of the scores or the torrent of buffering issuing from Missouri. I’ll probably update at the end of the night, and I’ll be back tomorrow at 4 ET/1 PT for Nebraska @ Michigan.
Big news of the day is that Florida has to count a fall on floor and loses to LSU. Florida would have broken 197 without the fall, but in the end its LSU 196.875, Florida 196.575. I’m interested to see how LSU fares on the road now after two strong home results.
Georgia finishes with a 196.200, which is an improvement with no counting of falls. Still too many low scores counting. Arkansas scores 195.775, which is not bad at all, but bars will be a problem all year I expect.