Friday – 2/22/13
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [23] Kentucky @ [1] Florida Scores
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Iowa State @ [9] Nebraska Scores Video(free)
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Pittsburgh, Bridgeport, George Washington @ [17] Maryland Scores
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – [8] Georgia @ Missouri Scores  Video(free)
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [5] UCLA @ [2] Oklahoma Scores
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [4] Alabama @ [19] Arkansas Scores
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [6] LSU @ [14] Auburn Score Video(paid)
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [12] Minnesota @ Iowa
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [22] Washington @ Arizona State Scores Video(free)
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – [15] Arizona, Seattle Pacific @ [11] Oregon State Scores Video(free)

We’re about to get underway with a very busy Friday of meets, featuring seven of the top ten teams and eleven of the top fifteen.

Apparently the Oklahoma/UCLA meet is supposed to be broadcast on TV, but it’s on channels that no one has ever received or heard of and may be fictional. Fox College Sports – Central? You made that up. It might as well be on Unicorn Fancyman Network – South Hogwarts.

The first meets will feature Florida and Nebraska, Nebraska hoping to recover from a 195 last week and Florida hoping to provide no reason for the dominance narrative to shift. There is big room for ranking improvement for the Huskers this week with a 195.750 home score they are looking to drop. For the Gators, it would take a score over 197.300 to improve on their RQS at all, which provides a sliver of an opening for Oklahoma.

Nebraska is underway, and Giblin leads off with a strong, high stuck Yfull with some bent knees in the air. Nice opening. Stephens follows without quite the height and with a hop back, but it’s a perfectly fine vault, especially for early lineup.

I like this camera angle on bars, on the floor but offset slightly in front of the high bar – take note other places. Leg breaks and late pirouettes early for Iowa State.
Wong vaults third for Nebraska with another nice block, good height, twists a little late and has to pike a bit to finish, hop in place – I wouldn’t score it quite as high as I would have gone for Giblin. Skinner has floppy legs on her block, is off to the side a little bit, and has to bend to hold on to the landing. Not terrible, but not the 9.9s she has been getting.

A fall on a double front dismount for Iowa State, it looked good in the air but landed underrotated.
Blanske’s vault is similar to Stephens’ in height and form, but the landing was a bit better. DeZiel shows her usual strong height and power, best distance on the team, but has to take a sizable hop. Giblin’s leadoff was the strongest vault in the rotation and would have gone 9.900 minimum later on in the order, I expect. 49.175 for Nebraska on vault. The landings were the biggest contributor to that score being lower than it could be.  
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Over in the land of Florida, Stageberg is back in the vault lineup instead of Dickerson. The vaulting seems characteristically strong, featuring a 9.925 for Macko and a 9.950 for Sloan so far. 9.975 for Hunter as anchor. It will happen one of these days. It has to. 49.550 on vault for the Gators. Last week, this team did not have the landings on vault, so scores in the mid-high 9.9s seems to indicate they have it more together today so far.

Kentucky overcomes a fall on bars for 48.950, and high 48 events is their usual this year when they’re hitting.
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Lauer is opening on bars for Nebraska now, the handstands need a bit more refinement, finishes with a pikey DLO and a step. A fine routine, but she’s better on beam, certainly. We never see anything from the other Lauer, do we? Iowa State had something tucked as the first vault, and the second vault was a serviceable yfull with a step. Blanske was going well on bars before a majorly missed handstand going into her dismount (near horizontal), which was stuck. They have improved these landings.

Skinner third on bars,we missed the beginning of her routine, but she showed better power and swing than the first two. Not quite solid in her DLO landing, hung onto it but incurred all her deductions there. Neither of her landings have been right on today. Iowa State improving as vault foes, but they don’t have the power or form of Nebraska, certainly. Wong looks very nice on bars, great line and handstands, looks a little close to the bar on her tuck full, but it’s fine and she sticks. Excellent.

I’ll be switching over to Georgia at the end of this rotation, but that meet is already underway. We see a stuck tuck full dismount from DeZiel. What we saw was very nice. Wong getting a 9.925 on bars. These final three routines are all class from Nebraska. Pretty good handspring tuck half for Iowa State on vault. Giblin finishes for Nebraska with a giant gienger and a stuck tuck full. She missed a handstand in there rather noticeably, but it was quite strong otherwise. She’s very precise in her pirouetting.  
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Vault is a rough one for Missouri this season, so I’m not surprised by these low scores to begin. Cheek opened bars with  an excellent 9.875 for Georgia. It appears Tanella had a fall in the second position. Brandie Jay shows her Khorkina/Markelov and sticks her tuck full. Missed a handstand and had a leg separation as usual on the shaposh, but it was fine.

Shayla in the fourth position for Georgia, handstands look good, hits tkatchev, it’s all about the dismount: usual, piked with a large step forward. Her routine is 9.9s without that. This is better from Missouri on vault. Strong yfull from Updike, stuck, following on OK yhalf from Howard – good landing but no height.

Brittany Rogers looked strong as well, good form as always, stuck dismount, maybe not quite as precise in the handstands as always, but this is a difficult angle for those high bar handstands. Missouri finishes with a handspring front pike, very low landing with a step. Davis finishes on bars for Georgia, her usual wonderful performance, best amplitude on the team and most consistent dismount – stuck. Very strong finish.

Overall, a good bars rotation from Georgia, but we’ve come to expect better than good and they’ve come to need it because of beam and floor. Rogers and Davis were quite strong (and Rogers’s handstands were apparently fine as well, so it must just have been the angle), which made up for Worley’s dismount and Tanella’s fall. 49.400.
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It’s a 49.325 for Nebraksa on bars. They can do better, but it seemed that everyone missed a handstand rather majorly. This dismounts are really coming along. Florida goes 49.475 on bars, led by a 9.975 from Sloan, the second 9.975 of the meet. They’re itching for those 10s. Bridget was so excellent last week on bars that this is no surprise. Kytra gets a career high 9.950 on bars, so there’s that. B. Caquatto had her first competition routine and fell, which seriously hurts her chances of being in the lineup when Johnson comes back. She came in instead of Macko, so they’re really not going for it with these lineups (no Dickerson on vault, no Macko on bars) by saving people and exploring depth. Good. 
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Oklahoma has the lineups up – question: Alyssa Pritchett on bars? Are we . . . Does . . . Is that a thing that happens even in training? This is a typo. That should be Mattie, and Mattie is actually not vaulting (sigh) and Pritchett will be. This can be the only explanation.
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Davis opens Georgia vault with her usual strong stuck yfull, great start. Some leg separations and a missed handstand for Ostad on bars.

Hires is now in the second position for Georgia since she hasn’t been getting the lift or the landing she has in the past. Same here. A little low in the landing with a step back, but better distance than Davis.

Note: Florida will have to count a 9.650 from Hunter on beam after a fall from Sloan.

Noel Couch is extremely low on her landing on the yfull, very near to a fall, very unexpected from her, especially because she looked like her old self last week. They will desperately need to drop that.

Is this the first time Georgia has been to Missouri since the 2010 unpleasantness? Rogers does her 1.5 but has to take a step back with some bent knees. Not as strong as last week, when she stuck. Eubank has a stronger routine for Missouri, really just a missed hs and a dismount step.

Cheek is also fine, but not as fine as usual. Lower landing and a step forward to salute. These vaults are just OK by Georgia’s standards and are putting more pressure on beam and floor.

Missouri could be 9.8-ing these bars routines with a bit more control on the landings. Lots of steps to the side. Jay saves the vault rotation a little bit, but her y1.5 was also not as strong as last week. A bit more bent in the knees and a pretend stick with a step-salute-twirl thing. 
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In dramatic news, Florida will be counting a fall on beam after Macko goes 9.200. We haven’t seen Florida with a rough event in over a month, since counting a fall at LSU. Now they will be counting a 9.350 and a 9.650, which removes all hope of a high 197, and puts even a mid 197 in doubt. Oklahoma, consider your door open. 9.900 for Mooring on vault.

Nebraska gets 9.900s from Lauer and Wong to go 49.175 on beam. They have an outside shot at 197 with a hit floor, but high 196s looks quite likely. 
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Georgia goes just 49.150 on vault, which is quite low for them. They are still on 197 pace, which they always are after the first two events. The landings were not good on vault, but hopefully that doesn’t translate to the floor rotation.
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Dickerson finishes beam with a 9.875, so that leads the rotation along with Stageberg’s identical score. Florida goes 48.525 on beam but can probably still salvage a 197 with a big finish on floor.
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The scores still say Alyssa Pritchett went on bars for UCLA. I don’t think that’s a thing. The score for that routine was 9.150, but unfortunately that would be believable for both Pritchett and Larson.

Oklahoma goes 49.525 on vault, which is colossal. A 9.925 from Kanewa, debuting in this meet. She was KJ’s secret-that-was-never-a-secret weapon. UCLA gets a 9.950 from Zamarripa to finish bars with 49.250, which is fine for them but still not up to capability.

Auburn vaulted 49.275, led by a 9.925 from Guy. 
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Georgia begsin on floor with Persinger, still no Earls leading off here. A little low in her tumbling. Is that Shayla shouting in what appears to be a snow suit? Rudi dismount looks strong. Some competent 9.7 gymnastics from Missouri in the first two routines.

Tanella now on floor, good high double pike to start, came on a little crooked on her layout .5 out of the 1.5, but punched out of it fine to stag. Also finishes with a fine rudi. Not quite as clean as some of her 9.875s, so I don’t necessarily expect that, but the judges go essentially the same. 9.850.

Fall in the third position for Missouri after Henderson splits the beam on her series.

Brittany Rogers went for her double arabian, was way way underrotated and could never keep it to her feet. The first two routines looked good, so they shouldn’t have any problem if the final three hit. I doubt she stays in the lineup with six more consistent options to use.

Much cleaner and more precise from Missouri in this fourth routine from Updike, but there’s a step on the gainer full which shouldn’t have happened.
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Florida getting the 9.875s from Stageberg and Wang on floor to help save the meet. Also showing a few of the backup routines here. This won’t be close to the postseason lineup.
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Jay 4th for Georgia on floor, lands very low in her tuck full, front double to punch front looks nice, keeps it in bounds, also a little low and stumbly on her double back dismount. Just OK. Georgia is not quite on today, and beam is yet to come. 9.800 for Jay.

Shayla time on floor, fine double pike, but she just went OOB, they really didn’t need that, dances out of her middle pass well to cover up a bit of lack of control, rudi is very slightly crunched but OK. Once again, not her best but not a disaster – the name of the game with Georgia today. It would have been strong if not for the OOB.

Missouri’s beam anchor comes off on her series, so they will be counting a fall.

Big routine needed from Couch here as Georgia is just on 49 pace without her routine, bounces a little out of her middle pass – she usually shows more control than that. Sticks double pike dismount, which was very usual for her. It will likely be the strongest score of the rotation. 9.925 to save a 49.125. 
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Final in Florida: Florida 196.975, Kentucky 196.075
Before we get to Florida, that is a really important score for Kentucky. Home scoring at Kentucky has been a little tight this season, so they probably enjoy going someplace like Florida. This will help their RQS significantly. Florida would have been in line for something in the high 197s if not for the beam rotation. What’s interesting about beam is that even though this meet saw some lineup experimentation elsewhere, it was the definite competitors (Sloan, Hunter, M Caquatto) who had the issues on beam. Bridgey Caquatto had a rough debut on her two events, which is a shame. neither of her scores counted.

Alabama got a 49.175 on bars at Arkansas, led by the 9.900 from Demeo. Sledge led off with a 9.825, so we knew the score would be a bit low since she has been the strongest worker so far. Arkansas scored a massive 49.425 on vault with three scores 9.9+. Grable led with a 9.925. Alabama righted things a little bit on vault by going 49.425 themselves.

Auburn got a 9.950 from Yokay on bars for another 49.275 rotation. Do we need to be on 197 watch?

Final in Nebraska: Nebraska 197.050, Iowa State 194.850  
This is a major result for Nebraska to go 197 again. Emily Wong had the big meet, which seems to always be the case. This team can get better, but they are staying well entrenched in that top ten conversation.

Oklahoma is sure enjoying being at home, with all counting bars scores over 9.9 for a 49.575. We’re now on 198 watch for this team. UCLA gots 9.9s from Courtney and Zamarripa on vault (9.900 is an underperformance for Zam on vault) for a 49.300, which is fine. UCLA is currently well back of Oklahoma but still on 197 pace. The Bruins need a 197 this week.
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Moment of truth coming for Georgia on the beam. Talk this week has been all about the beam, so no matter how much they worked on it (and I’m sure they worked on it a lot), the pressure of that combined with the pressure of two lackluster rotations leading into it is a challenge to deal with. It’s a challenge they must meet.

Cheek starts with a good loso series, hits switch side, hips were totally off line on her side aerial and she comes off, uh oh, this is turning into a huge moment in Georgia’s season, these next five beam routines. If they hit them all, they can suddenly claim this meet as a big mental victory, but if they don’t, the pressure and lack of confidence on beam will only escalate to the point where their whole world becomes about the beam.

I was too busy being dramatic about Georgia to see Missouri’s floor opening, but it looked fine.

Persinger 2nd, she has been wobbly on occasion for 9.7s but usually stays on. Good L turn as always, hits from aerial, legs on her loso series but it’s right on the beam, saves a wobble on the front toss, Sticks/near sticks 1.5. Well done after a fall.

Aliceaacosta slides out of ber double pike opening and will get docked for her split positions, otherwise it was OK.

Couch third for Georgia, series is good this week, minor minor wobble on switch side, everything looks good. She looks very tense in this routine, but needing to hit will do that to you. Just a step on the double full dismount. Good recovery from last week as well as from the vault this week.

Lack of control on mounts has been the theme for Missouri so far on floor. Other than the fall on beam, however, this has been a very 9.775/mid 195s performance.

Rogers now on beam,minor wobbles on dance series, loses balance on her bhs 3/4 to double stag but does extremely well to lose her balance back onto the beam on her feet, major wobble though but no fall, after that everything was excellent with a stuck dismount. 

Big break from Eubank on floor for Missouri but she stays on her feet, this will be quite a low score though after another issue on the middle pass.
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In other news, scores are going exceptionally high in Oklahoma, with a 198 looking very likely for the Sooners today. Bynum has fallen on floor again for UCLA and Courtney is still out of the floor lineup for the moment. If Oklahoma hits floor, they will be in line for the highest team score in ages.
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Rogers got a 9.825, so no damage done after the odd bhs 3/4, Shayla up now. Good sheep jump, hits loso series well, bhs 1/1 is strong, sticks her piked gainer full. Hugely important hit for Shayla. Well done. 9.950.

Earls to finish for Georgia, hits series and added back her second layout this week, way off on her side aerial and does exceptionally well to stay on, but wobbles quite significantly and it will be the lowest score fo the rotation, step on double back dismount. Not the best, but they’ll take it. For Georgia to come back and hit those five routines after the fall is a big deal, and we’re looking at high 196s now.

Missouri has a fall on every pass in the final position and will be counting a 9.550 on floor for a 194.550 team score. Georgia records a 196.825, featuring the 49.400 on bars. This was an off meet for Georgia, but the final score is a good one and they will be able to largely move past the fact that they had a mistake in every rotation. They dropped the mistakes.
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49.550 for Oklahoma on beam, 49.350 for UCLA on floor. The story of this meet will be the humongous scores, but I’m also interested to see if the narrative changes re: Oklahoma and Florida. Florida is still the team to beat this season and I don’t see these meets today changing anything in the long run, but Oklahoma is a floor rotation away from the #1 ranking and a preposterously high score.

LSU went crazy on vault for 49.550, got through bars well enough, and hit floor for 49.350. Just the beam standing between the Tigers and a very high score. It also looks like another strong 196 for Auburn going into the final rotation.
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Thanks for the report about the Gutierrez injury on floor. Alabama had hit routines from the rest of the lineup, so still records a 49.200 on the event, featuring Jacob’s 9.900. With beam still to come, this is looking low 197, which is always respectable on the road. Surprisingly, Alabama leads Arkansas by just .050 going into the final rotation.
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Ranzy on beam for LSU is way off on her series and comes off the beam, following a 9.675 from Garcia in the first position. The beam strikes again. I don’t understand the 9.800 on the scoreboard because she definitely came off. That’s a mistake. Ah yes, it was an 8.800, much more realistic.

Dickson in the third positon on beam is a hit for LSU to keep things afloat. Yokay does well in her floor routine and  Garcia follows with much of the same. A little lack of control in some of the tumbling, especially a bounce of the double pike dismount. 9.900 is too high for that routine. Hall on beam now with several wobbles and some lack of hitting split positions, but she got through it.

Webster goes foruth for Auburn on floor, opens with an impressive pike full, but she lacks control and slides back. Stays in bounds but it’s a clear deduction.

Courville’s arabian is excellent but she has a major wobble on the loso series, split elements are perfect, hop on her gainer pike. Strong routine but she can be much better. She starts from a higher level than the rest of the team because there are no built-in dance element deductions.

Atkinson hits floor for Auburn, and LSU will finish beam with Jordan, who is a little wobbly on some of these elements and has to make some minor corrections, stuck dismount.

Guy will finish for Auburn on floor, looking for a huge score for this program. DLO is excellent, big hit for a big night. The scores went high in this last rotation to be sure, but this is a major accomplishment for Auburn’s program.

LSU will still have to count a 9.675 and a 9.750 on beam to finish just below 197, so Auburn will manage to win the meet by breaking 197.

Final: Auburn 197.175, LSU 196.975 

It looks like a 197.100 for Alabama, which is perfectly strong. An uncharacteristic 9.650 from Williams on beam will be dropped. Arkansas needs something in the low 9.8s from Grable on floor to take the meet. Regardless of what she scores, this is a major accomplishment for a team that has been struggling this year. She goes 9.575, so it looks like we will end in a tie. I’ll wait for confirmation.

Oklahoma gets a 49.675 on floor for an unspeakably large 198.375. UCLA loses by over a point but will absolutely take that 197.200 road score any day. It’s impossible to make a sound judgment about scoring at an event you haven’t seen, but when everyone on the home team gets a 9.875 at minimum, then an adjustment needs to be made. There is a difference in quality between these routines and there should be realistic separation. I’m sure there will be outrage about this score, and I’m really excited for it. My advice: It’s the regular season, so don’t get worked up. These things have a way of evening out once the postseason begins.

If Oklahoma really was this good tonight, then I’m excited for the battle between the Sooners and the Gators this year. My instinct is that Florida is still the better team in the amplitude department in particular, which often doesn’t get evaluated appropriately until all the top teams are in one place but can make champions. What we know now is that Oklahoma will make Florida work for it, which is very good for entertainment levels. I was worried this season might end up a little boring. I could see the rest of this season becoming a fight between these two teams where we have difficulty/amplitude in one corner (Florida) and precision/landings in another corner (Oklahoma), which could be a very fun and discussion-provoking dichotomy. 

I’m a little gymnasticsed-out (it took me three tries to spell gymnastics right just then), so I’m taking a pass on the Pac-12 meets. Enjoy if you have the stamina!