We finally arrive at a regional where the host is not the top seed. It’s the second seed, which is just as effective in reducing upset potential. This is our west coast regional, so it would have been nice if they had scheduled the meet later to separate it from the other meets. Alas, no. It’s at 7ET, 4PT along with the Alabama regional.

Rotation order (starting event):
[4] Georgia (vault)
[10] Oregon State (bye before bars)
[16] Arkansas (bye before floor)
[21] Boise State (floor)
[28] Arizona State (bars)
[32] California (beam)

The Favorites

Georgia enters the Corvallis Regional with its highest postseason ranking in the post-Suzanne era. No final conclusions can be drawn about the success of Durante’s first year because, well, nothing has happened yet, but after a troubling first month and a half, Durante has put the team in a better position to contend with the top programs. When Clark was fired and Durante hired, I questioned the move, not from any allegiance to Clark but from the perspective that Clark’s teams were improving and no one else was necessarily going to be any better. I’m big enough to admit that I might be at least 30% wrong.

One of my major knocks against Jay Clark was that he seemed to disregard the “girlier” parts of gymnastics, the elegance, the presentation, the refinement, the choreography, even the seemingly nonsensical things like leotards. When questioned about them, he would often deflect those issues as “Julie’s territory.” Even though those areas may seem intangible or insignificant, they are all reflective of investment in the larger performance quality. This year’s Georgia team possesses an attention to detail and performance that has been missing recently. Plus, Durante can claim the trophy for having solved the riddle of that sphinx Christa Tanella. Now, that doesn’t mean this team is any less likely to have a beam meltdown sometime in the next few weeks, but I like the overall direction. 

While the Gymdogs are not in quite the same territory as the previously previewed top seeds that could count a fall and still win easily, it would nonetheless take a disaster to knock Georgia out in this round. A few missed landings or a counting wobbly beam set is not going to make much of a difference in the larger picture.

Right now, Georgia sits atop the second tier of contenders, those team that have not yet proven they have the ability to somehow snatch a title away from the likes of Florida, Alabama, or Oklahoma. If the Gymdogs are going to become part of the elite group, they must prove the potential at this meet. In that respect, floor is the biggest concern. While beam has been the focus of most of the nail biting and ashen-faced sneering this year, when this team hits six for six, it is a nationally competitive rotation. On floor, the team faces much more difficulty mustering more than one or two 9.9s, even when everybody hits to potential. Watch the dance elements and the control of landings, especially for Worley, Rogers, and Jay.

The other significant determining factor in Georgia’s success will be the quality of the freshmen. Rogers and Jay can combine for five or six 9.9s when they are hitting, but they must be in form and must control their landings to do so. If they are missing slightly and getting 9.850s, Georgia will find it near impossible to become a top-tier team.

I’m also including Oregon State in the favorites section on account of both the performance at Pac-12s and being the host of this event. If the Beavers were not hosting, I would consider them somewhat susceptible to suffering a weak beam rotation and dropping into the mid-196s, where Arkansas will be waiting, but at home I expect something close to a repeat of the scoring we saw at Pac-12s, where Oregon State was able to ride being “the team that didn’t mess up” to a 197.850 and the conference title. Even if that beam rotation had turned problematic (it was teetering), the score would still have been in the low 197s, which should be safe again this weekend.

There are currently too many 9.825-quality routines in these lineups for Oregon State to be a contender to advance to Super Six. The team will not be able to rely on receiving a 49.675 for a perfectly solid 49.400-49.450 of a bars rotation once things get more serious, so it will be up to some of those early routines, especially on the events other than bars, to pick up the scoring pace. If something higher than a 197.200 is going to become a normal thing (and it will have to be for any hope of challenging at nationals), there must be more than one or two likely 9.9s per event.

On beam, Blalock, Stambaugh, Ohlrich, and Harris are still a little too happy just to stay on the event and avoid a fall. A 49.150 will be good enough at this regional because there are stacks of beam questions on the other teams, but it will difficult to dig out of that hole in a national semifinal. The level of confidence and security in those beam routines will be crucial. They have to start getting rid of those multi-wobble showings, especially those wobbles that come when moving out of, or adjusting after, otherwise hit acro skills. While vault and floor don’t suffer from the same tentativeness and “Please just don’t fall”-ness of the beam rotation, finding a way to get those first few routines out of 9.825 land will be vital.

The extremely high quality of gymnastics from Stambaugh and Jones is well known, and the team should be able to ride that fairly far. Still, they need a third and fourth musketeer. Blalock is there on two events, but we still need confirmation that there is more to this team.

The Contenders
Last year, Georgia and Oregon State also met in the same regional, and they were joined by a then-struggling Michigan team. Arkansas, in many ways, takes the Michigan role in this year’s competition, a normally strong team that has lost its star gymnast and is finding it difficult to remain competitive. Last year, Michigan almost managed to sneak into nationals after a season-best performance, and Arkansas will be hoping for the same opportunity. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to prove more difficult this time.

In every Arkansas meet I’ve seen this season, I get the impression the team is hanging by a thread. They compete just five high-quality vaults, and they have had to sacrifice Grable’s beam score by putting her first just to get through the event with hit routines. The Razorbacks likely need a beam mistake from Oregon State (while avoiding one of their own) in order to contend and will have to be excellent on every 4th-6th routine because their lineups provide no margin for error.

Arkansas actually comes into the meet as the highest-ranked team on floor because of three very strong routines from Lewis, Borsellino, and Grable at the back of the lineup. Those three performances are among Arkansas’s best opportunities for 9.9s, and they will probably need something like 9.875, 9.900, 9.925 from that trio to keep up. Since Arkansas begins on floor, we’ll know very early on if we have a real meet on our hands.

I’m also placing Boise State in the contenders section, but I’m adding an asterisk to that called the balance beam. On three events, this team is just as strong if not stronger than Arkansas. If they end up hitting beam, they too can challenge if one of the top seeds has a problem. Boise State is not one of those teams that boasts a lot of 9.9s, so the ceiling is only so high, but they can effectively 9.850 opponents to death, which makes a final score around 196.500-196.600 conceivable albeit unlikely.

The Broncos finish the meet on beam, as does Arkansas, so both teams may appear to be in artificial contention before that event, but to have any chance of being in the picture going into beam, Boise State will need at least 9.850s from Black, Otuafi, and Potvin-Green on both vault and floor and a patch of 9.825-9.850 performances from the entire bars rotation.

The Others
Since this is the western regional, we fill out the final spots with the bottom of the Pac-12. Arizona State has struggled to put together competitive rotations and looked extremely rough on both vault and beam at Pac-12s. It has been a number of years now since this team has been at all competitive, and it’s a shame to see a program that used to make nationals consistently now struggle to win meets at all and melt to the bottom of the conference. If something doesn’t change, Cal will pass ASU next year and bump the Sun Devils to worst in the conference.

Speaking of Cal, even though the team comes into regionals ranked lower than Arizona State, the story is entirely different. This is a team on the rise that will be absolutely thrilled to qualify for regionals this year. Cal is little more than a two-event team, but that’s an improvement from being a zero-event team. The vault and floor rotations are verging on nationally competitive (give it another year or two, but they can be 49.300 on both before too long), and 9.850 is a legitimate score for most of those routines. Bars and beam, however, are not competitive and will keep Cal well down the rankings. Alicia Asturias is a real gem, and I would love for her to advance to nationals as an AAer along with Grable (though I recognize that Borsellino (Ark), Black (BSU), and Mann (BSU) are more likely options).

Alabama hosts our third regional, which begins at 6:00 CT, so it will be one of the last to finish. Unfortunately, I don’t expect it to be that close, but if it is, at least it won’t be overshadowed by all six meets going on at the same time.

Rotation order (starting event):
[3] Alabama (vault)
[9] Utah (bye before bars)
[15] Denver (bye before floor)
[23] Kent State (floor)
[30] BYU (bars)
[35] Iowa State (beam)

The Favorites

The tale grows a bit dull as we head into a third regional of the same, but Alabama, like Florida and Oklahoma, is about as locked as a lock can be to advance out of regionals. That’s what happens when the top seeds host. It becomes that much less likely that they will even finish second let alone be upset. In the future, the NCAA should avoid selecting all the best schools to host in the same year.

Alabama has been surging and will feel quite pleased about finishing only one tenth (before penalty) behind Florida at SECs while competing without Ashley Sledge. The vaults are crazy powerful, and with the landings improving each week, the event is becoming an easy 49.500. There are individual blips here and there in the beam and floor rotations but nothing that would account for any fundamental disadvantage to Florida.

Bars has been the story all year for Alabama, but the condition of the event is improving marginally. Priess has begun to minimize the deductions on the dismount, and Kim Jacob managed a 9.875 at SECs, which seemed unlikely even a few weeks ago. Even when hitting to capability, however, Alabama will lose ground on this event, so the dismounts must be stuck and completely precise. This weekend, watch how many of the bars deductions are built-in versus given away. If Alabama sticks five or six bars dismounts at nationals, the team can stay close enough to Florida to remain competitive and pounce on any potential landing errors.

What I find most interesting about Alabama right now, and what I will be keeping the strongest eye on at regionals, is the lineup decision making. Even though I’m not necessarily a fan of automatically putting the weakest routine first because I think there is value in letting a showy first routine bump up the subsequent scores, I also don’t agree with putting the best routine first and losing out on a potentially big number. On bars, the coaching staff clearly feels putting Sledge first is necessary for a hit rotation, but it will be a problem when Alabama’s best bars worker gets a 9.875 in the first position while Florida (and potentially Oklahoma as well) is racking up the 9.925-9.950s in the fourth, fifth, and sixth spots. 

On vault, we now have a similar situation except there is no question that all six will hit there. Kayla Williams is emerging as the strongest lander on the team, and while she doesn’t have the distance of Gutierrez or the difficulty of Milliner, she proved at SECs that her vault is clearly 10-worthy. While there may be some benefit to the score building she provides in the first spot, that benefit is intangible. What is much more tangible is that she would have received a 10 at SECs had she not vaulted first. Even though the difference is only .025, that can be a valuable .025. She needs to be in a position where she can more easily get that 10.

I’m also including Utah in the favorites section because, unlike the Florida and Oklahoma regionals where the third seed has at least a fair shot at advancing even if the second seed hits, Utah will have to give away a fall or fall-equivalent for Denver to have a realistic chance. This Denver team is mid-196 capable, but Utah can probably go 48.900 on both bars and beam and still exceed that number. Beam, of course, is almost entirely terrifying, so Denver will have a shot if Utah can’t pull it together for 9.8s there.

The most important routines for Utah’s success at this regional and chances of making Super Six later on are the first four vaulters and the first five bars workers, both sets of gymnasts culminating in Nansy Damianova. These routines are the most beholden to the level of scrutiny of the judges. As we saw during the Florida meet, sometimes the judges are really happy with them, and if that’s the case at nationals, Utah can still make Super Six.

However, on vault, the first several gymnasts lack the power of gymnasts on the top teams and come off the table flatter than many of the gymnasts with whom they will be compared come the end of the month. If the judges decide to evaluate those qualities, and if the landings aren’t there as well, the judges would be justified in staying right around 9.800-9.825 for the bunch, which would impede scoring potential. The same is true on bars, but replace power with handstand and pirouette finishing positions.

The Damianova scores will be the key barometers. If she’s allowed to go 9.875-9.900 for routines like the one above (which received 9.900), Utah is healthy. If she’s getting 9.800-9.825 for the same work, the rotations will struggle to remain competitive with the other top six or eight teams in the country.

The Outsider
Denver has the routine quality in the fifth and sixth positions on most events to compete nationally, and the strength of those routines primarily accounts for the current ranking of the team. Martin has received a 10 on vault and will compete for an individual spot at nationals, and McGee is right toward the top of the rankings on both bars and floor. Where Utah’s challenge is getting those early routines into the 9.850 range, Denver’s challenge is ensuring those same routines reach 9.800. There are a few too many potentially counting 9.7s for this team to beat a hitting Utah.

It would seem that Denver’s best chance to advance will be a beamtrastophe from Utah, but Denver isn’t exactly immune from the beamtastrophe either and is a bit too likely to count a low score. Denver begins on floor and vault while Utah begins on bars and beam, so there’s a fair chance they can keep it close or even go ahead through two events, but keeping that up for four seems a very tough ask.

The Others
Speaking of beam issues, Kent State is here. This team should have absolutely cruised to the MAC title with a solid point of a margin over the rest of the teams but had an awful beam showing in the final rotation to drop to third. Marie Case is the only comfortable beamer on the team, and she cannot carry the group. Kent State, like Denver, ends on beam, so expect them to stay within sight for most of the meet. However, they would probably need a multiple tenth advantage over Denver going into the last event to place above fourth. A 2011 repeat this will not be. Look for Case to contend for an individual spot.

Ditto BYU. This team is rather similar to Kent State, except without those few potential 9.9s here and there. The BYU season started well enough when they managed to finish not last in Cancun, but the 196s never came. It will take a 196 to advance out of this regional. If BYU figures out how to get through beam, which has been a challenge enough this year, the team can challenge Kent State for fourth.

Iowa State also qualified. They managed a strong score at Big 12s featuring a whole pack of 9.850s and 9.875s, but that feat is unlikely to be repeated at regionals. The teams in this regional excel on floor, and including the three lower-ranked teams, they are all capable of going over 49 there. If beam is more secure than I expect it to be, the rankings of the bottom three may hinge on which one can go 49.150 or so on floor versus which ones languish in the 48.8s.

[Yes, I originally wrote “Normal Regional Preview” because I am amazing.]

Oklahoma hosts the second regional, which features Stanford and Penn State as the seeded contenders and Washington, Iowa, and Southern Utah as the whippersnappers. This will be first meet to begin (5 ET/2 PT), so we should all get a good look at these teams before the madness begins.

Rotation order (starting event):
[2] Oklahoma (vault)
[11] Stanford (bye before bars)
[14] Penn State (bye before floor)
[22] Washington (floor)
[27] Iowa (bars)
[34] Southern Utah (beam)

The Favorite:

The Oklahoma Sooners enter regionals as the #2 seed for the second consecutive year but boast a much healthier crop of gymnasts this time. Last year, Oklahoma was forced to hobble to the finish with a slapped together roster (I’m pretty sure at least one member of the vault lineup was just a roll of masking tape), but the harrowing injury to Kayla Nowak during preseason appears to have scared off whatever Babylonian trickster god was plaguing the team. The only major issue since has been Keeley Kmieciak’s tonsillectomy, and she is expected to return shortly.

The Sooners spent a large part of the regular season trading the #1 ranking with Florida, but for the last few weeks they have not garnered the same attention as Florida or Alabama because that’s just how fickle we can be. Oklahoma fell tamely to Alabama in the final meet of the regular season after a barrage of landing steps and followed that performance by counting a beam fall at a noncompetitive conference championship. That’s part of the trouble of being a big fish in a three-team pond: the Sooners can only meet expectations. Even if they had managed a 198, it still would have been “only Big 12s.”

It’s difficult to know what to make of Oklahoma’s recent beam issues, but while the Big 12s saw the first counting fall of the season, this had been building for quite some time and may qualify as a trend. People, me included, have spent the last few seasons singing the praises of KJ and company and how confident, creative, and secure these beam routines are. It’s therefore easy to adhere to that narrative and discount any beam situation as a random passing complaint that will be taken care of by the time things matter. That may very well be the case, but the team must rebound at regionals to prove it. They cannot arrive at nationals with one hit beam rotation in the last six and still claim to be the beam team.

Like Florida, it would take an upset of extreme severity for Oklahoma to finish out of the money at a home regional. They’re far too talented for that. The team could likely count a fall and still advance, but watch those beam routines, particularly the one from Olson who has struggled lately (3 falls in 5). She has the most difficult routine on the team and is not a natural beamer like some of the rest.

The other question for the Sooners is how the much-improved vault and floor routines will compare with those of the most powerful teams, especially if the landings aren’t pristine (as we saw at Alabama). However, they are quite clearly the strongest team on both vault and floor at this meet and will be competing at home, so I don’t anticipate a helpful answer to that question until nationals.

The Contenders:

Oh Stanford, what are we going to do with you? You have so many routines that promise to be stellar, and yet the lack of depth and consistency make you much more troubling than you should be. The team is coming off two consecutive ragged showings that were brought down by a flurry of 9.6s and 9.7s. If Stanford is to go out in this round, which I’m not predicting, it will be because of 9.6s not necessarily 9.3s.

Stanford isn’t flush with routines at the best of times, and the promise of a new Hong, Shapiro, and Vaculik triumvirate to replace the scoring potential of Pechanec and Brown has not been fulfilled. Shapiro has been essentially a one-event gymnast, and the consistency problems that plagued Vaculik’s first year have returned. Without these three carrying a large load, the team is stretched too thin to afford losses of 9.8ers like Chuang and Hanset, which accounted for the variant performance at Pac-12s.

Stanford has enough talent and enough 9.9s in Hong and Ashley Morgan and supporting routines like Spinner’s beam and Dayton’s vault that the rest of the team doesn’t have to be magnificent. Just give me a hits bars routine from Vaculik and six competition-ready, 10.0 routines on vault and floor, and I like this team to finish a comfortable second. The way things have been going, however, that isn’t a given. 

Still, Stanford should be encouraged that an off meet at Pac-12s earned a 196.6, while Penn State has to be in fine form to match that number. Penn State has been capable of reaching that level at home, though, so I expect this to be a rather compelling meet. To make it so, the Nittany Lions must display that same home scoring capability on the road. At Big 10s, Penn State showed 10 routines that scored under 9.8, and that cannot be the case again.

This is a bit of a last gasp season for Penn State because, well, what are they going to do next year without Musser and Merriam? If they’re going to make nationals, this is the year, and it cannot be done without Merriam going 9.875 on three events and Musser going at least 39.500 in the AA. If that doesn’t happen, Stanford should feel very comfortable in its position. If it does, however, the meet should come down to the weaker routines in the power rotations, where Penn State may find a door swinging open.

If Stanford is forced to show those 9.650s that have been creeping into the early halves of the vault and floor rotations, then Penn State may be able to cultivate an advantage even with 9.800s in matching positions. PSU begins on floor and vault while Stanford begins on bars and beam. Stanford has enough 9.9s throughout the bars and beam lineups that they should have the lead halfway through, but if Penn State records some countable 9.800s instead of dropable 9.750s in the first three routines on vault and floor, they will have a chance to make up ground when Stanford arrives there.

The Others:

It’s a bit unfair to Washington to relegate them to this section because they’re not completely out of this, but I don’t see it happening this year. The Huskies were the only team that actually showed up in the first session of Pac-12s, and even they had a miserable vault rotation. Beam was quite delightful, however, and success there could help them prey on the inconsistency of others. Lauren Rogers is a gem, so even if Washington doesn’t contend, watch for her to advance to nationals as an AAer. I like Musser and Rogers to take those individual spots in a walk if things go otherwise as seeded.

Iowa is not a poor team at all on three events and has enough 9.8s to keep things within reason on vault, bars, and floor. In fact, they are ranked higher than Washington on all three of those pieces and would be a clear 196 team contending for a third seed if they could just vault twice instead of having to do beam. Unfortunately, beam is a thing and appears likely to push Iowa out of the meet after the second rotation. The Hawkeyes have not reached 48.800 on the apparatus this year.

Like most bottom seeds, Southern Utah is happy to advance this far. The Thunderbirds are unlikely to qualify an individual competitor but can overtake one of the lower teams like Iowa with four hit rotations in the high 48s, which will be the goal here. 

Throughout the week, I will be breaking down each of the regional championships, giving a good hard stare to the teams expected to advance as well as the teams that could conceivably make things a little more interesting than they were last year. Let’s begin with our #1 seed, the Florida Gators, and their home regional in Gainesville, Florida.

Competing teams (starting event):
[1] Florida (vault)
[12] Minnesota (bye before bars)
[13] Auburn (bye before floor)
[24] Maryland (floor)
[29] Bridgeport (bars)
[36] Pittsburgh (beam)

The Favorite:

Once again, the Florida Gators enter the regional championships as the #1 team, and while any person with eyes and a basic understanding of the concept of gymnastics would consider them a lock to advance from any of the regional locations, it would take an upset of downright comical proportions to knock them out their home regional. We’re just two years removed from Florida’s near disaster of a 2011 regional, but this team is notably more secure than that one and also scores at such stratospheric levels that it could withstand even that kind of catastrophe and still advance. 

Since anything but four events of cruise control would be an upset, watching Florida at this competition will be an exercise in nationals prognostication. Even though the Gators won SECs and managed a 198 while doing it, they only just out-touched Alabama at the end. There are still several areas where Florida can improve in order to pad that margin and become a more convincing favorite. The clearest weakness from the SEC performance was vault, an event that saw zero of six stuck landings. This is not the first time this season Florida has struggled to control the vault landings while recording a few too many 9.850s.

That kind of issue is normal for this point in the calendar, but controlling landings in pressure situations has undone Florida each of the last two years, which does make the issue a bit more interesting. A few average landings in the final rotation of Super Six last year opened the door just enough for Alabama, and even in the 2011 semifinals, Florida was still in a position to advance after counting a fall on the beam. The tight vault landings help seal elimination by less than a tenth. Because of strength on the other events, the Gators will not need to win vault at nationals to win the title, but they cannot allow Alabama a multiple-tenth advantage on the event. Watch for a touch more security in those landings next weekend.

The other factor to keep at least three-fifths of an eye on will be the bars lineup. Alaina Johnson is still up in the air, and there has been some discussion among fans that Florida should not even bother trying to shoehorn her back into the lineup for the end of this season. I disagree with that perspective. Johnson still provides a solid tenth of value over the current lineup when in form, so if she’s back to her usual quality (no guarantee), she should go. If she does, it raises the interesting question of who comes out. Dickerson is always at the mercy of how discerning the judges elect to be for issues like toes (exhibit A: the 9.750-9.950 spread from SECs), but I think Rhonda loves her stuck DLO in that opening position, which means BDG is probably more likely to come out if Johnson returns.

More interesting than picking apart Florida’s romp, however, will be the 12/13 confrontation for the second advancing spot.

The Contenders:    

The battle to advance out of this regional will come down to the #2 and #3 seeds, Minnesota and Auburn, and there is essentially nothing to differentiate these two teams. Certainly the team that hits will win, but if they both hit, there are a few key areas that will help provide some indication of which way the meet is turning as it goes.

Minnesota started the year with colossal home results and below-average road results, so it was easy to dismiss the team as home-scoring wonders. After a road 197 in Gainesville at the beginning of March, however, Minnesota began to emerge as a road team, which was confirmed by a large number at Big Tens. While the Gophers have been and continue to be an unheralded joy on floor, vault strength will be Minnesota’s most important merit badge if they want to make it to Los Angeles for the jamboree. When those landings are in place, the team boasts several potential 9.9s, scores that must be achieved to stay clear of Auburn. If Mable, Slechta, and Covers hit those landings, Minnesota should have a several-tenth advantage solely because of vault.    

While Auburn also manages many of its higher scores on vault and floor, a Tiger victory looks likely if Auburn can reinforce the difference in quality on bars and beam. Interestingly, other than Florida, this regional is rather patchy on the bars talent. This may work to Minnesota’s favor because the weakness there will not be exposed to the same degree as it would be at another regional. Auburn must make sure it is exposed by overperforming an RQS currently in the low 49s. Specifically, Atkinson and Yokay need to score in the 9.875-9.900 range to provide a solid advantage because Minnesota is unlikely to receive much of anything over 9.850.

I expect the scores to go rather high as a whole, which is typical at Florida (the 9.950 is the official state bird), and if everything goes to plan, it should take something in the mid-high 196s to advance. Both teams have achieved that this year and should be capable when hitting, so the meet may very well come down to smaller factors like rotation order.

Auburn begins on floor and vault while Minnesota begins on bars and beam, so Auburn should have a fairly sizable lead at the halfway point. To withstand Minnesota making up ground on the better events, the Auburn lead probably needs to be at least four tenths. Auburn finishes on beam and must be extremely secure there. All six members of the lineup are 9.800 capable, but the team will also need some bigger scores from Walker and Atkinson. Finishing on vault could very well play into Minnesota’s hands because those stuck 9.9 vaults may take advantage of score building throughout the meet to record the highest rotation total for either team.

The Others:
The final three teams are going to need some assistance to play a role here. Maryland has the potential to score in the low 196s, but that won’t be enough without a counting fall from both Auburn and Minnesota. I noticed a severe degree of beam trouble for this team at EAGLs and ending on that event may be a curse. Vault and floor are fairly strong and could keep the team in range at the halfway mark.

Bridgeport is the D2 darling, and literally everyone is rooting for this team to do something special. Certain routines are competitive, and I think they will surprise by putting up a viable score in the high 195s. Qualification, however, would require a Kent State-esque confluence of events. A much more realistic proposition would be an individual competitor advancing. Even though she is the star, it will be a tough ask for Monica Mesalles to advance for vault or floor with the talent at this regional, so watch for an AAer like Sasha Tsikhanovich or Lissette La Fex, which might be an even better spy name than Sunny Kato or Kahoku Palafox. If she doesn’t walk around all day carrying stolen microfilm, it’s a sadly missed opportunity.

Pitt snatched up the final spot to advance to regionals, and that was the victory. A 196 would be a very strong showing, but this is the least likely team of the six to reach that number. The senior Alyssa Adrian is the most realistic contender for an AA spot.