Ah, yes. NLI week. The time of year where schools can finally publicly acknowledge what they’ve known for the last 3-5 years and announce which gymnasts will be joining their teams for the 2015-2016 season. I’ll be updating this post over the next week or so, beginning Wednesday, with the announced classes and links to the press releases from the major schools. Sometimes interesting things happen. Usually it’s just the confirmation of verbals long since forgotten.
Just to review, NLI stands for National Letter of Intent, and it’s what future student-athletes sign to signal an end to the recruiting process and a commitment to attend a particular institution, in most cases along with a scholarship agreement. Previously almost all of these gymnasts, especially the US ones, will have announced a verbal commitment to these schools, but verbal commitments are not official or binding. Once you sign the NLI, it’s real.
The only question here is the Skinner deferral issue, and I expect she’s planning on it. Also, if she makes the Worlds team next year, the lure of going pro may be strong in this one.
STANFORD – Release Hailee Hoffman and Taryn Fitzgerald
WASHINGTON – Release Kristyn Hoffa and Monica Riley
-The pressure will be on that LSU class majorly to make up for the losses of Hall, Courville, Jordan, and Ranzy. Basically, all of their potential has to pan out for LSU to retain its current strength.
UCLA – Release Simone Biles, Madison Kocian, Macy Toronjo
UCLA confirms that both Biles and Kocian are planning to defer and go for the Olympic team. That was obvious for Biles but never overtly stated for Kocian. Still, since she made Worlds this year, it makes sense. I wouldn’t say it’s likely for Kocian, but it’s not just a pipe dream. The problem for UCLA here is that (as of now), they’ll only have one new gymnast for 2015-2016 in Toronjo. They’re losing only Sam Peszek and maybe Ellette Craddock (redshirt possibility?) after this year, so they’re not dropping all that many routines, but those Sam Peszek shoes are big ones to fill.
-Note that a few teams are announcing people and posting signing pictures on twitter before they do a real release if you want to keep track of that.
-All the coaches are really eager to tell us how outstanding these classes are. I really wish someone would go, “This year’s class is just OK” some time.
Let’s continue the mission of chopping a path through the 2015 freshmen by moving on to Florida and Utah. The Gators and the Utes boast two more large incoming classes, both bursting with all-arounders who are pretty believable on all four events. For most of them, their eventual contribution will come down more to the depth of team lineups than to their capability to put together a competitive routine.
FLORIDA
The Gators are defending co-champions, and once again there’s no reason to demote them from that #1 spot. Despite losing two major contributors and well-known former elites in Mackenzie Caquatto and Alaina Johnson (along with their seven 9.9-likely routines from last postseason) Florida is still able to pad the depth wagon this season with four new contributors, who bring with them more than seven lineup-worthy routines to replace those lost scores. Managing to lose stars without losing scores is the sign of a dynasty. Florida has two titles in a row, and three is very possible.
We’ll start at the top, with Kennedy Baker from Texas Dreams. Baker was an elite for many years and qualified to Olympic Trials in 2012 before dropping down to L10 this year to prepare for Florida. Baker has damn huge gymnastics, and while it’s hard to predict a four-event contributor on Florida’s team because of the sheer number of quality options, I see her sliding in on each event.
Vault
Bars
Beam
Floor
Floor is my favorite event for Baker, almost entirely because of that killer piked double arabian. It’s tremendous, and I can’t wait to see that in her routine this year. Pair that skill with her regular double arabian on floor and her excellent Patterson beam dismount, and her portfolio of arabian work is historically good. Florida dropped off just a tad in showing big bad difficulty on floor last year (more front double fulls, fewer DLOs), but Baker will help bring that back in 2015 with her easy power. Not that it stopped them from getting 49.999s last year anyway.
Speaking of the double arabian beam dismount, it doesn’t appear to be sticking around in her beam routine. In the training video at the top, she’s going back to the double tuck, which is pragmatic if a little bit of a letdown. She’s the one person who could actually make that skill worth it in NCAA. Elsewhere on beam, her acro is strong and she has no major weaknesses (save for some feet issues here and there can can be cleaned up). Now, these tuck turns. Or wolf turns. Or hate turns, as I like to call them. Because I hate them. Forever. On everyone. Even Baker and Biles, kind of. They’re a signature skill for Baker, but I would be OK if that ended.
As for bars, Baker became pretty competitive on bars as a senior elite because she possesses many different releases that she could throw in combination to rack up a high D score. That doesn’t always translate to NCAA success where the focus is more on precision, but Florida should be able to put together a competitive, high-scoring routine for her arranged around a showcase release like the Ricna, or piked Ricna, or Church. Bars is the biggest gap for Florida this year without those 9.950s from Caquatto and Johnson, so they’ll need this routine. (Above, I included Baker’s JO routine instead of her elite one for more realistic NCAA reference.)
Alex McMurtry has been a star at L10 for at least a quad now, and she is joining Florida a year early just in case they didn’t have enough big gymnastics already (and just to make sure they have more trump cards than Oklahoma). I’ll see your Dowell and raise you a McMurtry.
McMurtry got more national attention than L10s usually get, originally because of vault, where she has so much power that she was regularly showing an easy Yurchenko double full as a junior JO gymnast, prompting chatter that she should go elite. There was also that one year at the Nastia Cup when her vault gave Tim Daggett so many vapors that he basically called for the judges to throw out the entire code and give her a 10 just on principle. Expect a high, easy full from her that can slot into the mid-late portion of the lineup along with Baker.
Vault
Beam
Floor
As is often the case, with great vault comes great floor. McMurtry has a gigantic full in, just preposterously big, and has the gift of performing twisting elements just as well as her double salto passes, all with excellent amplitude, which allows for some variety in composition. She should be an obvious choice to give Florida what appears to be a net gain in floor quality over last season.
We’ll skip past bars because it’s not happening. It’s all very Sacramone. Let’s go right to beam, which is a much better event for her. While it’s not as much of a showstopper as her work on vault and floor, her acro skills are big as expected and she doesn’t really let off all that much on the dance elements, so the overall routine should be competitive.
Complementing the power sisters and rounding out the class will be Ericha Fassbender and Grace McLaughlin, both of whom spent some time in that second-tier of elite, the holy grail of college gymnastics where they have all the skills without the same physical burnout. The main trouble for both Fassbender and McLaughlin will be being on Florida’s team. They’re both competitive AAers with four realistic events, but without the same BIG gymnastics, it’s going to be tough to make lineups on this team. I can see both of them competing with Boyce, Spicer, and Wang for that first spot or two in most lineups, and it will be a fight.
For Fassbender, she was in the main picture for a split second as a junior elite, even getting an international assignment once, and she shows gymnastics that is solid everywhere with no amazing standout events but few weaknesses. On a slightly shallower team, you would slot her into the early lineup on each event. Here it will be harder.
Floor (old-ish)
In particular, she shows good lift on both vault and floor, with tumbling options like a pike full in and a double arabian that have made cameos from time to time and might help her edge ahead of others and crack into the floor lineup in a Rachel Spicer kind of way. Fassbender has tended to place better on vault and floor throughout her career, but I’m also interested in her bars work because she has shown a very high tkatchev in the past and a double arabian dismount, which we don’t see that much. If a full, clean routine can be built around that, it could become a thing.
McLaughlin doesn’t have the power of the other members of this class, so her contribution to the team will likely be limited to bars and beam where she’s stronger and where there’s a bit more room in the lineups to slot in. She does have a front double full and very clean twisting skills on floor that could be turned into a deduction-light routine, but that’s not enough to stand out in this Florida group.
Bars
Beam
Both bars and beam are fairly competitive, but not pristine, routines. In her last elite stint before switching gyms, she showed the usual WOGA beam routine—arabian that she probably shouldn’t be doing, followed by a couple well-performed basic splits, then a pretty onodi and a fine sheep jump (as far as sheep jumps go)—you know the deal. It can definitely translate to an NCAA routine. And on bars, she pirouettes well and has one of the nicer double front dismounts going around, so I can see a place for her on bars now that she’s free from the demands of elite composition and can zero in on form.
Freshman #5 is Lindsey Walker, who is in the tough position of being a Florida walk-on. She’s capable on beam and in places on floor, but that’s if she were on another team. With this team, have fun enjoying the experience and exhibitioning once.
UTAH
For the first time in what feels like forever, Utah is bringing in a big class of accomplished freshmen who should, and will, reinvigorate these lineups with plenty of new routines. Coming off two missed Super Sixes in a row, it’s time for a revamp.
Let’s start with Kari Lee. Lee placed very well at JO Nationals the last couple years and brings a competitive skill set and precision on all four events, but I’m most interested in her work on vault and beam, where I think she’s most likely to contribute.
Vault
Bars
Beam
Floor
The beam video is recent training footage, and based on that, I think we can all agree she should hop in a time machine and get into the lineup last April. That’s when they really needed this routine. Her work should score well here, given the predominately straight legs and hit split elements. Splits have been the main factor keeping Utah from 9.9s on beam lately. Lee is closer to that refined quality they’ve been missing.
As for vault, that’s a big fat stuck Yurchenko full, and that’s all there is to it. Utah has tended to have a problem with leaving the vault sticks in February lately, so we’ll have to watch how competitive these vault landings remain in April next year, but Lee and a couple of her new classmates have the potential to expand the strength of the vault lineup beyond just the final three that carried them last year.
Floor and bars are not big routines, and I hope that doesn’t mean they get lost in the shuffle because both are quite usable. On floor, she brings a triple full that can slot in nicely as a different option in the E passes brigade, and on bars, she brings a piked jaeger and a solid double front dismount (it’s the day of people with good double fronts). There could be a place for both routines as needed. I like this one. Watch out for her.
Samantha Partyka is the freshman with elite pedigree, having competed as a junior elite in 2010 and 2011, but since then, she has been excelling on the JO circuit. Like Lee, she is fully capable on contributing four routines but two of her events loom larger. For Partyka, those are vault and floor.
Vault
Floor
On floor, I’m happy with that double arabian. As with every freshman, we’ll have to wait to see what passes end up staying in the routines, but I’m noticing an overall trend so far of not-terrible double arabians. A bunch of the top freshmen have excellent ones, so 2015 could be the year of the double arabian, which I wouldn’t mind. This routine should be an easy choice to slot into a floor lineup that needs refueling after losing half the routines.
Speaking of easy, Partyka showed easy power on vault in JO with a rather well performed 1.5. She seems the downgrade-to-full type for NCAA, but the full should be a comfortable task for her and provide another injection of depth into the lineup.
On bars and beam, her routines are more in the fine, solid, OK, regular category. Nothing wrong with them, possible early lineup work, but her standouts are definitely vault and floor.
Maddy Stover is another new Ute who has been nailing routines at JO Nationals for the last couple years, finishing 4th in Senior D this year after winning her division last year. Like Lee, her biggest asset to the team should be her beam work since that has often been her strongest event and has lately been the team’s weakest event. She can bring that improved form into the lineup and help the team start from a more competitive place.
Bars
Beam
I’m interested in this bars routine. The pieces are there, and I really like the flair and toe point she brings to that jaeger. It’s a common skill performed much better than common, and that whole routine can be worked into a thing. On floor and vault, she shows powerful and secure work, including a relatively new full in on floor. It all seems very Utah, so I would expect moments from her on those events as well, especially with all those holes to fill on floor.
The fourth newbie for Utah is Tiffani Lewis, who has been primarily known for the power events, boasting yet another clean yfull (they have a whole freshman class of realistic vaulters) and a DLO on floor to give her routine a little extra boost of difficulty to make us pay attention. But, as we can see from this training video, bars should be a legitimate place of contribution as well.
Bars
She shows a lovely line right through the toes through most of that routine, with a workable tkatchev and a strong DLO. Megan is really happy with a couple of those handstands.
Why does every team have a hundred thousand freshmen this year? Cool it, people. They’re not going out of style. Today, we look at Oklahoma and Georgia.
OKLAHOMA Boomer. The problem with winning a national championship for the first time is that now anything less than a national championship is a disappointment. No more of this “we’re really proud of how much we went through to finish third” business. It’s an every-year thing now, and Oklahoma will face some challenges to repeat in 2015 without Spears, Mooring, and Albright, who contributed 6 routines across three events last postseason, most significantly the late-lineup 9.9-athon that was Taylor Spears on bars and beam.
On the bright side, the Sooners have several new freshmen who can believably fill those scoring gaps, bringing with them way more than 6 lineup-ready routines. The first thing to be said about this class is that it officially signals the end of the “Oklahoma doesn’t have the power/difficulty on the leg events” narrative era. That comment didn’t really apply last year either, but it’s definitely dead now. You can’t use it anymore. This freshman class is power city.
Let’s start with the most well-known of the newcomers, Brenna Dowell, who will be joining the team officially in January and made the smart choice to start this year instead of trying to stick it out in elite with the hope of making an Olympic team that was never going to happen. Not even getting the alternate spot for Worlds this year was the flashing neon sign she needed saying GET TO OKLAHOMA.
Anyone who has watched elite lately is familiar with Dowell’s gymnastics, and she’s another of those who can conceivably slot in anywhere in any lineup and be a rare AAer for this Oklahoma team. The only thing that would potentially hold her back is consistency, but I expect to see a lot of Dowell this year.
Vault
Bars
Beam
Floor
I said in the last preview that Elizabeth Price is the first gymnast with an Amanar to do college gymnastics, which isn’t wrong, but I should have mentioned that she’s co-first with Dowell. We know Dowell will bring powerful vaulting and should fill in any difficulty gaps in that lineup now that Scaman has gone back to the full, which ended up making good scoring sense last season.
On bars, Dowell is the best option to step into that vacated Spears position and has about 7 million different skill options from which to devise a routine. While she’s most known for doing the tkatchev 1/2, I’m not sure that’s the most prudent or cleanest option for an NCAA routine. The brief training video Oklahoma posted of her on instagram showed a Church and a Ray, and both of those seem like more realistic options that still showcase her amplitude and difficulty.
Beam was clearly Dowell’s fourth-best event as an elite, without the same level of difficulty or original skill composition as the other events and with a few consistency and form questions, but it can still easily be refined into a quality NCAA routine. As for floor, I’m hoping that either the double front or the double front pike sticks around because we don’t see those much anymore, but even if not, she has a very strong DLO. The tumbling is more than sufficient on floor and the elements themselves are there on beam as well, but on both events, I’m most interested in where her presentation goes because Oklahoma is so conscious of presentation, which has always been Dowell’s weakness. At GAGE, they’ve clearly worked hard on it the last couple years, but floor is still very “This is the part where I smile, right?” Her performance quality will be a fascinating evolution to watch, and one I expect to be a multi-year project since she’s entering in January.
Dowell is joined by Ali Jackson, who at various times is Alyssa, Ali, and/or A.J., and I don’t really know what we’re supposed to call her. NCAA gymnastics should put out an official nicknames guide. Jackson is another who brings the power power power, and we can expect to see the most from her on vault and floor.
On vault, she has a powerful and comfortably completed 1.5 that scored like crazy in the JO ranks (as high as 9.950), which should help make the fight for the vault lineup a good one. We’re going to see at least one 9.9-level gymnast not make the lineup this year. While her vaulting is strong, floor may be Jackson’s showcase event with tumbling options like a humongous piked full in, a double arabian, and a whip to double pike. She’s not lacking for big passes. As for the dance elements, I could see them going the Kytra route with her and sticking solely to the switch side+straddle half because those straddle elements are stronger than her splits.
Jackson is possibly believable on bars as well. She shows a comfortable piked jaeger and is learning a DLO that appears to be coming along quite nicely, but there are details to clean. The legs, the toes, and the angles are not as crisp as many of her teammates, and that’s going to make it difficult to break into this competitive lineup. Beam is more of a struggle, especially with the dance elements, which makes it hardest to envision her in the 6 there.
Moving on, the freshman behind door #3 is Stefani Catour. Catour competed elite for a while in her junior days but has been consistently in L10 for a few years now. This year, she qualified for JO Nationals for the second straight year. She had mistakes on multiple events, but she did finish top 10 on floor, which also happens to be her best event and the one where I expect her biggest influence on the team.
Beam
Floor
Like Jackson, Catour has a piked full in (it’s the season of the piked full in) and a high double pike and has regularly placed toward the top of the standings in JO competitions. As with most of the others, they’ll have to be smart about the dance elements they choose for her, but she’s another option who can bring even more power gymnastics to the floor lineup. This is the year where Oklahoma gets to rattle on about E passes.
Catour is also powerful enough on vault to be in the picture, though form breaks tend to creep in, and has potential on beam as well. The tools are there on beam, but that lineup is so tough to break into. McKenzie Wofford is a great example of that. Last year, I was all about how great she was going to be on beam (and I still think she will be), but she couldn’t make the lineup.
Repping the walk-ons for Oklahoma are Samantha Craus and Natalie Brown. Watch out for Craus on bars. She has been injured for eleven thousand years, but she has potential, which I put in italics to emphasize that it is just potential that still needs to be realized. She has performed a HUGE tkatchev in the past with great rhythm and swing, but the form is all over the place and needs to be reined in if she’s to contribute. Brown is a Wogette who doesn’t have the power of her incoming classmates, but has does have some elegant qualities and qualified for JOs last year, which is unusual for a walk-on. She has that WOGA extension and presentation on beam and a high, clean double pike on floor and gets a gold star for her leg form.
GEORGIA Before we get into the Gymdogs 2015 edition, make sure you’re paying attention to Elizabeth Grimsley, who is once again covering the Georgia team and giving us the most comprehensive preseason information (Articles! And videos!) of any of the teams.
Georgia has some urgent and significant holes to fill heading into the 2015 season, having lost not only the wonder of Lindsey Cheek’s standout 2014 season but also Kaylan Earls and Cat Hires, amounting to 8 total postseason routines, 2 on each event. As the team continues to forge a new identity for a new era (one I’m finding it increasingly easy to get behind – I enjoy the style and attitude of the Danna Age), they can’t rely on the US elite path as in days of old and will instead be going for the tried-and-true Canadians and L10s strategy. Many have succeeded down that road. In particular, there are a couple emergency Canadians who have been brought in to fill the gaps left after the post-Jay Clark verbal exodus and do what emergency Canadians always do, which is be wonderful.
Natalie Vaculik, younger sister of Kristina, ultimately decided to join UGA on time instead of continuing to pursue an elite career as one of the second-tier Canadians, although given some of the performances at Worlds this year, which one’s the first tier and which one’s the second tier? Natalie has not had the career her older sister has, but she should continue to prove the theorem that we always need a Vaculik in our lives. Vaculik is a competitive AAer and possesses the necessary skills on all events, but I’m looking at her bars and beam as the most important routines and the most likely to fill the Cheek hole on those events. Yes, I said “fill the Cheek hole.”
Bars
Beam
Beam. Love it. Ignore that fall. Love it anyway. Vaculik has lifty lift in those beautiful leaps, and her form is quite nice throughout. I’m really hoping this routine becomes a thing. It should. I’m also impressed that (for now) they’re keeping her double pike dismount instead of downgrading to something less deductiony. Let’s see if that continues to be worth it as we go.
Bars is another strong event for Vaculik, but Danna and company are getting a pretty severe dose of poison-eye from me for not using the gienger in her routine. Major faux pas. When you have a Vaculik gienger on your team, you don’t choose a jaeger over it. Even if the jaeger is really good, which it is. It’s just not done. I’ll try to get past it, but it will be a burden. I’m like a martyr. Still, she swings a good bars, with excellent rhythm and a great shape on her stalders as well if they choose to use them. But they probably won’t.
Vaculik Part Deux is not a slouch on the other events, showing a pretty acceptable 1.5 on vault, with just a soupcon of crazy legs, that could become a workable full, along with the usual tumbling on floor—double pike, double tuck, 2.5. The passes are cleanly completed but her work is not as explosive as the true floor standouts that we will see.
GiGi Marino appears more likely to be that explosive option on vault and floor, finishing 5th on floor in Senior D this year. Georgia had too many weeks of medium-range D passes last year that were asking for 9.825s, so it will be worth it to continue working Marino’s DLO and the rest of her compact and effective tumbling on floor to make sure she can step up with Jay and Broussard to give this lineup some more apparent and consistent difficulty and amplitude.
Pumpkin Peek highlights:
Outside of floor, Marino also showed a very comfortable and consistent 1.5 as an L10 gymnast, and even when downgrading to a full, which they appear to be doing, she should be in solid contention for the vault lineup. She may also be a possibility on beam, but it’s more of an issue. She’s missing the overall amplitude, leap extension, and consistency of a true beamer, but it’s a routine worth having in mind.
Hayley Sanders is another of the Wogettes entering college this season, and she’s one to keep an eye on primarily on bars, where she shows a lovely line and refined style with extension right through the toes. She falls on the dismount in this video, but Laurent’s reaction more than makes up for it.
Sanders also has some admirable qualities on beam and floor, showing that same refined style and largely clean gymnastics, but her low difficulty will be more of an obstacle there.
Heading back to the emergency Canadian front, the Gymdogs are also bringing in Vivi Babalis (we have a GiGi and a Vivi—I feel like it’s UF with these nicknames), and there is possible lineup potential in her work on both beam and floor. She shows decent power on both events, including a double arabian on floor and a full complement of the usual D acro elements on beam. Of note, I also highly approve of her L turns.
Rounding out the walk-on parade (I told you all these freshman classes have a thousand members), we have Jasmine Arnold, mostly a vault and floor gymnast with a yfull on vault and a double pike on floor, but I wouldn’t expect her to contend for lineups. Also in January, Angelina Giancroce is supposed to be joining the team, and while she doesn’t have a lot of difficulty either, some pretty qualities stand out in her work, particularly her leg form on bars and on twisting elements in general, so that’s something to look out for once she’s officially training with the team.