WEEK 1 RANKINGS | |||
1. | LSU | 197.825 | |
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2. | Oklahoma | 197.750 | |
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3. | Florida | 197.100 | |
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4. | Alabama | 196.700 | |
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5. | Utah | 196.625 | |
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6. | Missouri | 196.225 | |
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7. | Denver | 195.875 | |
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8. | UCLA | 195.700 | |
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9. | Oregon State | 195.575 | |
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10. | George Washington | 195.550 | |
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11. | Michigan | 195.525 | |
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12. | Arkansas | 195.350 | |
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13. | Auburn | 195.275 | |
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14. | Kentucky | 195.075 | |
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15. | NC State | 194.925 | |
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16. | Northern Illinois | 194.825 | |
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17. | Minnesota | 194.725 | |
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18. | Penn State | 194.625 | |
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19. | West Virginia | 194.400 | |
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20. | Ohio State | 194.375 | |
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21. | BYU | 194.225 | |
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22. | Illinois | 194.200 | |
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22. | Iowa | 194.200 | |
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24. | Michigan State | 194.175 | |
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25. | Arizona | 194.025 | |
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Oklahoma and LSU proved by far the farthest along at this point in the season and, some crazy home scoring notwithstanding, have jumped out ahead of the rest of the pack. It’s not over yet. These things will even out as the slower starters round into shape, but Oklahoma and LSU were the stars of the weekend.
Florida, Alabama, and Utah won’t frame these meets, but it’s the first week of January and they did what was necessary to look like viable contenders. UCLA and Michigan will be able to play the “the silver lining is we’re still ranked pretty well even though we had bad meets and will do better soon” game.
Missouri established itself as the upstart team of the first weekend with a 196 even without Porter, though I’d caution patience until we see what happens at away meets. Maddie Karr is already the favorite new toy, having pulled Denver through to a solid season start. And then there’s Marla Hooch. And by Marla Hooch, I mean Georgia.
Balance beam situation of the week
WINNER: Georgia
Who else could it be? The once, present, and future champion. Coming off the shocking triumph of hitting beam in Super Six last year, Georgia said, “Back to garbage!” and managed to hit 1.3 beam routines against LSU, doing a swan dive off Niagara Falls at every available layout stepout. Dickson, Broussard, and Schick all fell on their layout stepout series, and Vega went all Disney-on-Ice on hers. Babalis doesn’t have a layout stepout series, so she opted to stumble backward into a swamp on her double tuck dismount. Sydney Snead hit for 9.800, receiving seven diamond tiaras and a shower of doubloons for being the queen of all things.
Georgia’s final beam total was 47.225 for a 193.600 meet score, the team’s lowest since 1999.
RUNNER-UP: UCLA
Georgia’s horror spared UCLA, who didn’t actually fall from the beam (somehow) but reminded us that it’s never boring when it comes to the Bruins. Ever. It’s always a show. I guess UCLA thinks beam is too easy (have you seen your Februaries?), so they need to handicap themselves by having Kyla try to connect out of a switch ring to fulfill her leap combination requirement, which just seems to be inviting problems for exactly no reason, and then having Peng do that damn pi-layout and Ohashi do the layout 1/1. Both Peng and Ohashi managed ridiculous, laudable saves, but saves that cover up the untenable position this lineup is currently in with regard to difficulty.
Non-famous stars of the week
Gymnasts without name brands from lower-ranked schools who scored above 9.900
Kirah Koshinski, West Virginia, Vault – 9.925
Koshinski stuck a 1.5 to rank 4th nationally on vault.
Sabrina Garcia, Penn State, Bars – 9.950
Garcia stuck a floated DLO dismount to rank 2nd on bars.
Madeleine Huber, Missouri, Bars – 9.925
A toe-pointy Jaeger and her own stuck DLO earned Huber the #3 ranking