WEEK 4 RANKINGS | |||
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1. | Oklahoma | 197.781 |
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2. | LSU | 197.588 |
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3. | Florida | 197.431 |
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4. | Utah | 197.075 |
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5. | UCLA | 196.617 |
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6. | Alabama | 196.440 |
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7. | Michigan | 196.381 |
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8. | Denver | 196.250 |
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9. | Georgia | 196.1115 |
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10. | Kentucky | 196.035 |
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11. | Missouri | 195.975 |
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11. | Southern Utah | 195.975 |
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11. | Boise State | 195.975 |
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14. | Oregon State | 195.925 |
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15. | Cal | 195.800 |
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16. | George Washington | 195.731 |
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17. | Auburn | 195.645 |
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18. | Washington | 195.600 |
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19. | Ohio State | 195.538 |
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20. | Nebraska | 195.517 |
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21. | Illinois | 195.256 |
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22. | Iowa | 195.245 |
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23. | Minnesota | 195.075 |
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24. | Arkansas | 195.038 |
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25. | West Virginia | 195.031 |
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Full rankings at RTN.
Oklahoma and LSU both showed weird minor vulnerabilities this weekend with mistakes from Capps and Hambrick. That’s going to need to not continue at risk of jeopardizing our entire worldview. Florida’s season-high 197.700 has seen the Gators jump into sight of the top two, creating more significant separation between the big leading three and 4th-place Utah.
Another week, another discussion of how Utah will possibly go on in the wake of a major injury, this time a torn Achilles for Kim Tessen. RIP, my fantasy team. Vault is where Utah will feel these injuries the most. Rowe and Muhaw have come in (and you’d hope to have Lewis back as well), and while they can perform perfectly acceptable vaults, they’re going to get some 9.800s. It doesn’t hurt so much now, but it will when the meets get serious. Bars is actually OK right now with Lee and Reinstadtler coming in, but that lineup is stretched as far as it can stretch. No one else on the team has ever competed a bars routine. In the most recent meet, floor looked pretty comfortable in those early positions, some oddly inconsistent scoring notwithstanding, though the group being trotted out right now is not “big floor.” (Apart from Skinner, obviously.) It’s nice-double-pike floor.
UCLA put a meet together (progress!) to jump up to #5, reaffirming that this team has the potential to be really, really, really good. This was a solid performance, their best so far, but not an amazing showing. Vault and floor still have a long way to go, but it tells us something that their bars and beam are good enough for a 197.3 nonetheless.
Michigan and Georgia joined UCLA as the team’s starting to put complete meets together and rise toward more expected rankings with these talent-befitting 197s, but these schools were the rarity this week. We saw a lot of averages drop (even from Oklahoma and LSU) and several top teams throw out quite forgettable performances. Or actually, memorable but not in a good way.
That means you, Alabama. It was always going to be a weird weekend for Alabama with the two meets and the inevitable lineup surrealism, but it ended up being a missed opportunity featuring two must-drop scores. The situation is by no means dire—Alabama already has several strong scores and is a very good team—but it does perhaps indicate that while Alabama has a ton of routines, the team may not have quite the actual depth it seemed in the preseason. It only counts as depth if you’d be OK putting up that routine at regionals, and probably half of the sets we saw on Friday would not be OK to put up in an important meet like that.
The absence of Guerra and the continued recovery of Brannan mean that Alabama may not have the same luxury of playing around with lineups and slotting 84 different people into rotations and still getting a good score as it did last year.
Despite the weak score, Sunday’s meet was less of a problem because the low score was the result of falls, not of “9.725 and that’s what you’re always going to get for this routine.” These falls are unlikely to be a continuing proposition, and the lineups put out on Sunday are Super-Six level when they hit.
Fortunately for Alabama, it seemed they successfully freed themselves of this illness and coughed it all over Auburn at the end of Sunday’s meet, leading to an Auburn beam implosion and another low score in a week in which Milliet also went out injured. Auburn is still yet to reach 196.5 in any meet so far this year with seven remaining before regionals.
Kentucky also resorted to some lineup twisting and gymnast resting to survive its two-meet weekend, which also didn’t go exactly to plan with some 195s and poor landings that we didn’t see in the first few meets of the year. Maybe don’t have two-meet weekends? Is that the lesson here? All of the SEC teams that had Friday-Sunday meets struggled, and these teams all have to go again this coming Friday. Not everyone is Brittany Rogers and can just do that for fun.
Nebraska has no such two-meet excuse for the 194.800 at Michigan because it was their only meet of the weekend. It was just rough from start to finish, except for Houchin who really shone as the team’s clear future leader. (Current leader?)
Non-famous stars of the week
Gymnasts from schools outside the top 25 who scored over 9.900
Kendall Valentin, Eastern Michigan, Bars – 9.925
For the second week in a row. Who’s going to snatch her as a transfer?
Rachel Stypinski, Kent State, Beam – 9.925
Ranks #5 nationally on beam.
Nicole Medvitz, Penn State, Beam – 9.925
Actually the only good thing going for Penn State right now.
Haylee Young, Iowa State, Beam – 9.925
Career-high on beam after hitting 9.900 each of last two years
Skyler Sheppard, Arizona, Beam – 9.925
Arizona’s not in the top 25? More Sheppard please
Majesta Valentine, West Chester, Floor – 9.925
Majesta indeed
What’s up with Guerra in Alabama?
Speaking of non-famous stars of the week – I have Majesta Valentine of West Chester on my fantasy team. 9.925 on fx!
With the new “4 year plan” rules that started for everyone this year – how much flexibility will teams have to “snatch” a great bar worker if they need one. Do we think a lot of those plans have years with zero’s in them. And how likely is a team to let someone out of that 4 year plan?
Does anyone else have an odd feeling that the first 10 Kocian gets is going to be on floor?? She is seeming to be consistently improving each week. #legs
Yes, either floor or beam. Beam was really good this week until her funky dismount. She can do that dismount nicely too from the vids (snapchat, etc) that I’ve seen.
I hope it’s beam! Her floor is nice, but not a big-big-big routine and is never going to be, though she’s doing really well with being clean and very precise on landings
I agree, Beam this week would have been a huge score with the stuck dismount for sure!
That would be really really cool!
I’m enjoying her so much on floor and beam!
I’m not convinced about her bars though, they just have too many built-in deductions like those leg and ankle separations everywhere 🙁
Where is Madison Preston?
I was at the OU meet when she got hurt during warmups on an event and put her in a boot.
Madison Preston may be back in 2 to 3 weeks.
Per 01/31/17 Source:
https://dailybruin.com/2017/01/31/ucla-looks-to-improve-vault-floor-events-with-returning-gymnasts/
In the non-famous stars of the week, don’t forget Skyler Sheppard from Arizona! 9.925 on beam, gorgeous.
What happened to Briannah Tsang? She got an 8.925 on floor and then didn’t do beam. Does anyone know?
Went OOB on first pass and crashed last pass of double pike. She was fine, but held out of beam as a precaution and to let others fight for lineup spots.
Kocian’s floor is getting so good? I’m surprised how I’m kind of in love with it now.
Biggest fantasy question: will Copiak compete again? And how about Leydin? My team of Maddies is falling apart.
Just FYI the UNC quad meet is now cancelled due to water problems in Chapel Hill.