Week 6 Rankings and Notes

WEEK 6 RANKINGS
	1.	Oklahoma	197.813
198.075 is OU’s second time breaking 198 this season Sooners expand lead heading into RQS season Nichols wins AA (BUT WHAT???), records first 10.000 on FX Jackson’s FX 9.975, Dowell’s VT 9.950, Capps’ BB 9.950 also lead
	2.	LSU	197.579
197.700 is LSU’s highest total since season-opener Edney wins AA again with 39.500 9.950s from Hambrick (BB), Gnat (FX) Harrold debuts in the VT lineup with 1.5
	3.	Florida	197.521
Season-high 197.975 at home to beat Georgia McMurtry scores third career 10.000 on UB 9.975s from Hundley (UB) and Slocum (VT) are career-highs Boren wins AA with 39.725
	4.	UCLA	197.025
198.125 is the top score in the country so far this year Team’s highest total since March 2004 Crack ain’t just for red states… First career 10.000s for Kocian, Lee (UB) 9.975s for Ohashi (BB) and Ross (UB)
	5.	Utah	196.879
Utes fall behind the Bruins with 196.525 loss to Oregon State 9.900s from Skinner on VT, FX lead team Fall behind after counting two 9.775s on UB
	6.	Alabama	196.725
Returns to earth a bit with 197.050 loss to Kentucky Winston leads team AA with 39.500 Guerrero 9.950 on BB is team’s high score Mahoney returns to UB lineup with 9.900
	7.	Boise State	196.405
Second-straight 197 bumps Boise State up to 7th Remme leads with 39.475 AA, 9.925 on BB Mejia leads UB with 9.925
	8.	Michigan	196.338
Another week, another counting fall on UB Michigan scrapes 196.025 but falls one spot Artz wins AA with 39.575, FX with 9.925 Karas returns to AA (PHEW) with 9.875 on UB
	9.	Kentucky	196.257
Another week, another program record: 197.475 Korth, Hyland, Dukes go 1,2,3 in AA 9.950s from Dukes, Hyland on BB are team’s high scores
	10.	Georgia	196.229
Hovers around 49.1s for a hit meet and a 196.525 9.900 from Babalis on beam (BEAM) is team’s top score Snead returns on UB, and there was much rejoicing
	11.	Denver	196.161
Leapfrogs OSU with 197.125 win over Boise State Karr wins AA with season-high 39.675 9.950s for Karr and Addison on FX 9.925 from Ogden takes UB to 49.400
	12.	Oregon State	196.075
Drop one place despite 196.550 in win over Utah McMillan ties for AA win w/ Skinner, leads team with 9.925 FX McMillan ties for team lead on VT, UB, BB as well McMillan, McMillan, McMillan
	13.	Southern Utah	195.940
A week of 196.7s puts SUU right back in the mix 15 different gymnasts compete routines Jorgensen takes FX with 9.950, Madison McBride UB with 9.925
	14.	Washington	195.875
196.750 is the team’s highest total since March 2004 (a theme?) Burleson wins AA with 39.425 Duranczyk scores career-high 9.950 on UB
	15.	Missouri	195.861
Tigers drop after 195.725 quad meet win Mistakes on UB drop total out of 196 contention Ward’s 9.925 on VT leads team, obviously
	16.	Nebraska	195.729
Nebraska rights itself with second-straight score over 196.5 Laeng takes AA title with 39.325 9.900 on BB from Schweihofer leads team
	17.	Auburn	195.718
Counting UB mistake sends Auburn to 195.725 Otherwise team was on mid-196 pace 9.900 on BB from Krippner was team’s high number
	18.	Cal	195.708
Cal drops three spots after 195.325 loss to Arizona Counting UB fall strikes again Big VT scores of 9.900 after sticks from Peterson, Robinson
	19.	Ohio State	195.646
Sneak win over Penn State with 195.950 Counting 9.6s on BB takes away a 196 9.925s from Mattern (FX), Hofland (UB) lead team
	20.	George Washington	195.613
Fall six ranking spots after 194.350 0.000 on VT, followed by 9.5s, then 9.6s on UB destroy score 9.825s on BB from Winstanley, Pfeiler are team highs
	21.	Illinois	195.517
Second week into the 196s with 196.050 loss to Iowa Leduc’s 9.875 on FX is team high, followed by raft of 9.850s on VT BB Leduc wins AA with 39.350
	22.	Iowa	195.489
For a sixth-straight week, since coaches poll, Iowa is stuck at #22 Season-high 196.475 in tri-meet win Metcalf’s 9.925 on BB leads the team
	23.	Arkansas	195.467
Despite having 1.75 total working legs, Arkansas hits 196 zone again Garner records career-high 9.900 on UB McGlone crashes into VT table in warmups, makes me 100% pee pants
	24.	West Virginia	195.108
WVU clings to #24 despite poor 194.575 Three BB mistakes lead to 47.675, with no chance of survival 9.875s from Goldberg, Wright on UB
	25.	Arizona	195.038
Jumps back into top 25 after 196.100 in win over Cal Score includes counting a BB fall 9.925 from Schneider on FX leads

Full rankings at RTN.

Theme of the week: gargantuan scores. Three teams scored over 197.9, four 10s were awarded along with a further five 9.975s, and in all eighteen 10s were given out by individual judges. We’re currently on pace to challenge the twenty-seven 10s awarded during 2014. It’s still nowhere near 2003-2004 levels, but there’s still time! (He says, pulling his own skin off.)

We had at least three teams set program records over the weekend (Kentucky, Southern Utah, Cornell), and at least another two (UCLA, Washington) record their highest team scores in over a decade. Southern Utah actually broke its program record twice this week, on Monday and then again on Friday.

The scoring title first appeared like it would belong to Florida with that massive early 197.975 (we had been waiting for weeks for Florida’s annual LA-LA-LA home scoring parade), but then Oklahoma swooped in with a 198.075, and then UCLA dropped from the sky the next day with a parachute made of famous names and said, “Nuh uh uh, 198.125.” We saw a lot of rainbow-unicorn scores in all these meets (and others—it’s not just a big-team thing, but it’s more extreme for big teams and results in more eye-catching ridiculata). Although, I think UCLA’s meet has garnered the most attention of the group because of the sheer number of 10s given out for what were non-10 routines. Really let Florida off the hook with that one.

If we’re all in agreement (and I’ve decided we are), the Peng bars 10.0 is fine. The others are less fine. This is a great example of the trouble judges find themselves in when they get too enthusiastic too early. Giving a 10 to Kocian and then a 10 to Ross (from one judge, the weirdest score of the whole day) for routines that were good—but not ideal—doesn’t allow for Peng’s routine, which was objectively better than the other two, to be properly rewarded with a higher score. Employing more of the range of scores would allow for a more accurate ranking of routines.

But for coaches, what happened is exactly what they want in this situation. A critical part of coaching strategy is the attempt to use lineup orders to trick the judges into giving inaccurate scores. (Or, I mean, we’re all in this together!) Having enough famous people on your team that you feel comfortable putting some of them in the middle of the lineup (or just not last) is an excellent way of doing just that.

The other significant story from that UCLA meet was Stanford’s performance, reinforcing the notion that this team is lost without Price. The most disturbing aspect of Stanford’s 194.175 is that it’s their third-highest score of the season. Stanford currently sits at #36 in the rankings, which is just barely qualifying-for-regionals level. Now, with a 193.2 and a 193.8 still to drop, Stanford should move up—even if things continue going poorly—and should not actually be in danger of missing regionals, but the fact that we even have to talk about that is disturbing. Finishing outside the top 18 and entering regionals unseeded, however, is starting to look like a quite likely scenario.

UCLA used this weekend’s score to jump ahead of Utah for #4 in advance of their meeting this Saturday night in Utah (at the exact same time as the Winter Cup final because ugh, scheduling). Massive scores were also a boon to Kentucky, Boise State, and Denver, who continued to upset the natural order of things by knocking down schools like Michigan, Georgia, and Oregon State.

For this week, our in-progress regionals placement would be as follows:

Meet 1: Oklahoma, Oregon State, Southern Utah
Meet 2: LSU, Denver, Washington
Meet 3: Florida, Georgia, Missouri
Meet 4: UCLA, Kentucky, Nebraska
Meet 5: Utah, Michigan, Auburn
Meet 6: Alabama, Boise State, Cal

Remaining hosts to be placed would be Illinois, Arkansas, West Virginia.

If past years are our guide, this should be our final week of ranking by average before getting into RQS next Monday. Tomorrow, I’ll break down the current RQS outlook team-by-team so we can see who desperately needs a road score as we head into the important part of the season.

Another theme of the week was botched vaults. I mentioned McGlone’s terrifying warmup vault in which she totally ate it during her run and slammed into that piece of rice paper that pads the base of the vaulting table, and was thankfully fine. George Washington also had a weird moment when McLaughlin pulled out of her round-off and didn’t vault, but then she immediately saluted and received a 0.000. Not sure what was happening there because she should have been given two more attempts. Unlike elite where you can get Kramarenko-ed, in NCAA it only counts as a vault if you go over the table, and she didn’t go over the table.

In the news, Kathie Klages, head coach at Michigan State, has been suspended according to an email sent out today to those involved. This is all linked to the Larry Nassar case and her alleged discouraging of athletes from contacting authorities about him.

And on that cheery note…

Unheralded stars of the week
Gymnasts from schools outside the top 25 who scored over 9.900

Morgan Lane, North Carolina – Beam 9.950 (meet 1), 9.925 (meet 2)
Lane’s beam makes the list twice this week because of Lane’s beam, though I was most impressed by her stick on her round-off full-on back pike vault. 

Jamyra Carter, Northern Illinois – Bars 9.925
Watch out for Northern Illinois as we move into RQS season, close to contention with a 192 road score still to drop.

Brittni Wilde Hawes, BYU – Bars 9.950
Notches her second career-high mark of the season, which had been 9.900 from the opening meet.

Rachel Stypinski, Kent State – Beam 9.950, Floor 9.925
Obviously. Now more than ever.

Jade Brown, Kent State – Floor 9.925
How do you keep not being a highly ranked team?

Aleeza Yu, Stanford – Vault 9.925
I keep forgetting to include Stanford in this category because it’s STANFORD.