And so we arrive at the last, the infamous 6, 7, 18 regional. This regional has a reputation of being the easiest and least interesting of all because it contains the weakest of the #3 teams and therefore should provide the most straightforward qualification road for the #1 and #2 teams. This reputation exists for a reason. The #6 and #7 teams had advanced every single time since 2004…until last year, when Stanford came in as the #18 team and upset everything.

April 1, 4:00 ET/1:00 PT

Teams (starting event)
[6] Alabama (bars)
[7] Michigan (vault)
[18] Southern Utah (bye before floor)
[20] George Washington (bye before bars)
[23] West Virginia (beam)
[31] Kent State (floor)

Individuals
Majesta Valentine, West Chester (AA)
Lyanda Dudley, Cornell (AA)
Caroline Morant, Brown (AA)
Libby Groden, Rutgers (AA)
Tracey Person, Pittsburgh (VT)
Kimberly Stewart, Birdgeport (VT)
Taylor Laymon, Pittsburgh (UB)
Daisy Todd, Temple (UB)
Brianna Comport, Bridgeport (BB, FX)
Kaitlin Green, Cornell (BB)
Maya Reimers, Bridgeport (FX)

The favorites – Alabama and Michigan
Alabama and Michigan are supposed to qualify here, and with hit meets, they will. The high score on the road for any of the other teams in the meet is 196.725, a number that Michigan has bested in five consecutive meets and Alabama has bested in seven consecutive. We’ve seen both teams have struggle-bus meets this year, Alabama with that weekend of 195s and Michigan with some early road debacles, but those were centuries ago. It’s the kind of situation where you hear people use optimistic yet baseless cliches like, “we’ve put those mistakes behind us,” which is true right up until it isn’t.

Still, qualification is in the hands of the top two seeds, and both would have to mimic those struggle-bus meets and count a fall in order to throw this chance away. That statement will provide Michigan with panic flashbacks as the case was exactly the same last year, then Michigan counted a fall on beam and still missed nationals by only .050 in what otherwise would have been a smooth and relaxed qualification journey at home.

For Alabama, SECs proved a fine yet somewhat disheartening experience because they hit a solid 197.400 and didn’t count a mistake, yet still ended up 0.675 behind LSU. Not all that encouraging in terms of title prospects. Alabama needs to perform a little closer to the leading teams during regionals and should be able to improve on an SEC performance that featured a couple dropped falls and weak floor landings. We’ll also need to watch the McNeer situation. She was fitted with her robo-wrist in time to return on beam at SECs, but a best-level Alabama would have her on more than one event. They’ve reconstructed that bars lineup quite a lot recently, the latest move being to take out Sims in favor of Guerra, a solid call, but ideally McNeer would have that spot. Continue reading West Virginia Regional Preview →