Monthly Archives: March 2017

Meet Preview

Pac-12 Championship Preview

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On to the Pac-12!

Like the SEC and Big Ten, the Pac-12 conducts its championship in two sessions, the first beginning at 1:00 PT and including Cal, Arizona, Stanford, and Arizona State, and the second beginning at 6:00 PT and including UCLA, Utah, Oregon State, and Washington.

For the rotation order, the Pac-12 did things a little differently this year, just to make everyone confused. Rather than a predetermined draw, teams were given the opportunity to choose which even they’d like to start on, picking in seeded order. So for the evening session, UCLA chose vault, then Utah chose bars, then Oregon State chose floor, then Washington was left with beam and went, “We’re all going to get 9.875 anyway, so eat that SUCKAAASSSS.”

For the afternoon session, Cal chose vault, then Arizona broke with convention and took beam with the second pick, Stanford took bars, and Arizona State was left with floor.

Session I – Cal, Arizona, Stanford, Arizona State
It’s not completely ridiculous to expect a good score to come out of the first session, a score that at least challenges a couple of the teams in the top group. The scoring potential UCLA and Utah have displayed this year should see them pull away with hit meets, but a team like Cal having a good meet and finishing third is entirely within the realm of possibility. Continue reading Pac-12 Championship Preview →

Meet Preview

SEC Championship Preview

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The arrival of the conference championships marks the beginning of the onset of the opening of the first stage of an NCAA gymnastics season’s march toward maturity, like a disgusting larva transforming into a slightly less disgusting larva.

Results still don’t really matter, but this is the last time results won’t matter. And that’s something. Also blah blah blah, bragging rights. The SEC coaches are always eager to tell us that winning the SEC Championship is harder than winning the national championship, which is just blatantly false and dumb to say, but also…a trophy? Hooray! Winner and losers! Life is happening!

Here, I break down prospects for victory and what I’ll be watching at the SEC Championship for each of the teams.

The championship will be conducted in two sessions, the first at 2:00 ET and featuring Kentucky, Missouri, Auburn, and Arkansas, and the second at 6:00 ET and featuring LSU, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Teams will compete in seeded order in each session, so LSU and Kentucky begin on vault, Florida and Missouri on bars, Alabama and Auburn on beam, and Georgia and Arkansas on floor.

Session I – Kentucky, Missouri, Auburn, Arkansas
It’s not impossible to get a high score out of the first session. Last season, Georgia totaled 196.850 even with a mild beamtastrophe. Jay, Rogers, Box, and Schick all hit the 9.9 zone on at least one piece, and Jay scored high enough to finish third overall in the AA. So, there is precedent for a useful total.

At the same time, since the SEC went to a two-session format, no team has hit the 197 mark in the first group. With regional seeding and placements riding on how Kentucky and Missouri score in this meet, attempts to hold down the scores in the first session to leave room for the better teams in the second session (reasonable) will have implications for all the teams in the final season standings, not just the teams in this meet. Continue reading SEC Championship Preview →

Polls

Best Routine of Week 10 Poll

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Congratulations to our week 9 champion, Alex McMurtry’s 10.0 vault, which triumphed in the war of social media over Erika Aufiero’s bars in second and Nicola Deans’ floor in third.

ROUTINE of the WEEK 1st 2nd 3rd
Week 1 Skinner, FX Edney, VT Nichols, UB
Week 2 Ward, VT PP Lee, BB Hambrick, FX
Week 3 Artz, FX Childers, BB Skinner, VT
Week 4 Ross, UB McMurtry, VT PP Lee, UB
Week 5 Gardiner, BB Ward, VT Winston, FX
Week 6 PP Lee, UB Slocum, VT Jackson, FX
Week 7 Ross, BB Price, UB Guerrero, BB
Week 8 McMurtry, FX Mossett, FX Lehrmann, UB
Week 9 McMurtry, VT Aufiero, UB Deans, FX
Week 10

Who will be the winner in the final week of non-championship action, a week that saw the 28th score of 10.000 on the year, the most in a single season since the 2003-2004 dark ages?

  1. Morgan Lane, North Carolina – Vault (9.875)

2. Kirah Koshinki, West Virginia – Vault (9.875)

3. Mary Jane Horth, Illinois – Bars (9.950)

4. Kaytianna McMillan, Oregon State – Bars (10.000)

5. Peng Peng Lee, UCLA – Bars (10.000)

6. Courtney McGregor, Boise State – Bars (9.950)

7. Stacie Webb, Southern Utah – Beam (10.000)

https://twitter.com/byutvsports/status/841457669860868096

8. Katelyn Ohashi, UCLA – Beam (10.000)

9. Kiana Winston, Alabama – Beam (9.950)

10. Ashley Lambert, Nebraska – Floor (9.900)

 

Rankings

Week 10 Rankings and Final RQS Scenarios

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Here we are. The week before conference championships. Just one meet left to change your ranking and get to a less horrible position. At this point, we know the maximum RQSs and exactly where each team has a chance to end up in the rankings.

For reference, if the season were already over, the regionals placements would look like this:

Regional 1: Oklahoma, Kentucky, Nebraska (host)
Regional 2: LSU, Boise State, Missouri (presumed host: Arkansas)
Regional 3: UCLA, Oregon State, Washington (host)
Regional 4: Florida (host), Michigan, Cal
Regional 5: Utah, Georgia, Iowa (presumed host: Illinois)
Regional 6: Alabama, Denver, George Washington (presumed host: West Virginia)

For the presumed hosts, I just kind of guessed based on general geography.

The regionals tiebreaker for seeds/qualifying is the highest score that isn’t being used among the 6 for RQS.

In case you were curious, this year at regionals the #1 seeds will begin on bars, the #2 seeds will begin on vault, and the #3 seeds will begin on a bye before floor. That means the #1 seeds end on a bye (ughughughughughughugh), the #2 seeds end on floor, and the #3 seeds end on beam. Continue reading Week 10 Rankings and Final RQS Scenarios →