Missouri is another school not particularly desperate for new routines in the 2018 season. The thought process may be that as long as Morgan Porter is back, and with every competition set from last postseason returning, additions to the lineups are a bonus rather than a necessity.
| MISSOURI 2018 – Returning routines | |
| VAULT Ward – 9.915 Tucker – 9.865 Porter – 9.850 Harris – 9.850 Huber – 9.810 Miller – 9.770 Lewis – 9.700 |
BARS Huber – 9.860 Porter – 9.850 Schugel – 9.845 Miller – 9.840 Tucker – 9.810 Kelly – 9.790 Ward – 9.770 Bower – 9.683 Albritten – 9.625 |
| BEAM Ward – 9.925 Kelly – 9.850 Schugel – 9.830 Albritten – 9.820 Bower – 9.805 Tucker – 9.800 Porter – 9.642 |
FLOOR Harris – 9.910 Schugel – 9.876 Porter – 9.863 Tucker – 9.820 Huber – 9.805 Bower – 9.800 Kelly – 9.608 Turner – 9.550 Lewis – 9.000 |
Among the freshman class of four, I see only one or two “MUST GO IN THE LINEUP RIGHT NOW” routines, but there are nonetheless plenty of others that should contend for spots or provide realistic depth.
Belle Gottula
Gottula is the standout in this freshman class, and the most intriguing new routine to watch in the entire group will be her vault because she occasionally performs a 1.5. It’s not the most comfortable 1.5 in the world (2016 attempt below), but the possibility exists to give the team a powerful vault. In fact, Gottula struggled on some of her 2017 attempts at the full only because she completed the vault too early. Missouri can work with this.
On floor, expect to see Gottula make her way into the lineup with a fairly amplitudinous (definitely a word) full-in that she added to her routine in 2017 and that can push her ahead of the many of the D-pass options on the depth chart.
Bars and beam are tougher prospects, though still realistic. I enjoy Gottula’s loso series on beam quite a bit, but I worry about the leaps. That’s true for many in this class. It’s not a leaps class. They would rather eat a blanket of nails. On bars, everything might be a touch too deduction-heavy right now, but with a Gienger and a full-in dismount, it’s a worthwhile project to try to get this routine to lineup readiness.
Chelsey Christensen
I’d expect Christensen to peck around the edges of the lineup, or useful backup territory, on up to three events. On vault, she provides a relatively solid full in the air with just some piking at the end. It could be a usable option.
On floor, Christensen doesn’t have a big-fat-wow routine because she’s very much a twister, but her form is respectable and her twisting regimen can include a front 2/1. It tends to be a little under-rotated so I wouldn’t classify it as a definite E skill for Missouri, but it is a possibility. Even without that front 2/1, she could be a classic “clean and simple” option.
Those seem the two most realistic routines. Beam is fine. Everything’s close to being good and there’s potential, but it looks a little too likely to get nickel-and-dimed with .05s here and there and there and there. We’ll see on that one. Beam is probably the least defined of Missouri’s current lineups and therefore the one where new people can best squeeze in if they show consistency.
Paige Kovnesky
Kovnesky will hope to give Missouri an option on bars, typically one of her more competitive scores, but her routine will need some refinement in the leg form. They also must resolve the dismount. Given that Kovnesky can do a worthy giant full, I’d think a full + double tuck might be the route.
We may also see a vault from time to time as Kovnesky brings a possible full, just with a touch of knees and a lower landing.
There’s plenty of acrobatic potential in Kovnesky’s beam and floor work that could help Missouri, but from what I’ve seen, the leaps will be a disqualifying factor for both those routines unless Missouri is able to recompose those sets with different leap/jump options that aren’t as significant deduction traps.
Lauren Clevenger
Clevenger from Dynamo should also be a depth member, providing a realistic double pike routine that can be in the mix on floor depending on how many other similar options are available.
I wouldn’t necessarily have put Clevenger among the more likely beamers Missouri has to choose from—she has the composition, just a tendency toward tight execution—but she did finish 2nd at JO nationals last year on beam, kind of out of the blue, so keep that in mind as a darkhorse set.
On bars, Clevenger does have a double layout dismount, but I’d say there are likely too many form breaks in the routine itself for this set to be a major contender.
