1. Oklahoma Sooners
Average: 197.938
Previous ranking: 1
Oklahoma retains the #1 spot this week following a 197.825—a score that didn’t even get into the 198s, so psssh what are we here for? Of note, the Sooners brought out the holy grail of vault lineups six Y1.5s, which is so far ahead of the rest of the country at this point as to be comical—and certainly sets the new standard that all other teams will hope to catch by nationals. No contending teams will feel at peace bringing two 10.0s when Oklahoma has six. Also, there was the issue of Maggie Nichols limping a little after her floor routine, which broke several angels.
2. UCLA Bruins
Average: 197.475
Previous ranking: 2
UCLA cruised with a 197.700 at the Anaheim quad meet, a performance that is becoming more remarked upon for Katelyn Ohashi’s floor being shared online by various famouses than anything else. (When are famouses going to share Gracie Kramer’s floor routine, or like their money or something, that’s what I want to know.) There were certainly moments of cracktastic scoring in that one—the beam rotation that scored 49.475 had far fewer errors than the floor rotation that scored 49.700, and this why judging will be the death of me—but you absolutely take this performance for a January meet.
3. Florida Gators
Average: 197.300
Previous ranking: UNR
Florida debuts in 3rd place with a very respectable 197.300 for an opening meet that was also very much in the “solid progress for January” category. Vault isn’t there yet with quite a few landing problems, but the potential on bars and beam is tremendous, the lineups didn’t look to be totally lost without Baumann even though she’ll be in the best-case lineups on three pieces, and Trinity Thomas is already priming herself to get 10s this season by debuting with a 39.475 AA score.
4. Utah Utes
Average: 197.213
Previous ranking: 3
Utah drops a single spot this week because of Florida’s entry into the rankings but will nonetheless be pretty content with scoring over 197 in another January meet. It wasn’t a mistake-free performance—the team is clearly still working through some lineups, which is good because they should have options to explore—but Utah is already showing the ability to put up equivalent results in home and away contexts. I’m happy Utah isn’t settling on “reliable veteran for 9.825” when there are freshmen who could score higher in time to be given experience. For instance, Randall didn’t get a good floor score in this meet, but I like her potential for the lineup.
5. LSU Tigers
Average: 196.525
Previous ranking: 4
LSU drops to 5th after a disappointing loss to Auburn, which will sting more because of the result than the score. A 196.275 is LSU’s lowest total in quite some time, but it’s a long season and that score will be a distant, dropped memory by late February. Meanwhile, this team is not going to forget losing to Auburn any time soon. Like basically ever. We don’t know how much the warmup injury to McKenna Kelley (which sounds like it’s not going to be too major) affected the performance, but floor and beam were far below LSU’s expected level—uncertain in landings on floor, shaky and tentative on beam. Issues to work out for next week.
6. BYU Cougars
Average: 196.475
Previous ranking: UNR
So BYU is in 6th now. That’s a thing that’s happening. These lower-mid 196s are what we came to expect from BYU last season, especially in home meets, so this result is largely picking up where the team left off. We’ll see how realistic those beam scores prove once BYU has to start fending for itself at out-of-state away meets in February, but the routines are there for this to continue to be a very 196 roster. And because apparently the only goal in this sport is to have a viral floor routine now, Shannon Hortman Evans’ Mario routine also got some traction. One question: exactly when does Mario do the floss? I feel like that routine might not be 100% tonally consistent with the source material.
7. Boise State Broncos
Average: 196.400
Previous ranking: UNR
With a performance later on Sunday, Boise State didn’t get the headlines for its 196.4 opening meet performance, but as is true for BYU, this score will keep Boise State in a very healthy ranking position while some of the more famous teams still try to get their sea legs. Boise State scored well on bars in the opener, surprising no one, but critical was the similarly useful score on beam, which has not been a traditional strength for this group. If Remme, Means, and Esmerian keep scoring like that…
8. Denver Pioneers
Average: 196.275
Previous ranking: 8
I mentioned for LSU that the result mattered more than the score, and Denver will feel the same way about its meet—except happy version. This 196.275 is not a shocking or dramatic score (even though breaking 196 in the opener is worth pride), but defeating Michigan and Alabama at the same time is a huge statement performance. Denver is trying to make the argument that it’s a top-8 team, and that results makes that argument pretty well. Also Alexis Vasquez on beam. The end.
9. Michigan Wolverines
Average: 196.038
Previous ranking: 6
What a nice, quiet week for Michigan. Root-dee-doo nothing to report. Michigan’s “just OK” 196.025 to take 2nd at the Alabama quad meet will be overshadowed by the record-breakingly short tenure of Rhonda Faehn as coaching consultant (whatever that means), appearing on the floor Friday and then dismissed by Sunday.
As with most things involving Rhonda and USAG, this situation defies easy categorization into a good guys team and a bad guys team, and I have 800 contradictory thoughts about it. Because my answer is that Polina‘s argument makes total sense to me and seems supremely reasonable. I agree. (Also, Rhonda’s probably less likely to have sex with a team member in a car—so step up?) But Rachael’s fury at what she views as Rhonda’s disqualifying silence is also completely understandable. Of COURSE it feels like a slap in the face to her to reward Rhonda following the last couple years. I don’t look at anything that’s been said and think, “you’re on the wrong side of this.”
So what I will say is that I don’t think we need to force survivors, whether prominent or not, tweeting or not, public or not, to all think the same thing just to make it easier for the rest of us to join in with “the right thing to think.” It’s more complicated than that. They’re not a monolith, and I don’t see a “right thing to think” in this case. (And no other cases ever.) No faction needs to be pressured to join the others and think like THE GROUP, even if it would make things easier for the lawyers.
Nancy is good on this.
Kathy is good on this.
Also, Michigan royally effed this up. If you’re going to hire a coach that inspires the kind of reaction you know Rhonda does, you better have a really good reason for picking her and a strategy for introducing her. You’ve thought it through and done the research and feel like you have a leg to stand on to justify the decision. You don’t treat it like a little secret and then suddenly go,”Gasp, people are mad? What? I didn’t expect this at all!” Where did that leg you were standing on go? Quietly hiring and then immediately dismissing her just makes Michigan look stupid and pitiful and incompetent in a USAG kind of way.
10. Georgia Bulldogs
Average: 195.950
Previous ranking: 5
It was going so well for a second. Georgia will quickly want to forget the 195.300 performance put up against Oklahoma, a meet that went wrong right from the start with two falls to lead off the bars rotation—and never really got back on track despite some solid vaulting. Beam was fairly tentative again, and odd mistakes crept into the floor lineup like Rachel Dickson not getting an automatic 9.900 or Rachael Lukacs struggling on her leap combination. It was not the composed meet we saw in the opener at home. Is this going to be another year of desperately watching the Georgia road scores?
10. Missouri Tigers
Average: 195.950
Previous ranking: 11
Missouri will absolutely enjoy the big 196.450 recorded away against Florida, taking advantage of this prime golden-goose away-score opportunity on the schedule despite it being so early in the season. This is already a keeper for the postseason. The first-meet issue on bars was resolved this time, Britney Ward came back into the vault lineup with her necessary 10.0 start, and a competitive slate of 9.8-level sets appears to be emerging again this year.
12. California Golden Bears
Average: 195.863
Previous ranking: 9
Cal drops a few spots in the rankings as more teams start going comfortably into the 196s, but Cal will nonetheless mark this performance at the Anaheim quad meet as progress—improving several tenths on the first meet and breaking 196. Make special note of Rachael Mastrangelo, who emerged as one of the strongest in the lineup on both of her events and could be making an argument as more than just a backup. Now, if the team can get Alma Kuc working bars consistently enough to be in the lineup and start doing beam at double speed, then we might be onto something.
13. Auburn Tigers
Average: 195.763
Previous ranking: 17
Auburn still isn’t ranked too high because of the first-meet floor disaster, but the team will be nothing but joyous about both the result and the score from the weekend, defeating LSU with a massive 196.700. Particularly encouraging will be that the team had one absolutely phenomenal, best they can do rotation on bars (it was like the whole team started taking Abby Milliet pills) but will see plenty of opportunities to improve on the other events. Which will be necessary to keep getting this kind of score on the road as well. Beam and floor were only meh in this one, which will be scary to the other teams in this section of the rankings.
14. Arkansas Razorbacks
Average: 195.688
Previous ranking: 10
Arkansas went 195 for the second straight week, which sees the team drop a few places in the rankings. It wasn’t a weak performance or one that will be setting off alarm bells—no disasters, just a little tight in places and a little reserved in the judging department on a few events. Next week’s visit to Kentucky will tell us a lot since those two rivals have been performing at a pretty similar level through the first two meets and both REALLY want a 196 out of it.
15. Nebraska Cornhuskers
Average: 195.625
Previous ranking: 8
Nebraska also got stuck in the 195s for the second straight meet to drop a few places in the rankings. In this weekend’s 48.8-a-thon of a performance, Nebraska didn’t quite have the performance it did against UCLA, missing Schweihofer on every event but beam, Houchin falling on her DTY this time. It just rougher in a few critical places, with some backup routines having to come into the lineup and ultimately count because of falls elsewhere. The beam routine from Sierra Hassel for 9.900 was a real treat. All the wrestling we had to watch was not.
16. Kentucky Wildcats
Average: 195.538
Previous ranking: 7
Kentucky plummets 9 spots this week following a 195.100 score at Illinois, the result of an unfortunate combination of a tightly evaluated meet along with a more sluggish performance than we saw in the first week of competition. Having to count an OOB on floor for 9.575 was characteristic of the little problems that cropped up in all of the rotations to drop the scores under 49. See note about the meet with Arkansas next weekend. Big recovery opportunity.
17. Ohio State Buckeyes
Average: 195.463
Previous ranking: 15
Ohio State will be exceptionally pleased about breaking 196 in its second meet and doing so away from home For a team that only had two away 196s all of last season, that’s already useful benchmark that can actually be used for RQS if needed. This bars lineup is emerging as the real deal, so its no surprise that’s the event score that took OSU over the 196 barrier.
17. Alabama Crimson Tide
Average: 195.463
Previous ranking: 18
Alabama did better in its second meet, getting over the 196 mark despite losing this quad meet at home. That part won’t be fun, nor will this continued ranking in the weaker half of teens, but breaking 196 was the minimum expectation for this one to try to reverse what happened in that opening 194. Shallon Olsen is emerging as an absolute essential on the power even, but Alabama is still getting stuck in the 9.7s for hit beam routines and needs to find a way out of that trap. They’ll hope a visit to Georgia next weekend will do the trick. It has been known to. That’s going to be a good (and by good, I mean weird) one given what we’ve seen from those teams so far.
19. Arizona State Sun Devils
Average: 195.338
Previous ranking: 13
Arizona State got nearly seven tenths better in its second meet, still showing more 9.7s than it would prefer but also revealing shades of the 9.8s that can get this team into the 196s when Leonard-Baker and Kuhm are both at their best. Ashley Szafranski returned to the beam lineup after missing the first meet, and while the beam total ended up being ASU’s weakest, it really should emerge as one of the team’s stronger events with the lovely work from Kuhm, Callis, Szafranski, and Udowitch highlighting the lineup.
20. Washington Huskies
Average: 195.250
Previous ranking: UNR
Washington debuts at #20, which I would have something to say about if we had actually been shown any of the Washington routines during the broadcast (#stillbitter). From the scores, it looks like a 9.775-a-thon, which is a perfectly acceptable non-disaster to build on but not exactly what the team would have hoped for. Geneva Thompson did get into three events and recorded the team’s highest score on vault, where she’s going to be a vital contributor.
21. Oregon State Beavers
Average: 195.225
Previous ranking: UNR
Oregon State’s is another one of those results that the team will be pleased with, even if the score of 195.225 is nothing to write home about. They’ll need to drop that number instantly, but it’s a win over the likes of Kentucky, and that’s the kind of result OSU needs to build itself back up after missing nationals again last year. The vaults aren’t there yet, and the bars score was very low as a result of routines not shown on the broadcast, but beam and floor were pretty solid overall, and Lowery’s quite useful displays on both bars and beam look like they’ll be essential pieces this year.
22. Western Michigan Broncos
Average: 195.075
Previous ranking:UNR
Now here’s a team we don’t talk about in the top 25 a lot. WMU put up a very strong showing in its opener against Northern Illinois to get up into this rarefied air. Most importantly, the score was not built completely on the numbers provided by star Rachael Underwood. She has to get help for WMU to remain competitive for mid-195s and a regionals place as the season goes, and many others brought out 9.775s and 9.800s in this one.
22. Central Michigan Chippewas
Average: 195.075
Previous ranking: 16
Central and Western Michigan are tied this week. Which I think is like a paradox or something? CMU improved on its score from the first week by a few tenths in the second week and will be particularly gratified by being able to go over 49 on floor even with Pedrick off the event this week and Macey Hilliker, traditionally one of their best floor scores, still not back on that event. That floor lineup can get quite a bit stronger than what we’ve seen thus far.
24. Stanford Cardinal
Average: 194.913
Previous ranking: 12
Oh bars. Stanford regressed in its score for week 2 as a result of two major misses on bars that left the team counting a score in the 8s. What, is it last season already? The team will take the floor performance from this one, getting a solid rotation score despite a low number from Bryant. The entire rest of the group stepped up for strong scores, and that’s the sort of even lineup depth Stanford will need to continue showing.
25. Minnesota Golden Gophers
Average: 194.875
Previous ranking: 20
Minnesota just gets into the top 25 this week after recording a 195.600 home score that dramatically improved on the previous week’s showing. Best of the bunch were of course the bars and beam rotations, where Lexy Ramler scored well but could have scored even weller for a bars routine that was the best I’ve seen so far this season. For 9.900. Hers were the highlight performances, but I saw a team here that should very comfortably get 196s when the scores are there to be had.
“So what I will say is that I don’t think we need to force survivors, whether prominent or not, tweeting or not, public or not, to all think the same thing just to make it easier for the rest of us to join in with “the right thing to think.” It’s more complicated than that. They’re not a monolith, and I don’t see a “right thing to think” in this case. (And no other cases ever.) No faction needs to be pressured to join the others and think like THE GROUP, even if it would make things easier for the lawyers.”
AMEN
Agree with your overall take on Michigan – I do think there could be a reason to hire Faehn and a way to make it a safe and responsible choice, and that Michigan utterly failed at this. But I don’t agree that Shchennikova or the USA Today article are being reasonable. They imply strongly that Denhollander’s rightful anger is just “social media” (Polina) or “groupthink” (USA Today article). I don’t think that’s ok. Especially when the negative impact on some gymnasts is “you don’t get to have your preferred coach” versus for others “you have to be coached by someone who you feel was complicit in your sexual abuse.” Those are two different consequences and one really is worse than the other. And because Michigan did such a shitty job of onboarding Faehn, and because so many Nassar victims are anonymous, we can’t be actually sure that the competing Michigan team are all okay with and supportive of Faehn as a coach.
Incidentally, I was a bit more on the side of Faehn/Michigan prior to reading Denhollander’s tweets – if you haven’t done so, you should. She makes the excellent and important point that while she (Denhollander) and Jamie Dantszcher were alone in accusing Nassar and enduring attempted smears from USAG and disbelief/accusations of lying from most of the gymnastics community, Faehn knew about the other accusations against Nassar and yet she still stayed quiet to protect her own position at USAG. Of course Faehn wasn’t required to stand up for Denhollander and Dantszcher by sharing what she knew, but someone who wouldn’t do so is highly questionable material as a coach. To me, that seems like more than “oops, Rhonda trusted Steve Penny to do the right thing and report immediately but he didn’t.” That’s months of her making the wrong decision and protecting the wrong people.
I think it is easy to forget that Jamie Dantszcher filed a lawsuit against USAG when the initial story about her and Rachel Denhollander came out in September 2016. That basically excluded Rhonda from being able to say anything publicly in their defense. Remember how MLT was fired for claiming to try to reach out to Aly Raisman while Aly was actively suing USAG? It’s standard operating procedure when being sued to not interact with the person suing them or say anything regarding the case publicly (other than the lawyer). Because anything an employee says can impact the lawsuit. Rhonda could only speak when subpoenaed or else she would have been fired. She WAS fired when she said she was willing to testify at the Congressional Hearings and that she would be subpoenaed if she refused (meaning she’d have to testify anyways). Also, we know now that Nassar’s “treatments” were bogus, but the investigation was ongoing at that point. If Rhonda spoke publicly about the new allegations, that could also have possibly broached HIPAA privacy (granted, I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV).
However, Rachel Denhollander is a lawyer and she absolutely knows employees aren’t able to speak about anything pertaining to the lawsuit when their company is being sued. I do feel it is disingenuous for her to argue that Rhonda should have defended them publicly and shared everything she knew to help them when that would have cost her her job. Rachel fails to acknowledge the very sizable repercussions that Rhonda would have faced to do so or that this would be going way above and beyond typical actions and expectations for someone in that situation. I’m not sure if that’s what you meant when you say that Rhonda “still stayed quiet to protect her own position at USAG” or if you meant she was protecting her reputation within the organization. Doing something you know will get you fired for cause (so no unemployment) when so little was known or proven yet – that’s a lot to ask from someone. I’m not saying the argument shouldn’t be made that Rhonda should have sacrificed her job if doing so absolutely meant that Nassar would have been stopped sooner, but I am saying that the consequences she would have faced for doing so need to be acknowledged.
It seems very likely that USAG did not provide any training about mandatory reporting in Indiana when Rhonda joined the organization. They did everything they could to keep from reporting possible sex abuse – it would have been against their own interests to educate their people if they wanted that policy followed. It doesn’t completely excuse Rhonda because she should have known, but it is hard to know something that you don’t know you need to know. She acted in good faith, unlike others. She has also been by far the most informative of anyone at USAG regarding details, emails, notes, dates, who knew what when, and who did what about it. She expressed regret that she didn’t do more and if she knew then what she knows now, she would have.
Agree 100%.
“I’m not sure if that’s what you meant when you say that Rhonda “still stayed quiet to protect her own position at USAG” or if you meant she was protecting her reputation within the organization. Doing something you know will get you fired for cause (so no unemployment) when so little was known or proven yet – that’s a lot to ask from someone.”
Sure, it’s a lot to ask from someone, but personally I think this is an exceptional situation. I know several people who have risked and/or given up their jobs for less in order to do the right thing in muuuch less crucial situations, and they’re people who are way less financially comfortable than Rhonda Faehn.
“She expressed regret that she didn’t do more and if she knew then what she knows now, she would have.” <- …like… obviously? If I knew someone was a convicted sexual predator I'd do something too. It's taking the more courageous step earlier – when we didn't all know all the evidence – that would have actually supported survivors and protected people who became victims. You don't GET hindsight in these situations.. that's kind of the whole point. Rhonda had the chance to do the right thing, but she did the safe thing because she didn't "know."
I think it's easy to sympathize with Rhonda because it seems right now like she's the only person being held accountable in any way from USAG when she's actually the least culpable of all the USAG leadership. That seems unfair. But she is still culpable. Hiring her (or in her case, taking these jobs) without taking action to recognize and ameliorate this is irresponsible and I'm glad there is backlash.
Like I said, I think there is probably a way to bring Rhonda back on board somewhere that acknowledges her failures but Michigan didn't do it.
I agree with viv. Rhonda had a chance to do what was really right (and yes, that probably would have meant losing her job because USAG sucks) in September 2016 and didn’t do it. Sometimes you have to look at your personal ethics and evaluate whether those are more important than the (corrupt) organization you work for. It doesn’t mean she should never work again but it does mean she doesn’t get a hero label either.
Very well said viv!
“Especially when the negative impact on some gymnasts is “you don’t get to have your preferred coach” versus for others “you have to be coached by someone who you feel was complicit in your sexual abuse.””
But that’s the whole point, all the survivors on the team wanted her to be hired. They wouldn’t have been coached by someone they felt was complicit in their sexual abuse because THEY WANTED HER.
I personally share Spencer’s belief that Armour had a nuanced and reasonable take on this. I particularly thought her point that “But if Faehn is to be ostracized for her inaction, how far does the moral outrage extend? To the personal coaches, who also knew and didn’t go to authorities? To the parents, who, either out of trust that something was being done, concern for their daughters or a combination of both, did not report Nassar either?” seemed to speak to how the gymternet has responded to her compared to others. Sarah Jantzi is frequently lauded by the gymternet for taking action and has been suggested for high-ranking national team positions on that basis, when she ultimately did basically the exact same thing as Rhonda– report to the higher-up she was supposed to, and trust what she heard from them about the investigation. Yet no one’s saying Jantzi shouldn’t get to coach anymore, or most any of the others who knew and didn’t independently go to the police or make information public in the fall of 2016. And I felt that Armour was saying basically the same as Spencer here with her reference to “groupthink”; the survivors don’t all agree, and we shouldn’t elevate some voices to silence others. They’ve been silenced enough, and if some of them support Rhonda, they should be listened to.
As for Polina, I understand why the survivors on the Michigan team might be frustrated with Denhollander and the response her tweets received right now because, frankly, Michigan’s coaching staff affects them and it doesn’t affect her, but theirs were the voices that were ignored. I fully agree with Armour when she says we shouldn’t “parcel out who suffered more and judge their opinions accordingly,” but in certain situations, some voices will be more applicable. In this case, it was those who actually would have been working with Rhonda, yet theirs were the voices that were discarded.
Personally, looking at this situation, I just can’t keep from noticing that the gymternet (and beyond)’s main rallying cry in the post-Nassar era has been that the athletes need to be given a voice, yet every time the athletes have used that voice to express something other than a plain “Burn it down!”, from staffing choices to not wanting to be filmed in certain settings, there’s been a sizable corner of the gymternet who’s opposed them.
I also thought Lauren had really insightful things to say regarding this situation in the You Asked post.
As I’ve seen it said elsewhere – leadership matters. Rhonda was in a leadership role. I hold her to a higher standard than I hold Sarah Jantzi. I do think Sarah also should have gone to the police, as a mandatory reporter in Texas. And I think that both Rhonda and Sarah thought they had done the right thing. Rhonda had a better view than Sarah to see what was and wasn’t being done and was in a better position to challenge Steve Penny.
But we actually DON’T know if all the survivors on the team were ok with it, because there’s no evidence that Michigan actually asked everyone in the team in a truly non-coercive way if they were ok with it and a lot of victims were anonymous. Do you really think they had every team member sit down individually with a third party in a safe and (also anonymous) way to ask them how they felt about bringing Faehn on board? Where they wouldn’t be influenced by their louder teammates or coaches who clearly felt that Rhonda was a good choice? That’s one of the steps that they should have, but did not, take if they wanted to hire Faehn.
Also – sometimes what you want still isn’t right. Athlete voices aren’t always right. I don’t think this necessarily applies to Rhonda, but just because you feel that a formerly abusive coach (say, Liukin) is reformed doesn’t mean he should be in a position of power in which he decides who gets an international gymnastics career. Maybe he should, maybe he shouldn’t! But the testimonies of current athletes are only one part of the story.
t’s hard to see what was and what wasn’t being done when Steve Penny kept telling the few employees at USAG that knew about Nassar that the FBI was investigating and he couldn’t disclose any other details. He also told them that they were to stay silent and not discuss Nassar with anyone, even each other, or else they’d compromise the FBI investigation (and that he was relaying this from the FBI). He was lying his butt off, but they didn’t know that, and it requires a crystal ball to know at that point that they needed to suspect Penny of lying about everything. It’s hard to be a hero and go public with what you know when you’ve been told doing so will compromise the investigation against the abuser. That’s not heroic at all.
I really feel badly for a few select people in this fiasco who I think thought they were doing things correctly or where simply so out of their element in dealing with the issues that they made really bad decisions. At some point I hope we get a better accounting of what really happened and how even the decent people went of course. It seems like the whole organization was so governed on fear and dysfunction that even normal, morally competent people got completely turned around in how they dealt with the situation. That said- Michigan needed to handle this entirely differently. And as some of the peripheral people return to jobs/posts/life they need to understand how to offer others a certain level of transparency/scrutiny. And given why Michigan even had an opening (and that another college in the state was ground zero for the sexual abuse scandal) they should have recognized they needed to thread a finer line.
The NCAA scoring is beyond ridiculous. It is so corrupt and unfair in so many ways. I wish each meet was required to have 4 judges to help with some of the blatant ridiculous scoring. At least they do that in major meets.
While UCLA definitely deserves some of the scores they get…. Ohashi’s routine is clearly not a 10.0. You can’t BOUNCE out of a tumbling pass… On her second pass she doesn’t LAND.. she bounces twice. You are allowed to take a step back, but not be bouncing all over the place. it’s a fun routine and she’s talented, but why are judges so willing to throw everything out and reward a 10.0??? They are a dime a dozen nowadays.
FINALLY!!! I wish I had the guts to say something about KO’s routines. They are without a doubt the most entertaining in the nation but it’s not a broadway show but a technical meet. The same can be said about last years routine. Even the bounces didn’t go straight up but rather way forward or way back. There is something to be said about showing “joy” in the performance but rules matter.
I’ve seen other routines more deserving of th “10”. Miss Val is a master at marketing her team but when the hype affects scores then there’s a problem. Did Sabrina Vega get any 10’s last year or was she shafted along with Cairo-Leonard. Elizabeth Price. Mykayla Skinner. Their difficulty and performance deserved a litt more recognition last year. It’s early season so we can hope that. The Ohashi. Ross graveyard train slows a bit. Word to Kyla please change up the bars a bit. Boring perfection is still boring. You are capable of more. Would love to see another few “tricks” from the elite arsenal
Do I think UCLA is the best team in the country? Probably but how impressive was a complete lineup of 10 start value vaults from Oklahoma. Way to rise ladies. So impressive. Time for a Bruin rise too. The talent is there so use it.
I thought that too when watching Ohashi’s routine…. highly entertaining but a few technical deductions that should be taken….like the bouncing. I’m glad Ohashi has found her joy back in the sport but I think she can still be a happy athlete getting 9.9s and 9.95s.
Totally agree that the UCLA marketing of this team ups their scores in ways ASU (Cairo) or even Price never saw. Not saying the UCLA gymnasts aren’t a talented bunch but judges need to be fair at every competition, no matter who the team or leo.
Also agree on Kyla’s bars….a big yawn, although this week really was one of her very best and probably the first time I thought “a bit droll, but man was that perfect” and thought she would get the 10.
I guess unless there’s an automatic deduction for no single rail release, which would penalize a lot of other teams way more than Kyla , then she’ll always be able to get the 10 for 10.0 SV that’s clean and perfectly executed, albeit boring.
A big point of devaluing FTY was to promote more diversity in vault lineups. Oklahoma’s full lineup of identical vaults with Yurchenko 1.5 is just as boring. I’m personally not impressed by it at all.
I agree. It doesn’t bother me as much with Ross because I love Ross but it drives me up the wall with Ohashi and NICHOLS. Nichols is exceptional. But she gets soooo many 10s that should be 9.95s. So many. Ohashi too.
Hate the famouses
That seems like a very sad way to view things. I can see “hating that the famouses sometimes get scores they don’t deserve compared to other gymnasts”, but why hate the gymnasts? A lot of them are putting great gymnastics out there week after week. Maybe we could hate the game, not the player?
Spencer was talking about the “famouses” aka the famous non-gymnastics people who were re-tweeting ohashi’s routine…that’s who I was referring to, not gymnasts…and I was half joking
Oh, whoops! That’s what I get for jumping to comments two days after I read the blog itself. I’ve just read so many comments along that line where people are hating on Maggie, Katelyn, Kyla, etc. So I assumed this was more along that line.
Sarah Finnegan is also one who is nearly technically perfect but doesn’t get the 10s the others get. And unfortunately, unless the team starts performing better (which let’s hope) to support a 10 at the end of the lineup, its unlikely she’ll get them this year.
Seems a bit sacrilegious, but can you name the OU and UCLA gymnastics members without looking for the answers?
https://twitter.com/adex2491/status/1085550231540977669