1. Oklahoma Sooners

Average: 197.350

Surprising no one, Oklahoma sits in first after posting the weekend’s lone 197, achieved with the help of Ragan Smith’s NCAA all-around debut, and even without the services of Olivia Trautman.

2. Denver Pioneers

Average: 196.700

Denver upset UCLA to take 2nd place at the Collegiate Challenge (from the first session, no less) a performance highlighted by the season’s first 10, coming from Alexis Vasquez on beam.

3. UCLA Bruins

Average: 196.575

Counting a fall on beam left UCLA in the mid 196s, which was still not bad especially given some key lineup absences like Hano on floor and Flatley on beam. Kocian’s non-presence is a worry.

4. Utah Utes

Average: 196.425

The way things went this week, escaping with a semi-scrappy but fine 196 is a victory, and Utah will be fairly encouraged by the completeness and viable competitiveness of these rebuilt lineups, especially beam.

5. Cal Bears

Average: 196.200

The lone other team to escape the first-week score bloodbath, Cal notched an opening 196 thanks to the lineup-refreshing introduction of Nevaeh DeSouza and casually one of Kyana George’s best meets ever.

6. Illinois Illini

Average: 195.850

Illinois managed one of the big surprises of the week, going on the road to upset Missouri and in the process getting exactly the kind of all-around performance from freshman Mia Takekawa that the team needs to take the next step.

7. LSU Tigers

Average: 195.725

The knuckles turned a little white in Louisiana with LSU’s lowest score in 7 years. The team counted a fall on beam and a basically-a-fall on bars, a rotation where Alyona Shchennikova made her debut but didn’t look ready yet. We’ll forget about this meet in 30 seconds, but…

8. Missouri Tigers

Average: 195.600

Missouri won’t be jumping up and down about losing its first meet at home and counting a fall on bars, but the Helen Hu beam prophecy did at least come true for 9.900.

9. Stanford Cardinal

Average: 195.475

It has been a while since we’ve seen Stanford in the rarefied air of the top 10, so even in a depleted weekend of meets, you take it. There are some lineup-fullness worries, but Chloe Widner’s 39.325 did rank as the best freshmen AA performance of the meet, ahead of Ragan Smith.

10. Kentucky Wildcats

Average: 195.350

The strain of having to rebuild these lineups showed a little bit in Kentucky’s performance with a parade of 9.7s on most events, but this largely untested team didn’t have to count any major mistakes, so you take it.

11. Western Michigan Broncos

Average: 195.275

Western Michigan continued what is now a 2-year tradition of getting a 195 at home in the very first meet and making everyone go huhhhh? Last season, that first-week score was never matched again. Will this year be different?

12. Georgia Bulldogs

Average: 195.100

Eeeeef. Losing Rachel Dickson to a torn Achilles before the first meet is truly devastating to Georgia’s lineups. Things should get a bit better soon once Vega is doing all her events and such, but the path to competitiveness is as yet unclear on a couple pieces.

13. Arizona Wildcats

Average: 195.025

Arizona has been in the doldrums for a few seasons now, so even though a 195.0 isn’t going to be some starring score come NQS time, being able to stay close with a struggling LSU for much of that meet will be heartening for a first-week performance.

14. Arizona State Sun Devils

Average: 194.675

Again, a mid-194 isn’t something you hang banners about, but for ASU to come out sans Leonard-Baker and showing just six routines that had ever competed before and still beat a team like Auburn was an accomplishment and its own victory.

15. Oregon State Beavers

Average: 194.450

Oregon State lost Lena Greene for the season before the meet, but this low score was still surprising, especially because the misses came from people you expect the lineups to rely on like Lazaro on beam and Force on floor.

16. Auburn Tigers

Average: 194.375

Auburn’s first-meet struggles also came as a surprise because these lineups are made of predominately veterans that we know are better than this, but the team looked very rusty in a 9.6-a-thon in Anaheim.

17. Penn State Nittany Lions

Average: 193.500

A drastic opening rotation on floor forced PSU to count an 8.8 and immediately throw this meet score into the garbage, but there were some encouraging moments late on bars and beam.

18. New Hampshire Wildcats

Average: 193.400

New Hampshire avoided counting a fall in its visit to Illinois State despite working against an early miss in every single rotation, but it was nonetheless a meet of just getting through for 9.6s.

19. Iowa Hawkeyes

Average: 192.700

The news that Jerquavia Henderson is out for the season sure didn’t help, but it was the bars lineup that proved disastrous for Iowa in the first week with three 8s and a 46.200.

20. Michigan State

Average: 191.950

Michigan State did Iowa one better in the bars disaster department, putting up four scores in the 8s and a 45.500 total en route to an unusable first-meet score.

21. UC Davis Aggies

Average: 191.825

Davis did defeat nemesis Sac State on the road to open the season, which is something, but counting two 9.0s on beam dropped the score quite low.

22. Sacramento State Hornets

Average: 191.275

While Davis’s problems came on beam, it was floor that struck Sac State down, the lineup recording only one score higher than the 9.4s during the entire rotation.

22. SEMO Redhawks

Average: 191.275

A low 191 first-meet score may not seem like a lot (and it isn’t), but for a team that finished last season as the weakest DI/DII team and ranked lower than some DIII teams with a peak of 190.275, this is a huge improvement.

24. Bridgeport Purple Knights

Average: 189.300

Everyone had trouble at the Critique Classic but Bridgeport really struggled to get any traction, even into the 9.6s, on most every event for the team’s lowest score in 6 seasons.

25. Illinois State Redbirds

Average: 189.050

The good news is, you’re in the top 25. The bad news is, only 25 teams competed last weekend so that’s last place.