The 10s of Week 8

This week, 23 routines received a 10.000 from at least one judge. Please enjoy this rebroadcast of the Utah/UCLA meet.

The 10s

Olivia Trautman – Vault – Oklahoma


Grace Glenn – Beam – UCLA


Abby Paulson – Beam – Utah


The 9.975s

Lexi Graber – Vault – Alabama


Leah Clapper – Beam – Florida


Alyssa Baumann – Floor – Florida


Mollie Korth – Vault – Kentucky


Drew Watson – Vault – Auburn


Anastasia Webb – Vault – Oklahoma


Ragan Smith – Floor – Oklahoma (passes)


Helen Hu – Beam – Missouri


Emily Muhlenhaupt – Bars – Boise State


Natalie Wojcik – Beam – Michigan
Lexy Ramler – Beam – Minnesota

FLO hasn’t uploaded individual routines from the Big Fives, but in the full beam replay, Wojcik’s routine is at 2:33:42 and Ramler’s routine is at 2:57:06.


Kyla Ross – Beam – UCLA


Adrienne Randall – Beam – Utah


Nia Dennis – Floor – UCLA


Gracie Kramer – Floor – UCLA


Kyla Ross – Floor – UCLA


The 9.950s

Rachel Gowey – Beam – Florida

Maddie Karr – Floor – Denver


Alexia Burch – Beam – Utah


Sydney Soloski – Floor – Utah


NCAA Week 8 Rankings

Full week 8 rankings


1. Oklahoma Sooners

NQS: 197.930
Previous ranking: 1

Road 1198.250
Road 2197.900
Road 3197.675
Home/Road 1198.400
Home/Road 2198.175
Home/Road 3197.650
Qualifying Score197.930

Maximum after next meet: 198.080
Meets remaining: 4
Road meets remaining: 2

Oklahoma didn’t change its qualifying score much this week after a meh-for-Oklahoma 197.650 at the Nadia meet, but the big issue at play is the absence of Maggie Nichols because of an ankle injury, with KJ not expecting her back “for a while.” While Oklahoma is certainly still able to score well without Nichols, her absence depresses the team’s scoring potential to a more pedestrian (and potentially beatable) level.


2. Florida Gators

NQS: 197.690
Previous ranking: 2

Road 1197.875
Road 2197.800
Road 3196.850
Home/Road 1198.375
Home/Road 2198.050
Home/Road 3197.875
Qualifying Score197.690

Maximum after next meet: 197.995
Meets remaining: 4
Road meets remaining: 3

With its 198, Florida closed the gap a little on Oklahoma this week and, most importantly, has a chance to pass Oklahoma for #1 this weekend if things go just right. It’s not the most likely outcome—Florida would have to go 198.050 to have a shot a tying, while Oklahoma would have to score under 197.975—but Florida is also going to Georgia on Friday, which I expect to be a “Utah/UCLA is a role model” type situation. So it’s in play.


3. UCLA Bruins

NQS: 197.335
Previous ranking: 3

Road 1197.575
Road 2197.425
Road 3197.200
Home/Road 1198.025
Home/Road 2197.675
Home/Road 3196.800
Qualifying Score197.335

Maximum after next meet: 197.580
Meets remaining: 4
Road meets remaining: 2

It’s difficult to pretend to take a rankings post seriously after the abomination that was the scoring in the final rotation last night (if the judges don’t take these scores seriously, then why should I come in here and be like, “Well, if they can score 198 again…” like any of this is real or matters), but UCLA moves ahead of Utah despite the loss on the strength of a better supply of 197s throughout the season so far. UCLA will be looking for a score greater than 197.200 this week to ensure staying at #3 next Monday.


4. Utah Utes

NQS: 197.200
Previous ranking: 3

Road 1198.075
Road 2197.550
Road 3197.300
Home/Road 1197.100
Home/Road 2197.050
Home/Road 3197.000
Qualifying Score197.200

Maximum after next meet: 197.415
Meets remaining: 4
Road meets remaining: 2

Utah is in a much, much better position for qualifying score after the meet that shall not be named. (I’ll let you in on a secret—the meet wasn’t that good. That was medium quality for top-5 teams and Utah was weaker on several events than the meet before, including beam despite the program record. The only reason it’s being treated as this amazing meet is that the judges tried to make a show instead of doing their jobs.) Despite being in a strong position, Utah will still need to replace some of these low 197s if this ranking is to be maintained. It’s possible for Utah to get up to #3 next week, but that is dependent on UCLA’s performance.


5. LSU Tigers

NQS: 197.165
Previous ranking: 6

Road 1197.875
Road 2197.775
Road 3197.025
Home/Road 1197.500
Home/Road 2196.800
Home/Road 3196.725
Qualifying Score197.165

Maximum after next meet: 197.395
Meets remaining: 4
Road meets remaining: 2

For portions of the meet this weekend, LSU got to experience how the other half lives in terms of judging, so the team won’t exactly be crying a river over a lower-than-intended score because it wasn’t really a problem meet. Not an ideal performance, but not a red flag. LSU is still on an improving trajectory, though is also running out of time to get rid of those lower scores, a task that will be necessary to get that top-4 ranking.


6. Denver Pioneers

NQS: 197.075
Previous ranking: 5

Road 1197.250
Road 2197.250
Road 3196.700
Home/Road 1197.425
Home/Road 2197.425
Home/Road 3196.750
Qualifying Score197.075

Maximum after next meet: 197.220
Meets remaining: 4
Road meets remaining: 3

Basically all your worst fears for how Denver would do without Lynnzee Brown were realized this week with a counting 8 on bars and counting 9.5s on vault and beam for a 195.175 total. That score really shouldn’t be the shape of things to comea mid or high 196 would have been doable in that meet with a hit and remains very doable next week. Still, getting totals that improve the qualifying score in a significant way is going to be a challenging task, which makes Denver vulnerable to getting passed by the next couple teams in the coming weeks.

Continue reading NCAA Week 8 Rankings

Sunday Live Blog – February 23, 2020

Sunday, February 23
Scores Stream
11:00am ET/8:00am PT – Yale, Brown, Penn @ Cornell   ESPN+
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – North Carolina @ New Hampshire LINK ESPN+
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Towson @ West Virginia LINK FREE
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – NC State, Northern Illinois, Temple @ George Washington LINK FREE
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – Kent State @ Ball State LINK ESPN3
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – West Chester @ William & Mary LINK FREE
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – Rhode Island @ Springfield    
2:00pm ET/11:00am PT – [25] Stanford @ [22] Arizona LINK P12N
2:00pm ET/11:00am PT – UW-Stout @ Lindenwood LINK FREE
2:00pm ET/11:00am PT – Brockport, Ursinus @ Ithaca    
3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – Air Force @ TWU LINK FREE
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – [13] Washington @ Arizona State LINK P12N
6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – [3] Utah @ [3] UCLA LINK ESPN2

In the earlier Pac-12 action, Arizona broke 196 while Stanford had a 2nd-meet-of-the-weekend nightmare on vault to end up with a fairly unhelpful 195.225, which will not be enough to stay in the top 25 on Monday.

In the second meet, we had a close one with no working live scores (FUN!) in which a 9.900 from Leonard-Baker in the final spot for Arizona State on floor clinched a tie with Washington, both teams on 196.875.

Now on to the big one.

Continue reading Sunday Live Blog – February 23, 2020

Saturday Live Blog – February 22, 2020

Saturday, February 22
Scores Stream
3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – UW-Whitewater, Hamline @ Winona State   FREE
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – [21] Oregon State @ [10] Cal LINK P12N
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Big Five Day 2
[7] Minnesota, [9] Michigan, [24] Maryland, Penn State, Michigan State
LINK FLO
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – [15] BYU @ [5] Denver LINK  

A small-but-hearty day of competition, with a surprisingly low number of meets, but lots to pay attention to.

Starting with Oregon State and Cal, and now that qualifying score is in play, we can do Score Watch. Basically my favorite part of the season. The goal score for Cal today is 197.075, which would put Cal back ahead of Alabama and Georgia after those teams’ large scores yesterday. Oregon State is hoping for a 196.800 here, which would be enough to get to the top 16 (for the time being, with many meets to come this weekend and many more scores to come in and shift things).

Continue reading Saturday Live Blog – February 22, 2020