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.
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 1
197.875
Road 2
197.800
Road 3
196.850
Home/Road 1
198.375
Home/Road 2
198.050
Home/Road 3
197.875
Qualifying Score
197.690
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 1
197.575
Road 2
197.425
Road 3
197.200
Home/Road 1
198.025
Home/Road 2
197.675
Home/Road 3
196.800
Qualifying Score
197.335
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 1
198.075
Road 2
197.550
Road 3
197.300
Home/Road 1
197.100
Home/Road 2
197.050
Home/Road 3
197.000
Qualifying Score
197.200
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 1
197.875
Road 2
197.775
Road 3
197.025
Home/Road 1
197.500
Home/Road 2
196.800
Home/Road 3
196.725
Qualifying Score
197.165
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 1
197.250
Road 2
197.250
Road 3
196.700
Home/Road 1
197.425
Home/Road 2
197.425
Home/Road 3
196.750
Qualifying Score
197.075
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 come—a mid or high 196 would have been doable in that meet with a hitand 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.
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.
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).
