Sunday Live Blog – February 14, 2021

Sunday, February 14
Scores Stream
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – [24] Ohio State @ Rutgers LINK BTN+
2:00pm ET/11:00am PT – Temple @ Pittsburgh LINK ESPN3
3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – Northern Illinois @ Ball State LINK ESPN3
3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – Kent State @ Eastern Michigan LINK  
3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – Illinois State @ Lindenwood   FREE
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – [10] UCLA @ Washington LINK P12N
5:00pm ET/2:00pm PT – [14] Arizona State @ [16] Cal LINK FREE

Should be a couple fun ones in the Pac-12 starting shortly. UCLA competes in Washington, and we’ll see if the strict reputation of Washington judging holds up in this week of insanity. Starting a bit later it’s Cal against Arizona State, as Arizona State tries to use this season to challenge Cal’s spot at #3 in the conference.

UCLA’s floor lineup today is…something. Taubman, Ulias, and Sakti in the lineup. No Dennis. No Campbell. No Tratz. I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel safe.

UCLA will be getting Steele back on bars this week. No Dennis there or on floor, but she will be doing vault and beam, same as Campbell, just on those two. No Sekai Wright on vault. Emma Andres is sitting in the 6th spot for vault. May be a “we’ll see if we can count the first five” situation.

Continue reading Sunday Live Blog – February 14, 2021

Saturday Live Blog – February 13, 2021

Saturday, February 13
Scores Stream
2:00pm ET/11:00am PT – [12] Minnesota, Maryland @ [9] Iowa LINK BTN+
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – [20] Illinois @ Penn State LINK BTN+
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – Western Michigan @ Bowling Green LINK FREE
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – New Hampshire @ LIU LINK FREE
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Metroplex Challenge
([4] Oklahoma, [17] Iowa State, TWU, Centenary)
LINK FLO
9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – [22] Boise State @ [21] Utah State LINK FREE

Iowa State has withdrawn from Metroplex but I still have them in the header image because I didn’t feel like making a new one, and I’m OK with that life choice.

Let’s start with Minnesota, Maryland, and Iowa. Minnesota joined this meet late following the cancellation of the meet with Michigan State, so this is now the third team this season that Minnesota and Iowa will compete. It’s 1-1 so far.

Streaming link for Iowa tri-meet is updated.

Continue reading Saturday Live Blog – February 13, 2021

Friday Live Blog – February 12, 2021

Friday, February 12
Scores Stream
6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – [6] Alabama @ [13] Georgia LINK SECN
6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – George Washington, William & Mary @ Towson LINK FREE
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – [5] Arkansas @ [15] Kentucky LINK SEC+
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – [25] NC State @ [23] North Carolina LINK FREE
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – GymQuarters (Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Air Force, Illinois State, Lindenwood, SEMO)   FLO
7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT – [1] Florida @ [2] LSU LINK SECN
9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – [19] Auburn @ Missouri LINK SECN
9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – [11] BYU @ [18] Southern Utah LINK FREE

Starting with the one that started it all, Alabama/Georgia. I would like the Suzanne statue to do commentary on this meet.

Georgia’s mid-week tentative lineups have Magee on only beam. Bars looking fairly full. But those should always be treated as vague guidelines.

Latest meet news is that Stanford has canceled the Feb 20 meet against Arizona State. Stanford’s season opener is now slated for February 26th with 5 meets on the schedule, 2 away. You only need 4 meets with 2 away to get a ranking, so that’s still possible, but it’s getting down to the wire.

Continue reading Friday Live Blog – February 12, 2021

Things Are Happening – February 11, 2021

A. Olympic qualification news

Yesterday, the FIG finally proclaimed the inevitable. With Germany and Great Britain unable to host their intended all-around Olympic qualifiers, that series has officially been canceled. (Though Tokyo is still planning to hold its event in May, which also serves as the gymnastics test event.)

Given the cancellation, the Olympic spots that would have gone to the top three teams at the end the all-around series instead have been awarded to the top three teams from qualification at 2019 worlds. For the women, that’s the USA, Russia, and China. For the men, that’s Russia, China, and Japan. Those nations have now all achieved a +1 Olympic spot to be bestowed upon any athlete they choose.

So here’s where we stand now with the women:

WOMEN – Qualified Team
(4 athletes)
Individual
Spot #1
Individual
Spot #2
United States
(Any athlete)

(Jade Carey)*
Russia
(Any athlete)
China
(Any athlete)

(Fan Yilin)*
France
Canada
Netherlands
Great Britain
Italy
(Vanessa Ferrari
OR Lara Mori)*
Germany
Belgium
Japan
(Urara Ashikawa)*
Spain
* – Nominative spots earned from Apparatus world cups should be considered unofficial until the (alleged) conclusion of the series at Doha in March. But this is who has them.

The men’s apparatus world cup spots are still much more up in the air than the women’s—with many more what-ifs and intra-country tiebreak scenarios in play—so I’m going to wait to make that chart until we see what happens in Doha.

Continue reading Things Are Happening – February 11, 2021