This week, 33 routines received a 10 from at least one judge or a consensus 9.950. So let’s go.
The 10.000s
Lexy Ramler – Beam – Minnesota
The 9.975s
Lynnzee Brown – Floor – Denver
Abby Heiskell – Vault – Michigan
Naomi Morrison – Vault – Michigan
Sierra Brooks – Vault – Michigan
Gabby Wilson – Beam – Michigan
Kyana George – Floor – Cal
Adeline Kenlin – Beam – Iowa
The 9.950s
Amara Cunningham – Floor – Washington (Wednesday)
???
Jessica Hutchinson – Bars – Denver
Lynnzee Brown – Bars – Denver
Lynnzee Brown – Beam – Denver
Abbie Thompson – Beam – Denver
Reyna Guggino – Vault – Michigan
Natalie Wojcik – Bars – Michigan
Emily Muhlenhaupt – Bars – Boise State
Maile O’Keefe – Beam – Utah
Sydney Soloski – Floor – Utah
Chloe Negrete – Floor – NC State
Hannah Demers – Floor – Central Michigan
Amelia Knight – Bars – Illinois
Mia Takekawa – Beam – Illinois
Shaylah Scott – Beam – Illinois
Mya Hooten – Floor – Minnesota
Elizabeth Culton – Beam – North Carolina
Karrie Thomas – Beam – Oklahoma
Anastasia Webb – Floor – Oklahoma
Nina Schank – Bars – Cal
Andi Li – Floor – Cal
Amara Cunningham – Floor – Washington (Sunday)
Makayla Curtis – Beam – Nebraska (10.000/9.900 split)
The 9.925s
Mia Townes – Vault – Illinois (10.000/9.850 split)
Savanna Force – Floor – Oregon State (10.000/9.850 split)
Michigan is on FIRE this season. UCLA needs to start picking up under the radar L10’s and I say this as a gigantic Bruin fan.
i think Chae and Sara are really good additions, Frida too but sadly she is injured, so looks like level 1O athletes are the better choice. The fact that they have four elites (one of those may never compete… who knows lol) and one level 1O next year is very interesting
Don’t they have five elites starting next year? Or are you already counting Brooklyn as having started this year even though she didn’t compete?
Who are you expecting won’t compete? Emma, I assume?
At least Jordan and Emily don’t seem to have been terribly injury-prone through their elite careers. Brooklyn has had the occasional injury, but has managed to keep herself in form for three World championships. Ana does have an injury history, but since her best events are bars and beam anyway, hopefully if she never has to vault again, she can still get a good NCAA career as a two or three event gymnast?
Alexis Jeffrey (former GAGE sr elite) is also joining next season. She’s dropped to L10 this season though.
I say this every year about UCLA. I get wanting BIG ELITE NAMES for marketing, but they need to balance that with healthy, top L 10’s. Instead, their elites are all injured, and they end up relying on walk-on L 10’s, which they have been lucky, many have produced huge scores for them, and maybe get a scholarship their senior year if one of the broken elites does the right thing and medically retires, rather than eating up as hardship slot for nothing. I’m not bitter. To be clear, I blame the coaches – the elite coaches for breaking the athletes (hi Kim), and UCLA recruiting for offering scholarships to these kids who we could all tell them wouldn’t be able to contribute much, if anything.
I have very little hope in Emma for NCAA. After winter cup, and with her planning to continue to pursue the olympic team at Texas Nightmares, I think she will be too broken for anything by fall. I truly hope to be proved wrong.
damn I totally forgot about Emily, then it’s Emily, Jordan, Brooklyn, Ana, Emma and I was thinking about Selena Harris than figured out she is joining in 2O23 so just these five
a 1O / 9.85 split should not be allowed, there is a HUGE difference between perfection and a 9.85 routine
UCLA get the athletes they get because they are UCLA it is not just about gymnastics.
UCLA is doing super poorly this year. But let’s not pretend they didn’t win the title in 2018 and weren’t a contender in 2019 and 2020–on a very similar recruiting strategy of getting lots of high-profile elites.
Anna and Grace Glenn were supposed to be the under-the-radar L10 stars. Neither competed nearly as much as Kocian who was definitely an injury-prone elite.
Tbh I’m surprised UCLA got as much out of Kocian as they did. Yeah, really sad about the Glenns. Hoped they would be multi-event contributors. The one they got lucky with was Kramer in that year, and also because Kyla and Fish were pretty healthy.
I think there’s a difference in high-profile elites. Some want to chill (and I mean that relatively – they’re obviously all willing to work hard but gymnastics is not their #1 focus) and some still have their elite intensity. The intense ones keep the team focused on performance. That’s why Marz and Nia aren’t effective team leaders the way Ross/Kocian, Lee, and Pescek were. The gap years between Ross/Kocian and Pescek had plenty of high profile elites but lacked that leadership.
I think UCLA’s coaching has been pretty poor, Jordyn excepted. Seems like the strategy has been to recruit elites and hope they can retain some of their skills, then giving them a shine of NCAA choreography and presentation. Very few gymnasts add skills while at UCLA. Even the ones who do seem like they do so based on personal drive rather than effective coaching (Kyla, Kendall Poston).
and then there is savi kooyman, who added a new skill but her form is still… uhm (with all due respect)
I think they need a change up in vault coaching at the very least. Somehow a 3 time JO VT Champion is always one of the worst in their lineup. I don’t get why Comforte isn’t the vault coach when she coached that at Illinois and was a pretty good vaulter in her career.
who is a 3 time JO national vault champ? Sekai?
And even Kyla didn’t so much add a skill as get it back. We are talking about someone who competed a DTY and an Amanar (albeit a scary Amanar) getting back a 1.5.
I think the commitment to fitness is the issue with the 3 time JO vault champion being the weakest vault. Then again, that’s also a coaching issue, allowing that to happen.
I agree UCLA has a coaching issue. When I watch them compete, I see so much squandered talent.
Vault: Frazier and Tratz are competing mediocre Y-fulls, but they had 10 start vaults before college. I expect at a minimum good for 9.8 every time from both of them, but no.
Bars is a disaster, and in previous years Waller had a roster stacked with skilled bars workers, but still was stuck in 49.2 land.
It makes no sense. Its so hard to watch them compete and not think: maybe their gymnastics would be stronger if they didn’t devote do much training to f*ing DANCING?!? 🙄
kyla competed an amanar and a dty but she never trained a 1.5 until she got tot UCLA
Actually Sekai is the weakest vaulted because she has an elbow injury and vault is very hard on the elbows. That’s why she is only doing floor certain meets