Rk	Chg	Team	Avg	This Week
1	=	Oklahoma	198.113	198.450
2	=	Cal	197.604	197.125
3	=	LSU	197.596	197.625
4	=	Utah	197.533	197.775
5	=	Kentucky	197.480	197.350
6	=	Florida	197.435	197.850
7	+2	Denver	197.308	197.775
8	=	UCLA	197.254	197.425
9	-2	Alabama	197.246	197.050
10	=	Michigan State	197.235	197.475
11	=	Michigan	197.105	197.375
12	+2	Auburn	197.079	197.725
13	+2	Ohio State	197.004	197.350
14	-2	Missouri	196.996	196.600
15	+1	Minnesota	196.904	197.175
16	-3	Arkansas	196.830	196.050
17	=	Arizona	196.670	196.850
18	+1	Georgia	196.604	197.075
19	-1	Oregon State	196.588	196.700
20	=	Arizona State	196.538	196.975
21	=	Ball State	196.213	196.000
22	+1	Clemson	196.210	196.375
23	+3	Penn State	196.175	196.650
24	-2	Iowa State	196.146	195.800
25	+3	Maryland	196.140	196.675

We’ve had enough meets now that things are really solidifying in the average department, making it hard to move that much even if you throw up a real stinker. Still, we did have a few tiny changes this week.

Biggest Movers (+)

#7 Denver (+2) — Denver jumped into the championship spots with another big one, scoring 197.775 at home as Jessica Hutchinson said, “yes, all of it, now, for me” and Bella Mabanta returned to the beam lineup. Denver has now completed four of its five home meets for the season, so the next task is replicating those numbers on the road, where the team’s season high is 197.150 thus far. 

#12 Auburn (+2) — Auburn had its first true “No Suni, No Derrian, No Problem” score of the season on Friday with a 197.725 to defeat Alabama and jump ahead of both Missouri and Arkansas into 5th in the conference. Is Auburn actually best poised to break into the presumed SEC top 4 of LSU, Kentucky, Florida, Alabama? How close Auburn gets on Friday away against LSU should tell us something.

#13 Ohio State (+2) — Ohio State came back from a drop score the previous week for a season high 197.350 this week (with McCann moved exhibition on beam, replaced by the return of Warga), gaining two ranking spots back. In a theme for the teams that moved up this week, Ohio State is now also done with four of five home meets (all scores over 197) and must now get the results on the road, where the team is yet to reach that 197 mark. 

#23 Penn State (+3) — Penn State will tip the cap to itself for moving into top 25 this week with a road score, going 196.650 in that meet against Ohio State. Over the past month or so, this has really started to look like the most “we figured out beam” team we’ve seen at Penn State in the Sarah Brown era.

#25 Maryland (+3) — Maryland also moved into top 25 with a season high 196.675 this week, standing as the team’s second score of the season that should be above the regionals cutoff (we think…). With one of the busier schedules remaining, Maryland has eight meets left to get a minimum of four more solid regionals scores, which should be very doable.

Biggest Movers (-)

#9 Alabama (-2) — Alabama has entered a bit of a slump with last week’s home loss to Kentucky followed by a loss against Auburn in the Two Things From The Same State Classico. Of note, these last two meets are the two lowest scores for Alabama on the season, yet neither featured a counting fall, just a weird beam moment and then a lot of 9.825s.

#14 Missouri (-2) — Missouri’s drop in the rankings this week is more of an open-and-shut case. The culprit was the obviously snake-shaped beam at that Kentucky meet, when nearly everyone fell or got a 9.6. What was on track to be a season high then became a drop-score 196.600 once beam happened. Missouri has alternated beam hits this season, with three scores over 49.3, each followed by a sub 49.

#16 Arkansas (-3) — Arkansas also lost the chance for a nice juicy road 197 at the very last second against Florida with a counting fall on beam. That dropped Arkansas’s total to a second consecutive low-196 road score after starting the season in 197 country. Two Texas meets this coming weekend provide an opportunity to erase both those numbers.

#24 Iowa State (-2) — After three straight 196s, Iowa State has dropped back to the 195s for the last few weeks, this time counting multiple 9.6s across bars and beam in Denver. Iowa State’s road peak this season is at 196.150 (compared to 196.900 at home), so with a tough streak coming up now of 4 road meets in 14 days, Iowa State will have to start finding those higher 196s away to keep up a top-25 spot.

Other Keepers

#1 Oklahoma (198.450) — It’s tied for the fifth-highest score in Oklahoma history as Oklahoma already sits on a prospective NQS of 198.045, which would be in the top 10 ever, even though NQS isn’t active yet.

#4 Utah (197.775) — Utah has been shuffling around the 197.675—197.775 zone for an entire month of meets now, with no wild crazy breakout results but no misses, steadily amassing perfectly reasonable numbers that can count for a high ranking. Last season, Utah ended up counting road scores at 197.750 and 197.700, so this week’s 197.775 away against Washington is a slight step up on those numbers.

#6 Florida (197.850) — Florida jumped up a few more tenths for another season high this week, the first score of 2024 that could reasonably be used as part of the NQS picture while still maintaining a Florida-like ranking. With six counting meets left, Florida has at least given itself the luxury of having one miss in there without it being capital-S Significant.

#17 Arizona (196.850) — This 196.850 is Arizona’s highest regular-season road score since 2015 as it becomes increasingly clear that Arizona shouldn’t have to spend the business half of this season fighting for a spot at regionals with all five scores at 196.475+ so far. 

#18 Georgia (197.050) — Georgia scored its third home 197 of the season to move ever closer to finding a way out of the conference basement, just a tenth behind Arkansas in prospective NQS now. Yet, Georgia is also among the teams here that will see NQS looming and know that a 196.350 road high isn’t going to maintain this ranking, especially with a team like #20 Arizona State (196.975) looming, which just followed a juicy home 197 with a road near-197. All of Arizona State’s three counting road scores right now are above 196.350.

Other Drops

#2 Cal (197.125) —Cal’s Lauzon-free performance against Arizona that just barely tiptoed to a victory in the meet and just barely tiptoed ahead of LSU in the weekly rankings will nonetheless be a drop, the team’s lowest home total since the 2022 season opener. Cal, however, has already logged four scores of 197.875+ and has seven counting meets remaining to get a minimum of just two more scores at that level.

#8 UCLA (197.425) and #11 Michigan (197.375) — They’re not bad scores. You’re not looking at them and immediately vomiting. For UCLA, that’s a road season high, and for Michigan that’s .025 shy of a road season high. Still, no team that finished the 2023 season ranked in the top 8 ended up counting a road score lower than 197.550 (and if anything, the scores are trending higher this year). So for teams with UCLA and Michigan’s aspirations, the goal for road scores will be loftier than this.