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Live Blog

Friday Live Blog – February 15, 2019

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Friday, February 15 Scores Stream
3:00 ET/12:00 PT – GymQuarters Session 1 ([23] Iowa State, Lindenwood, TWU, SEMO) LINK FLO
6:30 ET/3:30 PT – Towson @ Bowling Green LINK
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [13] Kentucky @ [7] Georgia LINK SECN
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Eastern Michigan @ Central Michigan LINK ESPN3
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – William & Mary, Rhode Island @ West Chester FREE
(W&M)
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – UW-Stout @ Gustavus Adolphus LINK
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – GymQuarters Session 2 ([4] Utah, [5] LSU, [15] Missouri, Stanford) LINK FLO
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – UW-La Crosse @ Winona State FREE
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – UW-Eau Claire @ Hamline
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Perfect 10 Challenge ([1] Oklahoma, [18] Washington, [19] Arizona State, George Washington) LINK FSGo
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [21] Arkansas @ [11] Auburn LINK SEC+
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – [2] Florida @ [9] Alabama LINK SECN
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – Maryland @ [16] Minnesota LINK BTN
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [10] Boise State @ [20] BYU LINK FREE
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Temple @ Southern Utah LINK FREE
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – New Hampshire, Sacramento State @ San Jose State LINK FREE
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – Air Force, UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh @ Seattle Pacific LINK FREE

Today, we have a couple not-widely-accessible quad meets with significant implications, so I’ll try to be on top of those meet as much as possible. But, the SEC duals are going to be worth attention as well, particularly this big Florida/Alabama thingamajig.

We had an upset in early action, as DII Lindenwood broke 195 for a second straight week in upsetting #23 Iowa State in the first session at GymQuarters.

First up, Kentucky and Georgia getting started now…

Rotation 1

Magee – VT – UGA – one of her better fulls, small hop back, still a pike of pike but not that much, better control. 9.800 Continue reading Friday Live Blog – February 15, 2019 →

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Stuff and Nonsense

Things Are Happening – February 15, 2019

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A. Locklear Classic

Last weekend brought us the WOGA Classic, the headline performance being the return of Ashton Locklear to elite competition for the first time since 2017. Locklear competed beam and bars, scoring 12.550 on beam and 12.350 on bars for a two-fall performance that was sort of…Nastia 2012 Trials-esque?

I say that because the first half monster-connection was just like 2017 and clearly the on-the-bars skills are back (except for #ButHerInbars), but getting to full-routine-hit level with a dismount will take some more time. Unlike Nastia 2012 Trials, Locklear has that time.

For the most part, Locklear’s bars routine looks similar to her 2017 composition, except it seems she’s looking to add a toe 1/1 + full-twisting double tuck dismount combination to get her D-score up to 5.7—compared to the 5.5 from 2017. The FTDT isn’t there yet, but presumably that’s the plan.

Of course, the most entertaining part of Locklear’s comeback performance was Sophina the Diva over here impatiently chilling on the cable waiting for her to rechalk.

In the actual standings, Yurika Yumoto of Japan took the senior AA with 51.350. Yumoto was on that B-squad Asian Games team for Japan last year, and her 13.500 beam score, along with the fact that she outscored Nagi Kajita here (Kajita made the worlds team last year), should keep her in the conversation in 2019.

Placing 2nd in the seniors was Sloane Blakely, who went 50.050 despite an utter barstastrophe because of her massive 14.850 beam score. In the juniors, Kayla DiCello dominated as expected, though Skye Blakley’s three-event score (didn’t do bars) was competitive with what DiCello put up on those pieces. Love Birt took second in the juniors, followed by Sydney Morris in third.  Continue reading Things Are Happening – February 15, 2019 →

Meet Preview, Uncategorized

Week 7 Preview

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Full schedule and links

Marquee meets

GQ Invitational: [4] Utah, [5] LSU, [15] Missouri, Stanford
Friday, 6:15 CT, Flogymnastics

At the top of the playbill, the GymQuarters Mardi Gras Beads and Whatever Invitational brings us a comparison we almost never get in a non-postseason context—Utah against LSU. That comparison is becoming particularly relevant this season as Utah and LSU spend more and more time entrenched at #4 and #5, rankings that will be assigned to the same regional site in the new postseason seeding format.

While both #4 and #5 would be seeded to advance to nationals, one’s going to be the leader and the other’s going to be the old gazelle at the back of the pack, the one vulnerable to getting picked off by a surging underdog. We just don’t know which one is Utah and which one is LSU yet.

Because Utah has shown the more consistent performances thus far with those weekly 197 victories, winning this meet becomes more important for LSU—a team that has had its share of dramas and losses (admittedly with a more difficult schedule) and is coming off a quite lackluster performance against Kentucky. In addition to whatever sentimental hogwash and confidence concerns you might want to imbue the current situation with, pragmatically, LSU has fewer usable scores than Utah right now (only one worthwhile road total) and needs to take this opportunity of a road meet to get a mid-197.

At the same time, LSU’s desire for victory may be tempered by some difficult lineup decisions since this is a two-meet weekend. On the one hand, it’s preparation for the back-to-back days of regional competition. On the other hand, this roster has a number of fragile athletes you wouldn’t necessarily want to push on the leg events for a two-meet weekend right now. Do you hold them back in one meet or the other? Balancing the powerful desire to get confidence back right away by going all out and trying to beat a higher-ranked team like Utah with the patient knowledge that it’s still the regular season and you’re going to make regionals with a fine seeding regardless is a challenge.

Utah will have to manage some of the same lineup considerations for its two-meet weekend with Skinner and Tessen and Reinstadtler all having faced participation limitations in the early going, but will also want to bring out the fireworks for this one. This is the first real big-money meet of Utah’s season—a top-ranked opponent, a podium meet—and one that ushers in the far more difficult portion of Utah’s schedule. Monday’s meet against Stanford is Utah’s last remaining competition without a top-10 opponent. Other than that, it’s LSU and UCLA and Georgia and Michigan and Pac-12s. Difficult asks, but also serious opportunities to move out of that solid-but-not-nationals-level rut of lower 197s.  Continue reading Week 7 Preview →

NCAA Schedule

NCAA Week 7 – Schedule and Links

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Wednesday, February 13 Scores Stream
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Ithaca @ Cortland LINK FREE
Friday, February 15 Scores Stream
3:00 ET/12:00 PT – GymQuarters Session 1 ([23] Iowa State, Lindenwood, TWU, SEMO) LINK FLO
6:30 ET/3:30 PT – Towson @ Bowling Green LINK
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [13] Kentucky @ [7] Georgia LINK SECN
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Eastern Michigan @ Central Michigan LINK ESPN3
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – William & Mary, Rhode Island @ West Chester FREE
(W&M)
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – UW-Stout @ Gustavus Adolphus LINK
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – GymQuarters Session 2 ([4] Utah, [5] LSU, [15] Missouri, Stanford) LINK FLO
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – UW-La Crosse @ Winona State FREE
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – UW-Eau Claire @ Hamline
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Perfect 10 Challenge ([1] Oklahoma, [18] Washington, [19] Arizona State, George Washington) LINK FSGo
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [21] Arkansas @ [11] Auburn LINK SEC+
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – [2] Florida @ [9] Alabama LINK SECN
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – Maryland @ [16] Minnesota LINK BTN
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [10] Boise State @ [20] BYU LINK FREE
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Temple @ Southern Utah LINK FREE
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – New Hampshire, Sacramento State @ San Jose State LINK FREE
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – Air Force, UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh @ Seattle Pacific LINK FREE
Saturday, February 16 Scores Stream
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Cortland @ Brockport FREE
2:00 ET/11:00 PT – Rutgers @ Michigan State LINK BTN+
FLO
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – [8] Michigan @ [24] Penn State LINK FREE
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – [17] Nebraska @ [22] Ohio State LINK BTN+
FLO
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – North Carolina @ NC State LINK ACC+
5:30 ET/2:30 PT – [25] Arizona @ [3] UCLA LINK P12N
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Illinois @ Iowa LINK BTN
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Illinois State @ [6] Denver LINK DU($)
Sunday, February 17 Scores Stream
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Pittsburgh, Utah State, Cornell @ West Virginia LINK FREE
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Northern Illinois @ Ball State LINK ESPN3
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Towson @ Western Michigan LINK
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Brown @ Yale ESPN+
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Ithaca, Southern Connecticut @ Springfield FREE
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – William & Mary @ Penn LINK ESPN+
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – West Chester @ Ursinus
2:00 ET/11:00 PT – Kent State @ Bowling Green LINK
3:00 ET/12:00 PT – TWU @ Lindenwood LINK FREE
3:30 ET/12:30 PT – [15] Missouri @ [5] LSU LINK SEC+
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – New Hampshire @ UC Davis LINK FREE
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – SEMO @ UIC LINK FREE
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [14] Cal @ [12] Oregon State LINK P12N
Monday, February 18 Scores Stream
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [4] Utah @ Stanford LINK P12N

Links will continue to be added as they become available.

It’s a big week for multi-meet weekends, with many teams competing on Friday and then again on Sunday or Monday, including all of the teams in the second session of GymQuarters (LSU, Missouri, Utah, and Stanford), who will be splitting off to have meets just with each other later on where they talk about the other two teams.

Oklahoma on FSGo: Check your streaming availability beforehand to see if the meet is actually available for you. FSGo streaming of OU meets is very limited depending on both your provider and your region of the country.

Meets marked SECN will be broadcast live on TV on the SEC Network and can also be streamed online at the link provided for those who have a log-in from a TV provider subscription—U-Verse, Spectrum, DirecTV, Dish, Xfinity, Verizon, Sling, Hulu, or YouTube TV.

Meets marked SEC+ or ACC+ may be streamed on WatchESPN for those who have a log-in from a TV provider subscription—U-Verse, Spectrum, DirecTV, Dish, Xfinity, Verizon, Sling, Hulu, or YouTube TV.

Meets marked P12N will be broadcast live on TV on the Pac-12 Network and can also be streamed online at the link provided for those who have a log-in from a participating TV provider subscription. A number of providers have dropped the Pac-12 Networks recently, including U-Verse, so make sure you still have access even if you did in the past. The Pac-12 Network also provides an international subscription option for those outside the US.

Meets marked FLO may be streamed through a paid subscription to FloGymnastics ($30/month).

Meets marked BTN+ may be streamed through a paid subscription to BTN+ ($15/month) or through FloGymnastics ($30/month).

Meets marked BTN will be broadcast live on TV on the Big Ten Network and can also be streamed online at the link provided for those who have a log-in from a participating TV provider subscription that carries BTN.

Meets marked [School]$ are streamed through school-specific services and require a subscription to that school’s web streaming, which you probably aren’t going to pay for.

Meets marked ESPN3 may be streamed on WatchESPN for those who have a log-in from a participating internet service provider, which is most of them.

Meets marked ESPN+ may be streamed through a paid subscription to the ESPN+ streaming service ($5/month).

Meets marked FREE are free at the link provided.

Rankings

Week 6 Ranking Notes

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The RQS calculator is up to date, so if you’re keeping your own, you can now download or make a copy of the week 6 update.

1. Oklahoma Sooners

Average: 197.813
Previous ranking: 1

What semi-inadvertently became Oklahoma’s “exploring depth road meet” because of Brenna-Bars-Gate 2019—in which Dowell had a scary moment on bars in the warmup and had to be pulled from the meet—still ended up as a perfectly high 197.700. It certainly wasn’t Oklahoma’s ideal performance and didn’t really get going until beam in the final rotation (and even that rotation had a fall), but for a meet without Dowell, without Showers, and with Nichols still limited to two events, being able to go 197.700 is not a bad thing. It did stretch the limits of Oklahoma’s depth right to the edge, though, with just five usable vault scores, only five people going on bars, and some definite backups in the lineup on floor.

2. Florida Gators

Average: 197.670
Previous ranking: 2

Florida’s 197.850 in a home victory over Auburn proved the big score of the weekend, seeing the Gators gain a little bit of ground on the Sooners in the quest for first place. Save for the first couple positions on vault, which still need to be resolved, I’m looking at the lineups Florida put up in this one and saying, “Yep, that’s the group.” Schoenherr entered the floor lineup with a solid performance that bolstered that six, in addition to following up last week’s vault success with another hit as she looks to be hitting her stride, and of course Trinity Thomas continues to be everything. Vault still lags behind the other pieces in looking sufficiently postseason-y, but we saw continued progress on those landings over the weekend. We’re still being promised some 1.5s that are vaguely side-eye-inducing, but 4-5 10.0s is going to be competitive enough if the landings get there. 

3. UCLA Bruins

Average: 197.575
Previous ranking: 3

UCLA’s performance against Washington on Sunday was speckled with a wholly expected amount of highs and ehs. Ross and Ohashi got 10s on vault and floor respectively (67% of the 10s awarded so far this season have gone to UCLA gymnasts—discuss), but it was almost entirely those couple big-money routines from the stars that got UCLA’s total up to the rarefied 197.6 zone because the rest of the lineups had some issues. Beam was pretty shaky for the majority, and those bars and vault lineups both had some issues in that they were not six-strong with competitive routines, and it’s unclear at this point who would make them six-strong. Well, I shouldn’t say unclear. You want Frazier on vault and Dennis on bars and Anna Glenn on both as needed, but that hasn’t been able to happen.

4. Utah Utes

Average: 197.196
Previous ranking: 4

Another week, another 197.1 for Utah to stay steady in the 4th position. Utah’s streak of all these low 197s to start a season is both record-breaking and frustrating at the same time—the college gymnastics special. On the one hand, it has never happened before (there’s always been some manner of 196), but on the other hand, these scores are a fall lower than what the top 3 teams are regularly being awarded, even when just kind of OK. Vault reigned as the big highlight for Utah on Saturday. Those landings were excellent and are farther along than most teams at this point in the season (just keep them for April…), but we’re still seeing a lack of non-Skinner 9.9s on bars and floor, with some uncharacteristically short handstands (I think about 5 people in the bars lineup had a deduction on the opening cast hs) keeping bars as the lowest-scoring event over the weekend.

5. LSU Tigers

Average: 196.850
Previous ranking: 5

LSU was able to hang onto 5th this week despite the performance that shall not be named for 196.025 against Kentucky. Still, the Tigers are falling well behind the top four and are nearing danger of being caught by those in the lower half of the top 10. Last season, LSU didn’t have a score lower than 197.575 as part of its RQS numbers. This year, LSU’s peak score is 197.450. With 7 meets remaining, we’re now in crunch time. The team has to start eradicating these weak performances, otherwise they’ll manifest in a rough postseason seeding. This week, it was a counting fall on bars and three OOBs on floor that eliminated LSU from contention for a usable score, despite what were some impressive fulls on vault and a couple pretty hits on beam.

Continue reading Week 6 Ranking Notes →

Live Blog

Sunday Live Blog – February 10, 2019

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Sunday, February 10 Scores Stream
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – West Virginia, Temple, Bridgeport @ Penn LINK ESPN+
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Central Michigan @ Kent State LINK FREE
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Southern Connecticut, Rhode Island @ Brown LINK
2:00 ET/11:00 PT – Iowa @ [10] Michigan LINK BTN+
FLO
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – [1] Oklahoma @ [7] Denver LINK DU($)
6:00 ET/3:00 PT – [3] UCLA @ [15] Washington LINK ESPN2
6:00 ET/3:00 PT – [24] Stanford @ [19] Arizona State LINK P12N

It’s one of our better Sundays. This is a very solid slate. I’ll be starting with Iowa and Michigan and then going straight through. Continue reading Sunday Live Blog – February 10, 2019 →