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Bushel of Friday Scores – UCLA, UGA, Bama, OU, Nastia Cup

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Lots to care about in the gymnastics world this weekend. Today, we’ve got some great NCAA matchups between top teams and an important look at future competitors:

7:30 ET / 4:30 PT – [3] UCLA @ [4] Georgia
7:30 ET / 4:30 PT – Nastia Liukin Cup
8:00 ET / 5:00 PT – [5] Alabama @ [2] Oklahoma
9:00 ET / 6:00 PT – [9] Oregon State @ [7] Utah


First things first, UCLA @ UGA. Lineups tell us that Shayla is back on three events this week, Moffatt will be going on beam, and Box will be going on floor (no Nuccio on floor). Hit routines from this group will be paramount to complement our expected hits from the likes of Ding and Couch. We’ve also been given the UCLA lineups, but they always change, so it’s barely relevant. Of note is that Sam Peszek is still limited to just beam and that Kaelie Baer will remain in the lineup on vault and beam (change – no longer on beam). So basically it’s the same lineup as last weekend.


Follow along (preferably schizophrenically) with all the competing action after the jump from 7:30 ET / 4:30 PT



Things should get underway at the Nastia Cup within the next 10 minutes, and UCLA/Georgia should begin shortly after that. Can you believe it’s already the second to last weekend of the regular season for both of these teams? This season has FLOWN by.

On the snowboarding that’s on USN right before the Nastia Cup, there is someone named Stale.

At the Nastia Cup, we’ve seen a pretty nice Y2/1 from Charity Jones, a future Oklahoma gymnast. Well done, K.J.  And in our nightly “Please Feel Old” alert, Tyus Edney’s daughter is competing here.

Some changes in the UCLA lineup: Peszek is in on bars for De La Torre (odd), and Courtney is in for Baer on beam (good change).

NC: clean beam routine for Lauren Ramirez, and coach Amanda Borden is bubbling over. And a nice DLO and clean overall tumbling from Casanova on floor. Michigan probably wishes they could just get her on a plane right now.

It’s a good event rotation for both UCLA and Georgia. Georgia should be able to build on UCLA’s bars, and UCLA should be able to build on Georgia’s vault.

NC: clean bar routine from Grace Williams with a few missed handstands and little else you can take. McMurtry with very powerful tumbling on floor and should score well save for an OOB.

Georgia will a good start on vault, sticks from Davis and Couch. EHH apparently had some dismount trouble on bars for 9.750. Noel Couch gets a 9.900, which should inform our perceptions of the scoring tonight.

Georgia will be dropping Earls’s score on vault. Larson gets a 9.825 on bars. These are OK scores for UCLA, but not what they would hope for. They’re going to want 9.875s+ from the rest of the lineup. And Peszek delivers with a 9.900 – so much for bars being the hardest event to get back with her wrist.

NC: Haven’t seen Beth Rybacki in a while . . . a fall for her gymnast Charlie Owens. After one rotation, Charity Jones leads after her excellent Yurchenko double full.

Huge score for Georgia, 49.450 on vault, led by 9.950 from Kat Ding. UCLA gets a 49.300, so they will trail, but that’s not a bad score for them. They would love to see anything over about a 197.2, so that puts them right on pace. This next rotation should show us some real strength for both teams. Keep an eye on what Shayla does. It will inform the whole meet for Georgia mentally.

For UCLA on vault, it will be important for Frattone and Zamarripa to figure out their landings, neither were great last weekend.

NC: Solid Y1.5s from Casanova to start the second rotation.

Baer starts UCLA on vault with a 9.800, about what we’ve come to expect from her. I still think there’s more potential in MDLT’s vault, but whatever. And EHH goes lower with 9.775, not a good start for UCLA on their best event.

Shayla’s bar dismount. It is its own character this season. 9.725.  It doesn’t matter because Chelsea Davis goes 9.950 to match Frattone’s score 4th up on vault. She’s really starting to prove that bars is her best event. She’s setting up the scores for Kat. Let’s see if it happens this week.

Another 9.900 for Zamarripa. She really needs to figure out that stick so she can go 10 again. Unfortunately, Kat Ding also misses performing at her best level with a 9.850. There was a chance for the big guns there, and they didn’t really convert.

After 2: Georgia 98.825, UCLA 98.750
UCLA will need EHH in particular to step up her quality on her better events.


NC: Alex McMurtry, an excellent vaulter, scores 9.900 which will not be beat. She’ll have to convert on her weaker events to get/retain this lead, though. Nice potential from Nia Dennis on beam, just a little shaky. Good skill set and line.

Rotation 3: Georgia on beam, UCLA on bars


So Noel Couch’s scores go, so go the charitability of the meet. Noel goes 9.900 on beam as the leadoff.

Over in Oklahoma, Alabama is on near 198 pace and is well ahead of the hosts. This kind of score will help them gain on UCLA and Georgia, even with the big scoring we’re seeing here.

Georgia is going huge on the scores on beam, and UCLA is underperforming on floor. Frattone goes 9.725, which is not very considerate of her.

More trouble for UCLA. Mattie struggles on floor. Judging issue on this routine. 9.475. OOB and a composition question. You’ll never get to do a DLO if you keep up that kind of performance. Now UCLA will have to count Frattone’s low score.

No pressure for Shayla in this routine, as Georgia already has a massive beam score. And she hits. First score up to her potential in a while. Georgia will have a big lead going into the last event.

NC: Leader McMurtry just went on bars and had terrifying legs. I don’t except that lead to stay.

UCLA manages to salvage a 49.200 on floor, so not terrible, but it does put pressure on the beam rotation. Georgia leads 148.300–147.950.

NC: More pretty powerful gymnastics from Nia Dennis on floor. Watch out for this one. Nice DLO from Lauren Beers on floor as well.

Rotation 4: UCLA on beam, Georgia on floor


Floor: Shayla out, Nuccio in

Gerber starts with her usual solidity – 9.850 (9.900 from one judge). Will be interesting to see how Courtney does in her return to the beam lineup for the first time since the season opener. Just a 9.675. They’ll need to drop it.

Georgia continuing the scoring trend on floor. The way things are going, UCLA, Georgia, and Alabama could be very close in RQS come Monday. Zamarripa with a fall, and UCLA is just . . . off. We can look forward to a sighing, dismissive press conference this week.

NC: Some nice bars difficulty from Shchennikova.

UCLA would need a 9.850 from Peszek to hit 197. They desperately need a big hit from her.

Georgia won’t be able to hit that 198 mark, but we can probably expect a big home score from Couch, meaning they’ll go very high indeed.

Peszek saves UCLA a little on beam, so they end up with a 196.975. It would have helped their confidence to hit that 197 mark, but after all that lackluster, it’s their highest road score of the season, and they will go up .060 in RQS, which will keep them ahead of Georgia, but the gap is closing. Alabam looks on pace for a similar score to Georgia, but their RQS will zoom up as a result.

FINAL: Georgia 197.700, UCLA 196.975


In other news, Alabama ended up blowing their lead after Oklahoma came back on beam and floor. Oklahoma beats Alabama 197.300–197.150, but both excellent scores.

After two events, neither Utah nor Oregon State are standing out. Utah leads 98.300–97.750.

In a final at the Nastia Cup, Charity Jones is our surprise winner, followed by McMurtry and Shchennikova in second and Grace Williams in 4th. McMurtry likely would have won if not for some serious form issues on bars.

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American Cup Preview

This Saturday’s American Cup is a ridiculous little competition, largely because of the vast disparity between its perceived importance and its actual importance. Under normal human circumstances, an eight-competitor meet with a weak field where a certain winner is all but guaranteed would receive little more than a whisper of attention. But because it’s an Olympic year, because the meet is in the US, because it’s gymnastics on TV and we’ll take what we can get, and because the NBC team pulls out gems like “The Most Important Annual International Meet on American Soil” (because that’s such a tough category), we get unnaturally interested.

So, as a proud lemming to the unnatural interest in this ridiculous competition (and being a ridiculous person myself, we actually make a good match), I present my completely informed and professional preview of the women who will be competing this weekend.

Jordyn Wieber will almost certainly win this competition and has, more importantly, already been named to the Olympic team. You may have missed the announcement because it never happened, but it’s nonetheless true. There will be a lot of talk in the coming months about how every spot is up for grabs. This is a lie. She’s on the team barring injury. 
Wieber is the perfect gymnast for this code because of her consistency and broad skill set. But because we know she’ll be part of the team, our attention turns from her strengths to the areas she needs to improve, so the big event to watch this weekend will be bars. Through savvy routine construction, John Geddert has tricked people into thinking that Wieber doesn’t have a weakness, but she does and it’s bars. Despite her high difficulty, she does not perform with a natural rhythm or cohesive line, and therefore needs those difficulty tenths to bump up her score. The presence of a disappointing trend in women’s gymnastics, the Weiler kip, adds a general “Ode to Molasses” theme to her routine. We’ve been promised a reconstructed routine with improved details in 2012, and I hope to see just that because she is a likely bars worker for team finals. 
Aly Raisman is the second American competitor, and I have a definite soft spot in my cold gymnastics heart for our sturdy little Massachusetts Romanian. She’s becoming more comfortable in interviews and is refreshingly self-aware regarding her weaknesses. She would be the first to tell you that artistry, flexibility, and bars are not up to the expected level. That’s certainly true, but because she knows it, I can look past it. She’s not out there pretending she’s an awesome dancer.

Raisman is clearly a Martha favorite (we all remember the “Here’s my BEAMER! Next beamer!” heard round the world from 2010), and her unflappable solidity on beam and difficulty on floor should put her in prime position heading into the summer. That being said, I still have reservations about her spot on the team because she is just so easy to overlook. She’s like the Lady Edith of Team USA. She really needs to go drive a tractor and help at the convalescent hospital so she can stand out. Debuting a competent version of her long-suffering Amanar would go a long way toward helping her chances.

But speaking of which, why have I not done a Downton Abbey/Elite Gymnastics conversion before? Nastia is Lady Mary, obviously. Martha is the Dowager Countess. Bruno Grandi and Nellie Kim are Thomas and O’Brien. Is Kim Zmeskal Anna? She would totally help Nastia carry the body of her dead Turkish lover back to his own bedroom, if you know what I mean.

Moving on, after the jump I’ll look at the international competitors who have been kind enough to offer to play the roles of the Washington Generals on Saturday.

Kelli Hill is Carson.

OK, now I’m really done.

Romania’s Larisa Iordache looks most likely to challenge the American duo, largely because of her confident skill set in the all-around and her stellar work on beam. Vault is not as much of a strength, so she will have trouble keeping pace with the leaders who will rack up big numbers there. Most importantly for the Romanians, though, is Iordache’s ability to perform a bar routine, which makes her a near lock for the Olympic team.

For our purposes, it will be crucial to keep track of how Al Trautwig says her name. Take a drink every time he mispronounces it (What? It’s after noon . . . in some places), and take two drinks if someone makes a Jordache jeans reference.

Iordache’s teammate, Diana Chelaru, has made her place as a consistent all-arounder who excels on floor and can be used if necessary on vault and bars, though the form issues are quite evident. Because of the retirement of Progras, I give Chelaru a fairly solid shot at taking that 5th spot on the Romanian team, but she’s no lock because she doesn’t scream her necessity on any event.  Some upgrades from her 2011 routines would be welcome. She at least needs to prove that she is irreplaceable on vault and floor.
Another standout on the floor is new senior Victoria Moors, who is filling in after the depressing withdrawal of Nadine Jarosch’s glasses. Moors made her name on this apparatus at the test event, finishing second behind Ferrari in event finals. This routine and a DTY make her invaluable to the Canadian team, but she is not competitive enough on the other two events to challenge the all-arounders at this competition.
Great Britain’s Rebecca Tunney stood out on bars at the test event because of her competitive start value (though, as you can see in the above video, there are many form issues in that routine). She could be a welcome presence on the British Olympic team as a third bar worker to complement Tweddle and Downie and to ensure that Whelan doesn’t have to go in team finals. However, she is not as competitive on the other events, and I’m rooting for future Bruin Danusia Francis to get one of the remaining spots on the team.
In her return from injury, Australia’s Georgia Simpson did not make much of a mark on the scoring table at the test event, but upgrades should be expected, and you do get a sense that really everyone is in contention to be one of the lucky pale backup dancers to feature on The Lauren Mitchell Show, debuting this July.
Lisa Katharina Hill featured for Germany at World Championships, largely filling the #5 routine spot on each apparatus, though she does bring good difficulty on bars. That routine could get her onto the Olympic team, but like Tunney, she lags behind most internationally competitive gymnasts on the other events.
As for the men’s competition, Danell Leyva will be competing. That is all you need to know. Everybody wins.

 

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The Weekend Agenda (March 2nd-4th)

I had not intended to spend much time on elite gymnastics, but lately I’ve found myself coming down with a low-level case of . . . dare I say it . . . Olympic fever. To channel this fever, I’m going to try live blogging this weekend’s American Cup. I won’t be doing detailed quick hit commentary because there are likely several thousand other, mostly official, people doing that. My commentary will be focused more on providing exhausted observations and Daggett-induced apoplectic ramblings. It should be a good time. Use it as an opportunity to feel better about the NCAA scoring system.

My main focus, though, will remain NCAA gymnastics through the end of the collegiate season, and we have a lively showdown weekend ahead of us, highlighted by UCLA @ Georgia on Friday. UCLA is performing with an unseemly amount of confidence all of the sudden, and Georgia will be trying to solve a problem like Shayla and finally get a win over a top team. Expect high scores.

At the same time as the Georgia/UCLA meet (thanks, scheduling) will be the annual Nastia Liukin “I swear I’m not an elite” Pink Leotard Sleepover. This has become a fun opportunity for us to see our future NCAA gymnasts and make prognostications about how they will fare in a few years. Also at essentially the same time, Alabama will be visiting Oklahoma in an attempt to prove they are the better team and gain a much-needed high road score. Watch how Oklahoma compares to Alabama on vault and floor. If they can stay with Alabama, it will go a long way in proving how much they belong.

Top 25 (and other events) Schedule:
Friday – 3/2/12
7:00 ET / 4:00 PT – [23] Michigan, North Carolina, Centenary @ [11] Penn State
7:00 ET / 4:00 PT – Kent State @ [14] Ohio State
7:30 ET / 4:30 PT – [3] UCLA @ [4] Georgia
7:30 ET / 4:30 PT – Nastia Liukin Cup
8:00 ET / 5:00 PT – [5] Alabama @ [2] Oklahoma
8:00 ET / 5:00 PT – [18] Minnesota @ [8] Arkansas
8:00 ET / 5:00 PT – [20] NC State @ [10] LSU
8:00 ET / 5:00 PT – Southern Utah @ [15] Auburn
8:00 ET / 5:00 PT – Kentucky @ [21] Illinois
9:00 ET / 6:00 PT – [9] Oregon State @ [7] Utah
9:00 ET / 6:00 PT – Utah State @ [16] Boise State
10:00 ET / 7:00 PT – [17] Arizona, SJ State, Alaska @ UC Davis
10:00 ET / 7:00 PT – [22] Arizona State @ [25] Washington

Saturday – 3/3/12
11:30 ET / 8:30 PT – AT&T American Cup
8:00 ET / 5:00 PT – [13] Missouri, [24] West Virginia, W. Michigan @ [19] Denver

Sunday – 3/4/12
3:00 ET / 12:00 PT – [1] Florida @ [6] Nebraska
5:00 ET / 2:00 PT – [17] Arizona, California @ [12] Stanford

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Monday Rankings

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We have finally, finally reached RQS land. This season just got real.

National Rankings for February 27, 2012
1. Florida – 197.195
2. Oklahoma – 197.145
3. UCLA – 197.025
4. Georgia – 196.830
5. Alabama – 196.730
6. Nebraska – 196.585
7. Utah – 196.555
8. Arkansas – 196.545
9. Oregon State – 196.250
10. LSU – 196.245
11. Penn State – 195.950
12. Stanford – 195.895
13. Missouri – 195.790
14. Ohio State – 195.760
15. Auburn – 195.515
16. Boise State – 195.405
17. Arizona – 195.390
18. Minnesota – 195.285
19. Denver – 195.270
20. NC State – 195.175
21. Illinois – 195.155
22. Arizona State – 195.145
23. Michigan – 194.795
24. West Virginia – 194.670
25. Washington – 194.525

Troester

Florida’s big score over the weekend helped them erase one of their lackluster early scores and leapfrog Oklahoma in the RQS rankings. Given their talent level and their ability to hit routines the last few weeks, it’s hard to argue against Florida as the top team in the nation, though UCLA certainly had a few things to say about that yesterday, recording a 198.050 for the top score of the season and their best score since 2004. All of the sudden they proved that the big five beam workers of Peszek, EHH, Zamarripa, Larson, and Gerber can make them the unexpected best beam team in the nation. Now, all they need is a convincing wig so they can introduce new walk-on freshman Vicki Tom as the 6th worker.

More thoughts:

  • The descent of Utah continues after two weeks where the scores were a bigger story than the gymnastics. I still think that with their top lineups they are probably the 5th best team in the country, but they need to prove that this week against Oregon State. A loss would be disastrous. Lothrop needs to be back in the all-around, and Dabritz and Delaney need to be in as much as possible. Beers, Hansen, and Lofgren are not cutting it on bars.
  • I’m not sold on Georgia as our fourth best team, especially with the descent of Shayla. If this team is relying on Noel Couch to go over 9.850, they are in trouble. Until Chelsea Davis is consistently going 9.9 on multiple events, this team is just Kat Ding and a prayer. 
  • Surprising that LSU and Oregon State are so close in the rankings, but LSU has been zooming up ever since they got to forget that unpleasantness in Cancun. Both teams are in similar positions in having a couple huge events, but not enough to challenge the 197s. If these two could organize a swap, they could make at least one seriously great team. I do expect Oregon State to pick up the RQS once they drop some lower scores, though.
  • Missouri at #13? I didn’t see that coming. I should probably watch one of their meets some time.
  • We’re getting to the point in the season where rankings are solidifying. A six-tenth lead is near insurmountable at this point, especially with the way the top teams are scoring. I expect that only the top three teams have a legitimate claim on the top seed going into Regionals. Oklahoma may have a slight advantage in that they have more meets remaining than Florida or UCLA do.