Category Archives: Meet Results

Meet Results

BBS Global: Europe Edition

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Injuries

We’ll start with the bad news. The bad news is named Switzerland.

SWITZERLAND: Giulia Steingruber tore her ACL at a competition in France and will be out for the remainder of 2018 because gymnastics is stupid and the worst. Switzerland is trying to defend a 4th-place finish from the previous team Euros but seemed a long shot to reach the team final this year anyway, even with Steingruber on the squad.

Without her, that shot is thrown into a volcano immediately and focus turns to ensuring that Switzerland places in the top 24 at worlds this year to advance as a team to 2019. Switzerland should still be able to do that without trouble, but you start to wonder if Steingruber’s scores are missing. She delivers a real 5-6 points over what a replacement would be able to contribute, and her absence would allow many more countries in that up-and-coming Argentina, Egypt group to think about beating Switzerland if they have a good day.

GERMANY: The German team for the European Championship seemed so simple. Sophie Scheder had returned to save the day with her amazing bars…so obviously after exactly one competition, she has injured her finger and is out of Euros.

Finding a way to replace Scheder will be challenging because she was on the inevitable-seeming team almost exclusively for bars, but now with Seitz injured and Alt injured and Scheder injured, there aren’t obvious bars routines for Germany besides Kim Bui. Who would have thought we’d be worried about what Germany was going to do on bars? Bars is Germany’s thing. We’re supposed to be worried about floor. Oh, also, we’re worried about floor.

Most likely, Germany will just fill in on bars at Euros with those already in the group (Sarah Voss is like, “Um, no thank you please…”), and try to squeeze something else out of a fifth gymnast on any event. The only remaining option who really adds anything to the Schäfer, Bui, Grießer, Voss group is Emma Höfele, who can pull out an extra tenth or so on vault compared to those four. Germany seems to agree as Höfele was selected to participate in France along with the rest of the group.

The next-best healthy bars routine in Germany right now probably belongs to Janine Berger, who was a 2012 Olympian and vault finalist but who has endured mighty knee struggles and is only appearing on bars in the Bundesliga this year. Yet, she was not among the worlds training group and doesn’t appear to be in the selection pool. So that’s where we are with Germany right now. Continue reading BBS Global: Europe Edition →

Meet Results

The Weekend Meets

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Mediterranean Games

The Mediterranean Games has a bonkers format in which the team final is spread out over two days with half the apparatuses on each day (like it thinks it’s event finals or something).

After the first day—vault and bars—the host nation Spain enjoyed a lead over second-place Italy on the women’s side, but it all turned swampy for Spain on beam and floor on day two with a rash of 11s. In the end, the Spanish ended up more than 3.5 points behind the victorious Italians and nearly 3 points behind the silver-medalist French, having to settle for team bronze.

Things were looking exciting for Egypt after the first day as the Egyptians held a surprise advantage over a mostly second-tier French side. Once France pulled it together on the second day for the strongest combined beam and floor scores of the competition, Egypt didn’t have much of a shot at a medal but still managed a respectable fourth place, about two points behind the bronze medalists, Spain.

Louise Vanhille and Lara Mori tied for the top qualification spot into the AA final, ahead of Giada Grisetti and Ana Perez.

On the men’s side, Spain took the team title, but only just ahead of the silver medalist Turkish side, which was able to outpace France by a single tenth for that second spot. Italy ended up fourth here, not able to overcome being terrifying on pommel horse, and Cyprus took a perfectly acceptable fifth place—not too close to the medals, but Marios Georgiou did qualify second into the all-around final. He qualified behind Nestor Abad, who hit all six events in team competition, and ahead of Ahmet Onder of Turkey.

The competition will continue Monday and Tuesday with the all-around and event finals.

US Elite Qualifier

This weekend, Brestyan’s hosted the final US elite qualifier before July’s American Classic. It was mostly a Hopes-fest—there are always many more Hopes athletes attempting to qualify because they’re not yet broken down by the injustices of the world and are still young enough to be full of hope. Oh! Maybe that’s where the name comes from.

But, on the senior elite side, Riley McCusker showed up at this one to tell us that she’s still a person, recording a 13.200 on bars and 13.300 on beam. Stephanie Berger of Brestyan’s got her all-around score for Classic, and Jaylene Gilstrap of Metroplex got her three-event score.

On the junior elite side, several gymnasts achieved their AA qualifying scores for the Classic meets: Brenna Neault of Precision, Olivia Greaves of MG Elite, Aleah Finnegan of Being A Finnegan, Lauren Pearl of Brestyan’s, Alonna Kratzer of Top Notch, Zoe Gravier of MG Elite, and Mallory Marchelli of Stars.

Next up: American Classic on July 7.

Youth Olympic Games Qualifier Continue reading The Weekend Meets →

Meet Results

BBS Globetrotting: Australia, Canada, South America, and more

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Amid all the congressional hearings and revelations that one of those radioactive waste barrels from the 90s was coaching bars at the ranch (probably?), it’s sometimes important to take a deep breath and remember that Australia exists.

Outside the US, spring is national/continental championship season, which provides a wonderful opportunity embark on a grand international tour of the results and the general state of affairs in some of our larger and lesser gymnastics powers that have hosted major competitions in the last week.

AUSTRALIA

A significant unforeseen development of 2018: the Georgia Godwin Fire Emoji Show. Godwin enjoyed a breakout performance at the Commonwealth Games this year and has now followed that up by romping through the Australian Championship with a combined 5.600 all-around advantage over two days of competition, recording 56.325 the first day and 55.900 the second day.

Warning: Australia had a mysterious internal D bonus in place because of how much that completely thrills me (for instance, DTYs were given 5.6 instead of 5.4), so don’t totally freak out or assume that Australia has fully transformed into Mihai-merica when you look at the D scores in the results. Some of that is a fantasy. It’s nonetheless a significant statement for Godwin who seems to be finally thriving this quad and has emerged as the undisputed leader of an Australian team that hasn’t had an AA star in too long.

The influence of Mihaimerica in this meet was felt right down to the competition format that suddenly got rid of the usual event finals to mimic the format of US nationals, with two days of all-around competition.

O Mihaimerica, Land of the Quadriceps, Home of the Vacuum.

Mihai has made no secret of his goal to turn the Australian system directly into the US system, and here and there this year we’re seeing tangible evidence of a national team that’s coming back to life following some lean years. But remember back when we were young and stupid and would have seen Australia adopting the trappings of the US system as a cause for a parade or something? Now it’s like “Errrr…but not the whole thing, right?” Good job Australians, now go take a day off, eat a piece of pizza, see a Star War, and say nice things about yourself in the mirror.

Beyond Godwin, the Australian team picture for 2018 remains a little fuzzy. Neither Georgia Rose Brown nor Alexandra Eade competed here, which did not help resolve anything, thank you very much. Brown remains among the top AAers in the country and can provide three usable events in a team scenario, including one of the strongest bars options. Australia still needs her at full strength to live its best life. Eade will be an interesting factor when it comes down to team selection this fall because she has a top-3 (occasionally top-1) floor routine for Australia but probably doesn’t have the other pieces, which can be difficult for 5-person team selection. Watch that dynamic as we go.  Continue reading BBS Globetrotting: Australia, Canada, South America, and more →

Meet Results

2018 JO Nationals

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The full and complete scores may be found here, but I’ll be tracking the major results throughout the weekend and including them here as they come in, along with what you need to know for future NCAA purposes. (Verbally committed seniors are noted with their school and the year of their first competition season, not year of academic entry, because we don’t care about that book-lerning nunsense.)

SENIOR F – Top 10 AA & Notables

Sunday, May 13 – 6:30pm ET

Rk Name NCAA VT UB BB FX Total
1 Natalie Wojcik Michigan 2019 9.850 (2) 9.700 (2) 9.600 (5) 9.625 (4) 38.775
The much-anticipated L10 army heading to Michigan next season delivered at JO Nationals this year, bringing a 1st and 4th finish here in Senior F to mostly dominate the session.  Michigan will have to spend a long offseason living with the fact that it missed nationals without counting a fall this season, and anticipate quite a bit lineup turnover next season with all these new routines.
2 Abigail Johnston Nebraska 2019 9.675 (7) 9.625 (6) 9.675 (1) 9.650 (2) 38.625
As mentioned in the last couple groups, Nebraska’s commits had a very good JO nationals this year, and Johnston may be emerging as the top contributor of the bunch. The depth should be there next season, but it will be interesting to watch whether Nebraska becomes a team that competes small nonetheless because you could go with Crouse, Houchin, Roby, Schweihofer, and a couple freshmen in the all-around, and that might just be the best-scoring team, with maybe only one more routine or two here and there getting into lineups.
3 Derrian Gobourne Auburn 2019 9.675 (7) 9.750 (1) 9.550 (6) 9.625 (4) 38.600
Gobourne was the only signee Auburn announced in its original class, though there’s not the pressure on her contribution that there might be otherwise because Auburn is a very young team that isn’t losing any lineup sets from 2018. Gobourne is expected to be an additive force, rather than a replacement force, and she should do that on multiple events.
4 Abby Brenner Michigan 2019 9.750 (4) 9.675 (4) 9.400 (16) 9.550 (9) 38.375
The new Michigan L10s have made a mark these last couple years for their AA placements, which speaks to the number of routines Michigan is adding for next year. When you add Heiskell and Mariani to this group (both missing this year with injury), it’s reasonable to think that could add up to half-a-team’s worth of routines just from the freshmen—since most of them are three-eventers or AAers.
5 Shylen Murakami Southern Utah 2019 9.525 (25) 9.700 (2) 9.625 (4) 9.500 (14) 38.350
Like McClain, who won Senior E, Murakami is part of the project to rebuild SUU’s lineups that particularly suffered from depletion on bars and beam this past season. Get Murakami to the ends of those lineups immediately.
6 Madison Dagen Oregon State 2019 9.600 (13) 9.525 (8) 9.650 (2) 9.450 (27) 38.225
Dagen is Oregon State’s big L10 hope for the next season. While the name brand in that incoming class is Jade Carey, Carey is still on the worlds track as a first-tier contender for that team and potentially beyond. If the lure of elite opportunities does beckon, that puts more onus on Dagen to help Oregon State build its lineups back up to become a team that can challenge for nationals once more. We’ll be talking a lot about her.
7 Rachael Lukacs Georgia 2019 9.875 (1) 9.000 (38) 9.650 (2) 9.675 (1) 38.200
A surprising miss on bars knocked the session favorite down to the 7th spot all-around, but I think she’ll survive somehow as an expected future star for Georgia. If she does have a weakness, it’s bars, but Lukacs is a major frontrunner to jump right toward the end of the vault and floor lineups for Georgia next season and erase all memory of 2018’s five-gymnast shuffles.
8 Halley Taylor Florida 2019 9.600 (13) 9.500 (11) 9.475 (9) 9.550 (9) 38.125
Taylor is the sixth, unheralded member of Florida’s incoming class next season, it appears casually walking on as a top-10 finisher at JO nationals. I feel like Florida is going to have enough routines for next year? Just a hunch.
9 Rachel Hornung West Virginia 2019

9.625 (11)

 9.425 (14) 9.550 (6) 9.475 (21) 38.075
10 Libby Garfoot Penn 2019 9.650 (9)

9.550 (7)

 9.425 (14) 9.225 (44) 37.850
Well go ahead on, Penn.
10 Olivia Miller Pittsburgh 2019 9.575 (19) 9.500 (11) 9.375 (20) 9.400 (31) 37.850
14 Kennedy Hambrick Arkansas 2019 9.650 (9) 9.675 (4) 8.825 (45) 9.550 (9) 37.700
No relation.
16 Deja Chambliss George Washington 2019 9.775 (3) 9.400 (16) 9.200 (32) 9.300 (40) 37.675
21 Mia Quigg Illinois State 2019 9.475 (28) 9.100 (35) 9.325 (24) 9.650 (2) 37.550
56 Nya Reed  Florida 2019 9.750 (4) 1.000 (57) 9.450 (11) 9.625 (4) 29.825
It appears an unfortunate bars disaster derailed Reed’s competition, but the other scores are there.

SENIOR E – Top 10 AA & Notables

Sunday, May 13 – 1:45pm ET

Rk Name NCAA VT UB BB FX Total
1 Karley McClain Southern Utah 2019 9.750 (5) 9.575 (7) 9.575 (6) 9.650 (4) 38.550
We have an upset result in Senior E with McClain taking the title over more famous names in the top 10—also a significant development for SUU for next season after falling off in 2018 in the aftermath of a graduation bomb being dropping in those lineups. Some strong L10s will be entering for the 2019 season in the hope of rebuilding that lineup foundation.
2 Milan Clausi Cal 2019 9.800 (2) 9.500 (13) 9.700 (1) 9.525 (14) 38.525
Clausi, the daughter of Missy Marlowe, is expected to be a big part of Cal’s lineup solidification project for next season as one of several L10s who all look likely to come in on at least 2-3 events, replacing the lost routines as well as providing the luxury of assigning some of the borderline 9.775s to backup roles. Previously, Clausi had looked mostly beam and floor, but the vault scores this season have been more than legit.
3 Olivia Trautman Oklahoma 2019 9.800 (2) 9.600 (5) 9.375 (22) 9.725 (1) 38.500
An Oklahoma gymnast with a 9.375 on beam? Immediately off the team. I kid because she’s going to be a big deal. Those floor lineups next season will want a little reinforcement without Jackson in there, and Trautman is poised to be the one who slots into those positions and keeps the power quotient at a necessary level.
4 Cristal Isa Utah 2019 9.550 (22) 9.700 (1) 9.575 (6) 9.475 (20) 38.300
4 Adrienne Randall Utah 2019  9.475 (31) 9.600 (5) 9.625 (2) 9.600 (6) 38.300
The Ute freshmen are twinning already, coming in with the exact same score here. Add those two to Dula from Senior B and Cammy Hall from this session (finished 35th AA but got the vault score) and Utah should have the routine numbers next year with some increased choice on bars and beam—where the mid-lineup options in 2018 fell a little behind those of the best teams.
6 Katie Chamberlain Pittsburgh 2019 9.650 (11) 9.525 (11) 9.575 (6) 9.450 (23) 38.200
Several Pitt commits have been bringing the 9.5s and 9.6s at JOs this year, which should indicate that the improvement of 2018 was not a one-off. Beam was the major question in 2018, often in the lower 48 zone, and it’s not coincidental that the Pitt gymnasts placing well here are excelling on beam. Recruit to those weaknesses.
7 Sarah Hargrove  Nebraska 2019 9.625 (15) 9.650 (3) 9.425 (17) 9.450 (23) 38.150
Hargrove won beam and floor at her regional, and placed well on bars here, providing a good indication that she can provide that solid-across-the-board repertoire that Nebraska will need next year as the departures of Epperson, Breen, and Williams mean that every event is losing about the same amount, about two routines. A little shoring up everywhere is what’s called for.
8 Olivia Raymond George Washington 2019 9.475 (31) 9.400 (18) 9.575 (6) 9.625 (5) 38.075
I was really hoping to see some George Washington here because we know how many critical routines the team is losing for next season. Without that group, the lineup outlook is not great, so the freshmen will need to do a lot and be major scoring contributors for NCAA 9.8s and 9.9s.
9 Alisa Sheremeta Illinois-Chicago 2019 9.250 (46) 9.575 (7) 9.625 (2) 9.600 (6) 38.050
Nice get for UIC. Sheremeta should give them three events. And well done for that very non-Ukrainian beam score that defies her name.
10 Sekai Wright  UCLA 2019 9.850 (1) 9.125 (34) 9.325 (26) 9.675 (3) 37.975
Placing top 10 in the AA is a strong finish for Wirght, who is going to UCLA ostensibly as a vault and floor specialist so the AA results don’t really mean as much. Wright was not officially committed when she emerged at JO Nationals last year, but UCLA snapped up that 10.0-start vault right quick.
11 Kaylee Quinn  Nebraska 2019 9.650 (11) 9.200 (31) 9.350 (25) 9.700 (2) 37.900
14 Alexa Al-Hameed ??? 9.550 (22) 9.225 (30) 9.600 (5) 9.400 (28) 37.775
Did not sign for Oklahoma for next season as her previous verbal indicated.
18 Alexandra Greenwald  Iowa 2019 9.625 (15) 9.675 (2) 8.800 (47) 9.475 (20) 37.575
21 Amara Cunningham  Temple 2019 9.775 (4) 9.325 (23) 8.775 (48) 9.600 (6) 37.475
25 Jacqueline Kranitz  Iowa 2019 9.450 (33) 9.650 (3) 9.275 (31) 9.025 (48) 37.400
ALL THE BARS for Iowa here.
33 Asia Dewalt  Alabama 2019  9.750 (5) 9.550 (9) 9.250 (34) 8.550 (53) 37.100

SENIOR D – Top 10 AA & Notables

Continue reading 2018 JO Nationals →