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Rankings

Week 3 Rankings + Notes

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It sure was a cap-popping blizzard of a weekend.

The champion of the week was Ashleigh Gnat, who recorded the first vault 10 of the new vault era by sticking her DTY. Because that’s what happens when you stick DTYs. You get 10s. Do I hear an Amanar? Sorry. I’ll stop. OMG YOU GUYS, my aunt’s cousin’s best enemy’s roommate totally saw Ashleigh Gnat training an Amanar. I SWEAR.

“Oh snap, she stuck it!” Oh Sac, never leave us ever. What if KJC said “Oh snap” when someone landed a vault? I’ll let you go enjoy your made life.  

Week 3 rankings

1. Florida – 197.192
Week 3: 197.075
Week 3 leaders: AA – Sloan 39.575; VT – McMurtry 9.900; UB – Sloan 9.925; BB – McMurtry 9.900; FX – Baker 9.950

2. Oklahoma – 197.094
Week 3: 197.475
Week 3 leaders: AA – Capps, Kmieciak 39.500; VT – Scaman, Jackson, Capps 9.875; UB – Wofford, Kmieciak 9.925; BB – Brown 9.925; FX – Scaman 9.925

3. Michigan – 196.938
Week 3: 196.900
Week 3 leaders: AA – Karas 39.550; VT – Karas 9.950; UB – Artz 9.900; BB – Artz, Marinez 9.900; FX – Karas 9.900

4. UCLA – 196.758
Week 3: 196.800
Week 3 leaders: AA – Ohashi 39.375; VT – Hall 9.900; UB – Ohashi 9.925; BB – Francis, Meraz 9.850; FX – Bynum 9.925

5. Alabama – 196.688
Week 3: 196.400
Week 3 leaders: AA – Beers 38.950; VT – Guerrero 9.900; UB – Winston 9.900; BB – A Sims 9.950; FX – Jetter 9.925

6. LSU – 196.450
Week 3: 196.575
Week 3 leaders: AA – Hambrick 39.325; VT – Gnat 10.000; UB – Priessman 9.925; BB – Finnegan 9.900; FX – Gnat 9.950

7. Utah – 196.342
Week 3: 196.125
Week 3 leaders: AA – Lee 39.100; VT – Hughes 9.900; UB – Rowe 9.950; BB – Stover 9.925; FX – Schwab 9.925

8. Arkansas – 196.113
Week 3: 196.700
Week 3 leaders: AA – Wellick 38.950; VT – Wellick 9.900; UB – Zaziski, Freier, Glover 9.775; BB – Wellick 9.900; FX – Canizaro, McGlone, Nelson 9.900

9. Auburn – 196.106
Week 3: 195.900
Week 3 leaders: AA – Atkinson 39.275; VT – Atkinson 9.825; UB – Atkinson 9.875; BB – Krippner, Hlawek 9.775; FX – Demers 9.925

10. Boise State – 196.063
Week 3: 196.425
Week 3 leaders: AA – Remme 39.250; VT – Stockwell 9.925; UB – Stockwell 9.875; BB – Means, Remme 9.800; FX – Collantes 9.925

11. George Washington – 195.800
Week 3: Cancelled

12. Stanford – 195.783
Week 3: 196.675
Week 3 leaders: AA – Price 39.500; VT – Price 9.925; UB – Price 9.925; BB – Hong 9.925; FX – Price 9.875

13. Georgia – 195.769
Week 3: 195.350
Week 3 leaders: AA – Jay 39.475; VT – Jay, Rogers, Snead 9.875; UB – Vaculik 9.875; BB – Box 9.875; FX – Jay, Box 9.900

14. Denver – 195.642
Week 3: 195.650
Week 3 leaders: AA – McGee 39.500; VT – McGee 9.900; UB – McGee 9.875; BB – Ross 9.800; FX – McGee 9.975

15. Oregon State – 195.633
Week 3: 195.125
Week 3 leaders: AA – Gardiner 39.150; VT – Gardiner 9.850; UB – Singley 9.875; BB – McMillan 9.850; FX – Gardiner 9.875

16. Missouri – 195.600
Week 3: 195.800
Week 3 leaders: AA – None; VT – Ward 9.875; UB – Kelly 9.850; BB – Ward 9.900; FX – Harris 9.925

17. Nebraska – 195.342
Week 3: 195.825
Week 3 leaders: AA – Blanske 39.500; VT – Schweihofer 9.900; UB – Williams 9.875; BB – Williams 9.900; FX – Blanske 9.950

18. Minnesota – 195.267
Week 3: 195.675
Week 3 leaders: AA – Gardner 39.100; VT – Haines 9.825; UB – Holst 9.850; BB – Nordquist 9.950; FX – Mable 9.900

19. Illinois – 195.242
Week 3: 195.150
Week 3 leaders: AA – Horth 39.275; VT – O’Connor 9.850; UB – Horth 9.900; BB – Kato 9.875; FX – O’Connor 9.925

20. Arizona – 195.217
Week 3: 196.475
Week 3 leaders: AA – None; VT – Cindric 9.825; UB – Laub 9.875; BB – Cindric 9.875; FX – Sisler Scheider 9.900

21. Cal – 195.150
Week 3: 195.650
Week 3 leaders: AA – Williams 38.800; VT – Williams 9.875; UB – Williams 9.850; BB – Owens 9.850; FX – Williams 9.925

22. West Virginia – 195.083
Week 3: 195.800
Week 3 leaders: AA – Muhammad 39.325; VT – Koshinski 9.900; UB – Goldberg 9.875; BB – Galpin 9.875; FX – Muhammad 9.950

23. Kentucky – 195.033
Week 3: 195.100
Week 3 leaders: AA – Dukes 39.200; VT – Dukes, Stuart 9.800; UB – Stuart 9.800; BB – Dukes 9.900; FX – Stuart, Roemmele 9.775

24. Eastern Michigan – 194.992
Week 3: 195.050
Week 3 leaders: AA – Valentin 39.025; VT – Slocum 9.900; UB – Conrad 9.800; BB – Rubin 9.875; FX – Slocum 9.850

24. Southern Utah – 194.992
Week 3: 195.275
Week 3 leaders: AA – Ramirez 38.725; VT – Webb 9.850; UB – Shettles 9.850; BB – Trejo, Webb 9.875; FX – Webb 9.825

-Florida retains the #1 ranking after a fine-not-great showing at Auburn, a score brought down by some discomfort/Bridget Sloan improvisation on beam that had not been a factor in earlier performances, along with the continued half-a-floor-lineup situation. Oklahoma gained ground in the rankings after putting up a much more Oklahoma-January type performance, still having to endure one beam fall but without the total number of mistakes that kept the first couple meets in more pedestrian territory.

-The emergence of Natalie Von Lovelyton has been a pleasant develop in the reconstruction of Oklahoma’s lineups this season, with her pretty, twisty routines characteristic of the early-KJ Oklahoma era. Brown has a front 2/1 on floor, an E pass but not a double salto E pass, though I’ve noticed that overall the Sooners are going much simpler than their capability on floor, aside from Scaman. Jackson, Jones, and Capps sometimes are all more than capable of big double-salto E passes, but they haven’t been bringing the big. At least not yet. That’s even more true for UCLA’s lineup, which is a march of the double pikes until Bynum in the anchor spot. It will be interesting to watch when or if the in-your-face difficulty is reintroduced to some of these routines, or if these coaches just decide to say, “Hey, this is what we can do cleanly, and we don’t need to do more. Over the last two or three years, clean, amplitudinous double pike routines have received 9.950s and even 10.000s in anchor spots, so…..deal with it.”

-When I said in December that this would be the season of beam, I meant it in a good way. I really did. There’s so much pretty happening on beam this year, just right now it tends to be happening in a windstorm and on the ground.

-Georgia. Good improvement? Coming off of last weekend’s four falls, Georgia recorded three falls and a missed connection this time, so it’s way better and everything’s fine. We’re number 43! We’re number 43! Brandie Jay is their rock, so that’s where Georgia’s beam is. It’s officially a balance beam situation. At this point, the gymnasts are already displaying a level of terror that can only be described as “our coach just decided that we’re going to try to take a bus across Pennsylvania in the middle of a blizzard,” so it’s only going to get worse after this latest showing.

-It’s the first sign of the inevitable and oncoming beam revolt during which the beams will rise up and battle the humans for the future of the planet in a laser war. As part of this opening salvo, one beam also stole Avery Rickett’s foot and forced Alabama to count two falls, taking away what looked like an easy 197, and another comrade tried to pop a cap at Katelyn Ohashi as she double piked to her neck following a misguided round off. UCLA did not have to endure the same level of beam catastrophe (because the world is upside down) as Ohashi got to go again due to equipment malfunction. Which it did. That’s what happens when you’re relying on the structural integrity of only the cap to keep you on the beam. Somehow, she was able to be not in a thousand pieces after that landing and did go again, hitting the double pike this time and recording a 9.825.

-Through three weeks, the current top four teams have not had to count a fall, in some cases more surprising than others. I joke about UCLA, but having a solid and clear six beamers this year without the need to mix and match and rearrange seems to be doing the trick so far. That’s already a postseason lineup, just needing to straighten up a couple ragged edges and Sophina dismounts here and there. Michigan is a 196.9 machine, just sneaking up to that plateau for the 4th consecutive week after petitioning some beam scores at the last minute. Four straight 196.9s is kind of insane but also emblematic of the even-steven nature of this team in 2015 and now 2016. Michigan is the least susceptible to wild variations in performance from meet to meet. What you expect is what you get, which is much less heart-attacky than what we got used to during those couple seasons right after the Botterman era. Wolverine fans have earned this.

-While everyone else is having a balance beam situation, Utah is having a floor exercise situation. Someone should start that blog. Utah’s high on floor is a 49.025 right now. And yes, that whole lineup graduated after last season, but the remaining floor workers are much more talented than the performances they have been throwing out there, especially Lee and Lewis who should be hitting us over the head with 9.875-9.900s every time. What’s even going on around here?

-Nina McGee has a 10 and a 9.975 on floor so far this season. Amazing what happens when people suddenly start paying attention to the huge routines you’ve been doing for three years. 

-Stanford got a 196.675 over the weekend. Didn’t someone tell them that it’s still only January? Ladies, you’re not supposed to get good scores until March. At the earliest. What is this?

Live Blog

Friday Live Blog – Every Team Ever

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Friday, January 22
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Arkansas @ Alabama – SCORES – SECN
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – SEMO @ Centenary – SCORES
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – UW-La Crosse @ Hamline
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Iowa State, Arizona State @ Oklahoma – SCORES – TV: Various Fox Sports outlets
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Georgia @ Missouri – SCORES – SECN+
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Michigan @ Illinois – SCORES – BTN2Go
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Central Michigan @ Northern Illinois – Stream($)
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Lindenwood, Ball State @ Illinois State – Stream($)
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – Florida @ Auburn – SCORES – SECN
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – Kentucky @ LSU – SCORES – SECN+
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Utah State @ Southern Utah – SCORES
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Boise State, UC Davis @ BYU – Stream
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – Sacramento State @ Seattle Pacific – SCORES? – Stream
Week 2 ranking

With all the SEC meets and an Oklahoma home meet that’s actually televised for human people to watch, we’ll have quite a bit to get through today. There will be a period when I’m trying to watch Georgia/Missouri, ISU/ASU/Oklahoma, Auburn/Florida, and Kentucky/LSU, and blog about it all at the same time. It’s going to be freaky and monstrous. Get ready. I’m going for the land-speed record for mistyping tkatchev in a single blog post.
Continue reading Friday Live Blog – Every Team Ever →

NCAA Schedule

The Weekend Plans – January 22-24

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Apparently, the east coast broke, so some of these teams will not be competing this weekend because they’re being preserved in ice for future archaeologists to find. George Washington is out of Saturday’s meet, but as of now, the meet is still expected to go ahead. Penn State was supposed to travel to Maryland, but that meet has been postponed because of “as if.”

Top 25 schedule + other notables

Friday, January 22
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [10] Arkansas @ [4] Alabama
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Iowa State, Arizona State @ [2] Oklahoma
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [9] Georgia @ [14] Missouri
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [3] Michigan @ [17] Illinois
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – [1] Florida @ [8] Auburn
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – [20] Kentucky @ [7] LSU
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Utah State @ [23] Southern Utah
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [13] Boise State, UC Davis @ BYU
Saturday, January 23
3:00 ET/12:00 PT – [5] UCLA @ Arizona
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [11] Oregon State @ [6] Utah
6:00 ET/3:00 PT – *[12] George Washington, [15] New Hampshire, Temple @ Pittsburgh
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Rutgers @ [18] Nebraska
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Michigan State @ [19] Minnesota
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Washington @ [16] Denver
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [25] Ohio State @ Iowa
Sunday, January 24
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – [21] Eastern Michigan, Illinois State @ Ball State
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [22] Cal, San Jose State @ [24] Stanford

Live blogging
I’ll be here live blogging all the Friday slop as usual—get all your devices and alternate monitors and time machines ready because there will be periods when you want to watch three meets at the same time—as well as UCLA/Arizona on Saturday (but not Oregon State/Utah, just a heads up).  

Friday
-Most of the top teams are getting their meets out of the way on Friday, with only the major Pac-12 sides holding out until the weekend. Though the result is in doubt for very few of these meets, many of these teams are coming off nasties of varying severity in their most recent showings, so there are a couple key rotations to watch. Yeah, I’m talking about Georgia’s beam. The SEC Network should definitely cut in to Florida/Auburn when Georgia is going on beam with a breaking news update because we all need to see that thing.

-The premier meet of the week is Florida’s visit to Auburn because it features the highest-ranked underdog and because I haven’t seen a full Auburn meet yet this season. My needs make things important. Florida is the heavy favorite in this one, with a fuller contingent of both starring 9.9s and supporting 9.8s that would have to thrown up a relative splatfest for Auburn to come out on top. The Gators turned in the strongest and most complete performance in the country so far this season in their last meet, though the scoring was crazy-pie, so part of the interest in this meet will be how similarly hit routines are scored away from home. It should be a better indicator of where Florida is at this point in the season.

Perhaps surprisingly, or not, the floor rotation is the biggest question for Florida so far this year, once again last weekend featuring three great routines and three weak routines. Bridgey will chug along and get into form eventually, but that is a lineup that looks a step behind where it could be given the quality of Baker, Sloan, and Boren. Right now, they’re just missing that DLO from Wang or piked full-in from Spicer, or even the 9.850 that Boyce could bring in the first spot to make this a complete and dominant lineup 1-6. For a championship side, everyone in the floor lineup should be a possible 9.900. We’ve seen Florida, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, etc. do that recently, but that’s not the case for Florida right now. That wouldn’t be a real problem until Super Six, because this floor lineup is still great, but it’s something to keep in mind.

For Auburn, the first couple meets have been fine but not ideal. At this point, the team is still expecting to count some 9.7s and will need more time to develop routines from Krippner and Engler into 9.825-9.850 early-lineup options, rendering a 9.750 a drop-score rather than a phew-score. It will take more than a single January to get to that place, but those are the freshmen I’m watching with the biggest vulture-eyes in this meet. It has been encouraging to see Abby Milliet develop into a true and viable second-in-command to Atkinson on bars and beam (she even did floor last week). The question about Auburn this season is whether this will be a complete contending team or just the Caitlin Atkinson show, especially on bars and beam in the absence of Megan Walker. Milliet has already stepped up the quality from last year to fill that role.

-Let’s talk LSU and Georgia. Both teams had crazy scores going halfway through their most recent meets and then fell into the wood chipper never to be seen again. At the most basic level, this next meet is about…hitting beam. The situation is more serious for Georgia than for LSU because Georgia’s issue is a pattern rather than a single catastrophe, and it’s just getting worse. It’s also overshadowing what we’re seeing on the other events: the strongest vault rotation of any team so far this year (Monday against Stanford), improved floor fitness over this point last season, and a complete bars rotation that isn’t the weakness it seemed it might be without Davis and Brown. If beam comes together, this is a legitimate Super Six team, but beam has to come together.

Beam should be one of LSU’s best events and still will be as long as everyone stops losing her mind. Macadaeg, Hambrick, Finnegan? Come on. Don’t even start. The only thing standing between them and being a top-3 beam team is a case of the beautiful disasters, though one meet does not constitute a fully-fledged case of the beautiful disasters. Mostly, we learned from the Vegas meet that LSU is more dependent on Priessman and Kelley than it may have seemed at the very beginning. That’s perhaps a no-brainer, but the Tigers clearly missed those routines in Vegas and will need those scores. If one, both, or part of either is back this weekend, Florida’s nation-leading mark will be attainable.

-Alabama put on a show of floor depth during the double-meet weekend, marching about 75 people in and out of that lineup and getting competitive scores for all of them. Depth is Alabama’s best weapon this season and will serve them very well once things start to matter. They shouldn’t have too much trouble with Arkansas, although through the first couple weeks Arkansas has proven to be a more formidable and complete team than the roster seemed to suggest, one that has six competitive, minimum-9.750 routines on each event and is quite capable of 196s.

Saturday
-The Pac-12 takes over on Saturday, the showcase being Oregon State’s visit to Utah. In a gigantic twist, Oregon State is the Pac-12’s best vault team right now, which given historical precedent, is preposterous, but that’s the vaulting state of the Pac-12 right now. No Pac-12 team has even hit 49.200 through the first few weeks of the season. A lot of this comes down to difficulty, with the Pac-12 schools showing relatively few 10.0 vaults compared to their SEC peers, but the fulls we’ve seen so far have also not been remarkable enough to warrant high 9.8s. On Saturday, keep an eye on vault because all of these teams need to prove that they have multiple real 9.9s in their lineups, not just average fulls for 9.825s. Otherwise, it’s going to be an excruciatingly SEC season.

-Utah would be the favorite against Oregon State at either location, but that favorite status increases at home. The Utes could use a little traditional Utah boost after some lulls in the first couple meets. While Utah’s performances so far haven’t been outstanding, it’s clear that this will become a team that can low-mid 197 others into submission as the season progresses. The depletion of the floor lineup, however, has been quite evident early on. Floor won’t be the 9.9-a-thon of years past and the tumbling will not be as big, but Lee and Lewis need to come into their own to make this a competitive event instead of 13th in the country. It’s hard to challenge without at least 49.3s/49.4s on floor.

For the most part, Oregon State has been doing normal Oregon State things in the first couple meets. The Beavs will be in a position to pounce if Utah has to count a mistake, though the question from the preseason over where the 9.9s will come from remains, even stronger now without Aufiero this season and with Dani Dessaints mysteriously not competing last weekend. I haven’t seen one routine yet that looks like a sure 9.900+ every single time. 

-UCLA has started the season quite well, especially by the standard of “The Bruins Do 194s” that we have come to expect from time to time in January and February—when UCLA just has a beam crazy for no reason and then Valorie performs some extensive feelings about it. In general, the landings and endurance look pretty good for mid-January and improved over some recent years. The meet against Florida was more encouraging than the first because of the progression shown on bars, which now needs to be maintained and come to vault as well. With the downgrade, somewhat flat, medium-distance fulls are not going to cut it against teams like Georgia that are sticking multiple 1.5s.

The Yimettes had a horrible, three-beam-fall meet last weekend, one not remotely befitting the legacy of The Tabitha or Arizona’s ability and prettiness on beam. Like Georgia and LSU, but lower profile, The Fightin’ Arizonas need a comeback meet this weekend. They won’t beat a hit meet from UCLA and would have to rely on falls to win, but…let’s at least get back into the top 25, OK?

Sunday
-Cal heads to Stanford on Sunday for their second showdown already this season (why?) in a meet that no one will be able to see (why?). Cal beat Stanford the first time around, but Stanford showed some strides against Georgia by, you know, hitting and should feel more comfortable about their chances to win this one. Floor is still a big struggle, the bars lineup is incomplete, and vault is not at all competitive, but it’s getting better. Vault and floor are where Cal should have the advantage, with more believable 9.800s through the lineup, but achieving a second-straight smackdown of Stanford will hinge upon the ability to hit beam. Stanford can pretty anyone’s face off on beam, so Cal cannot afford to throw up another 48.5/48.6. That’s just too much to make up. Beam beam beam. The week of beam.

Live Blog

Friday Live Blog: [5] UCLA @ [3] Florida; Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas

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Friday, January 15
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – UCLA @ Florida – SCORES – SECN
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Missouri @ Alabama – SCORES – SECN
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Oregon State, Bridgeport, Illinois State, Wisconsin-Eau Claire @ Lindenwood – SCORES – FLO PRO
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – BYU @ Central Michigan – SCORES – ESPN3
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Iowa @ Michigan State – SCORES – Stream($)
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Temple @ William & Mary
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – UW-Whitewater, UW-Stout, Gustavus Adolphus @ Winona State – SCORES – Stream
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Cal, Texas Woman’s @ Oklahoma – SCORES
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Kentucky @ Auburn – SCORES – SECN
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – Georgia @ Arkansas – SCORES – SECN
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Utah @ Southern Utah – SCORES – FLO PRO
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Kent State @ Utah State – SCORES
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – Sacramento State @ San Jose State – SCORES – Stream
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – Boise State, Seattle Pacific @ UC Davis – SCORESWeek 1 ranking

Here we go, yet again. Some big meets will get underway right at 7:00/4:00, so remember to be a Punctual Percy otherwise you’re going to miss things. Important things like Bridget Sloan’s vault or covering your eyes while UCLA is on bars.

We’ve already had some action this weekend, and it went terribly. LSU scored a 195.800 in the Vegas meet after committing five falls in two rotations. So that fell apart quickly, as did LSU’s ranking. No Priessman in that meet, and Hambrick had to be pulled off floor after her beam fall. Cannamela (who is settling in to that #7-on-every-event role) had to come in on three events and had a rough one, but she’s going to be critical until the squad is back up to full strength.
Continue reading Friday Live Blog: [5] UCLA @ [3] Florida; Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas →