Recent History
2016 – 10th
2015 – 5th
2014 – 9th
2013 – 12th
2012 – 4th
2011 – 15th
2010 – 4th

It is the nature of the Stanford program to find a way to make nationals, somehow, always, in spite of having a third of a gymnast on the roster and looking terrible for the first couple months of the season. In fact, the last time Stanford entered regionals as a #1 seed was 2011, the last time they didn’t make nationals. It’s in Stanford’s DNA to be sort of 12th-ish most of the time.

This year will bring nothing new for the Cardinal in that I’m fairly concerned about how they’re going to fill out all four lineups, especially early. We know they’ll pull it together somehow by the end of the season, but the question this year is, when they finally do pull it together, what kind of scores are they pulling it together for? More specifically, without Hong and Rice, what’s the point of anything anymore? It can’t just be Price and a bunch of 9.750-9.800s. That’s not enough. In that respect, the emergence of Kaylee Cole as a second-in-command AAer to Price will be essential this season if Stanford is to maintain the streak of somehow making nationals when everyone expects an implosion.

Vault
Top returners – Price (9.920), N McNair (9.830)
Returning options – D McNair (9.780), Fitzgerald (9.775), Daum (9.788)

Price’s DTY kept this lineup afloat last year and was often the only thing standing between Stanford and a 48. She’ll have to do more of the same this year. Cole is a strong vaulter as well (and could have a 10.0 start in her pocket depending on how things go) and must also provide a consistent option over 9.8 because vault is among the events that will struggle to have a full complement of routines early on. Stanford is likely to have to count a 9.7 or two, even by the end.

Theoretically, I see seven options on vault (Price, Cole, N McNair, D McNair, Daum, Fitzgerald, and Tai) but with a few “are you injured?” situations going on, that may not end up being a full seven. Vault won’t be a huge-scoring event this year because those scores get pretty sparse pretty quickly, but if Stanford can cobble together a group that counts something like 9.775, 9.775, 9.825, 9.850, 9.950, that’s endurable for a lowish 49.

Bars
Top returners – Price (9.940), N McNair (9.865)
Returning options – Maxwell (9.795), D McNair (9.775)

Stanford had six and only six bars workers last season, all of whom had to compete every meet because there was literally nothing else to do. Having now lost two of those bars workers, the Cardinal must construct at least two new freshman routines to fill out a lineup. Good news, it might happen. Maybe. We hope. Aleeza Yu is injured constantly (2014 ACL tear, 2016 ankle injury and foot surgery) but has lovely potential on bars, and while Cole’s work can get a little messy, it’s a usable routine that they’ll take any day. The idea is probably for that six to be the lineup: N McNair, Cole, D McNair, Maxwell, Yu, Price. Ashley Tai is a possibility to be called in as a reinforcement even though she’s listed as only VT/BB on the roster.

Without Hong, this lineup probably isn’t going to be quite as strong as it was last year, but there are a couple more believable 9.875ish scores (like Maxwell and N McNair) than there are on vault, so it should retain its identity as one of Stanford’s higher-scoring events.

Beam
Top returners – Price (9.850), N McNair (9.840)
Returning options – Daum (9.750), Fitzgerald (9.612), D McNair (9.400), Spector (9.375)

Beam is the least stressful of the four events (for the first time ever), at least when it comes to Stanford having enough routines to fill out a lineup. Most of the team can provide a set. Plus, Stanford does have a reputation of making lemonade out of star jumps on beam and creating 9.925s where routines barely even existed before. Who had Chuang and Daum anchoring the lineup last year? That’s right, nobody. Barely even Kristen.

Because Price and N McNair tend to be more 9.850y than 9.9y here, Stanford will need to find a new 9.9 or two to make this a top-scoring piece again (which it will need to be to keep 197 in the realm of possibility). As on bars, I’m hoping Aleeza Yu can fit that bill because of perfection, but I’d also expect to see Daum return and Cole come in, along with maybe Tai or Maxwell so that those who have competed beam 9.6ishly in the past aren’t forced to do it again this year. But they could go should injuries require such a step.

Floor
Top returners – Price (9.905), Spector (9.845)
Returning options – Daum (9.750), Fitzgerlad (9.690), N Hoffman (9.425)

Coming up with a floor lineup that wasn’t just 9.7 after 9.7 while waiting for Price to save everything was a challenge last season that left Stanford almost completely out in the cold regardless of the scores on the other pieces (because floor is such a high-scoring event for most teams, Stanford was consistently dropping 0.500 solely because of floor).

This year, I have similar concerns, though Kaylee Cole and her double Arabian should take some of the pressure off Price and Spector to get high scores. If all three are consistently going over 9.8 (which they should), then the floor scores may not be too upsetting, but the team will need three more routines. I’m done waiting for the McNairs here, but Stanford will have Daum as a fourth and then will have to pull in a couple sophomores. Hailee Hoffman was supposed to contribute on floor but was injured last season, so keep her in mind as a lineup option this time around.

Because it’s Stanford and the roster is consistently shattered, my focus has been on simply coming up with six people to compete each event rather than on who the best six are to maximize scoring potential. If enough people end up being healthy, Stanford has the scores (i.e., Stanford has the Elizabeth Price) to be competitive for a spot at nationals, but it’s tough to be more threatening than that when counting 9.7s on vault and floor, and I fear we may be in for another season of that.