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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

Monday Live Blog – [24] Stanford @ [9] Georgia + Ranking Notes

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#24 Stanford. So, you know, there’s that. Stanford has some assets compared to Georgia, particularly on bars and beam, but if we don’t see fully competitive lineups on vault and floor, it’s going to be a long old day.

It’s also Monday, so before the meet gets going, let’s jump into the rankings and important notes from the weekend just passed.

The top score was a 9.975 on bars recorded by Bridget Sloan, getting a Sloan10 from one of the judges. This angle particularly illuminates the bail, which is why this isn’t one of her stronger 9.975s. (The fact that that’s a comment.) Sloan Bail is very dependent on angle and usually goes through ups and downs during the course of a season, but if that were crisper, this would have been a legit 10 since we know that NCAA gym takes a see-no-evil approach to flexed feet on single-bar releases.

For your stat note of the week, so far on floor we have seen 13 scores of 9.950 or higher, compared to 5 on beam, 4 on bars, and 2 on vault. So that’s new.

Week 2 ranking

1. Florida – 197.250
Week 2: 197.675
Week 2 leaders: AA – Sloan 39.650; VT – Baker, McMurtry 9.925; UB – Sloan 9.975; BB – Sloan, McMurtry 9.925; FX – Baker 9.950

2. Oklahoma – 196.967
Week 2 A: 197.125
Week 2 A leaders: AA – Kmieciak 39.425; VT – Jackson, Scaman 9.900; UB – Wofford, Capps 9.925; BB – Lovan 9.925; FX – Jackson 9.925

Week 2 B: 197.050
Week 2 B leaders: AA – Kmieciak 39.400; VT – Jackson 9.950; UB – Wofford 9.900; BB – Capps 9.925; FX – Scaman 9.900
Continue reading Monday Live Blog – [24] Stanford @ [9] Georgia + Ranking Notes →

NCAA Schedule

The Weekend Plans – January 15-18

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Keep in mind that this is a super-extendo-weekend, beginning tonight and going through Monday, on which we fulfill the national tradition of celebrating the memory of Martin Luther King by bitching about vault landings. As he would have wanted. It’s a busy one, with many many teams forcing themselves into two meets in three days for some horrible reason.

Top 25 schedule + other notables

Thursday, January 14
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Yale @ [18] New Hampshire
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – [1] LSU vs. [23] NC State (Las Vegas, NV)
Friday, January 15
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [5] UCLA @ [3] Florida
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [14] Missouri @ [6] Alabama
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [12] Oregon State, Bridgeport, Illinois State, Wisconsin-Eau Claire @ Lindenwood
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [11] Cal, Texas Woman’s @ [4] Oklahoma
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [21] Kentucky @ [7] Auburn
8:30 ET/5:30 PT – [15] Georgia @ [16] Arkansas
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [7] Utah @ Southern Utah
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [16] Kent State @ Utah State
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – Boise State, Seattle Pacific @ UC Davis
Saturday, January 16
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – [19] Illinois @ Rutgers
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – Ohio State @ [1] Michigan
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – Nebraska @ Penn State
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [25] Maryland @ [23] Minnesota
Sunday, January 17
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – [20] Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green @ Western Michigan
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – North Carolina, Penn, Cornell, Temple @ [7] George Washington
2:00 ET/11:00 PT – [10] Arizona @ Texas Woman’s
3:00 ET/12:00 PT – [4] Oklahoma @ [16] Arkansas
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – [6] Alabama vs. [7] Auburn (Birmingham, AL)
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – [18] New Hampshire @ West Virginia

Monday, January 18
2:00 ET/11:00 PT – [22] Stanford @ [15] Georgia
3:00 ET/12:00 PT – [13] Denver @ Iowa
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Washington @ Arizona State

As always, the full schedule can be found at the link at the top.

Live blogging
I will definitely be here live blogging on Friday for UCLA/Florida and Georgia/Arkansas and on Monday for Stanford/Georgia. Other than that, it’s a maybe. So stay tuned, but don’t weep into your handkerchiefs if it doesn’t happen. Or do.

Friday
-The day starts with the big matchup, Florida and UCLA. UCLA will take relief from the win over Alabama, but beating Florida in Florida would be quite the little upset. For some reason, I don’t think Bridget Sloan is going to get stuck in the 9.8s again this weekend. Watching how Florida Scoring (TM) plays out in the post-Rhonda era should be one of the more interesting parts of the meet. Remember that time Florida got a 49.8 on floor? Ah, the memories.

The Gators were just OK in the opening meet, but even though it’s early, I think we all expect to see a real step forward this weekend, particularly on vault. As in, Alicia Boren is probably not going to fall again. I’m also eager to see how the vault and floor lineups develop in the coming weeks as they looked a little…unsettled in the opener, featuring a couple backup routines. That floor lineup needs the Bridgey anchor score this year much more than ever before since they may be throwing in two routines in the lower 9.8s. 

Really, if Florida was able to go 196.825 last weekend when hitting just one of four events at an expected level, a serious 197 must be the task on Friday.

-This weekend, UCLA should be happy with replicating the beam and floor performances from the first week. Floor won’t score the same on the road, but if the Bruins compete those two events at a similar level, that should be enough to earn an early road 196 to rest on. Beam remains the team’s best event, the only potential weakness being an attack from the inconsistency monster, so finishing on beam in front of a bigger road crowd cheering some (presumably) giant floor scores this week will be a valuable and necessary challenge. While Florida also scored well on beam in the first meet, this is the one event where the Bruins are the stronger side, so they’ll have to take advantage.

But if UCLA is to have a real chance at winning this meet, and at not being a depressing ghoulish phantasm this season, bars cannot be as bleak as it was in the opener. The primary concern for UCLA’s bars is that many of the deductions we saw on Sunday were built-in, but that’s definitely not true of all of them. Real hits from Ohashi and Metcalf would go a long way to making the lineup look a bit more healthy.

This is also UCLA. Miss Val is not afraid of some good, old-fashioned lineup experimentation. Those 48s on vault and bars from last week are not going to cut it against Florida, so let’s see what else is out there. Bring on exploring depth. It can’t hurt. Unless it does. 

-Alabama, Oklahoma, and Utah should all go through comfortably on Friday, though the trends in vault scoring will be worth watching in all three of those meets. Alabama needs to step up the performance more than anything else, but Oklahoma and Utah both played it relatively safe with vault choices in the first week and did not score nearly as well as we would normally expect from those teams. I’ll be checking for whether that 9.825ish trend continues and whether they choose to make an adjustment and throw more difficulty to get the scores.  

-Keep an eye on Auburn’s freshmen. They contributed plenty of routines in the first meet but not many significant scores. They’re more talented than that and will have to be more than just early-lineup/depthy options this year for Auburn to keep up, so let’s see if anyone jumps up into the 9.850s for meet two. 

-Georgia goes to Arkansas with a serious point to prove that this year is not going to be like last year when it comes to beam. The first meet was not remotely encouraging on that score, and the beam-bads cannot start to be a thing again. Two meets makes it a thing. While event is never a must-hit in January, it would be huge for Georgia’s mental game to come back with six not-bad beam routines right away. And it’s going to be necessary. Arkansas is famous for low-196ing a tentative opponent into submission for the upset, and that’s exactly what Arkansas team would have scored in Cancun for a hit meet. The capability is there.

Saturday
-In spite of the rankings, the most important meet on Saturday is Nebraska/Penn State since both teams died of consistency in their openers and dropped all the way out of the top 25. It’s way, way, way early, but being unranked is sort of unacceptable for a Nebraska team. Some of the problems were just weirdness, like Hollie Blanske having her worst meet ever, but some of them were also incomplete/non-competitive lineups featuring backups that put too much pressure on the main scorers to deliver.

-Michigan hasn’t shown a glaring issue in either of the meets so far, so there’s no reason to doubt that this will be another “our consistency is coming for you” season. Although it is two 196.9s in a row now, so let’s see a little bit of cleaning and refinement to get that 197. No need to stagnate here.

Sunday
-Oklahoma, Alabama, Auburn, and Arkansas will all compete in their second meets of the weekend on Sunday. Auburn and Alabama are conducting their (what is now) annual Birmingham “no one’s broadcasting this” meet, which is just great. Fun for the whole no one. At least Oklahoma/Arkansas will be on SECN+. It’s hard to know what to watch for in these meets at this point since we haven’t seen the Friday meets yet. We’ll see how the first one goes. Oklahoma is a pretty heavy favorite and should be able to waltz through with a hit, though Auburn and Alabama looks like an excellent showdown. Alabama is the better team on paper, and an ideal performance would see them winning every event, but the problems against UCLA betray a team that isn’t necessarily just a week away from dominance. The opportunity is be there for Auburn to snatch it. 

Monday
-Perhaps my most anticipated meet of the weekend is Stanford/Georgia because…who the hell knows with this one. It’s going to be beautiful. It may be a disaster. Stay tuned. Given Georgia’s depth compared to Stanford’s not-that-even-a-little, Georgia should be able to pull this one out comfortably. Although, based on what we saw in the first meet from both teams, Stanford looks quite capable of winning bars and beam even though it’s January before they’ve really started trying. The problem for Stanford comes from being too depleted on vault and floor to expect to keep the meet close enough to be able pounce on bars and beam, even with the undeniable power of Ebee. If Stanford is still throwing up a Ylayout and some 9.6s on floor, the deficit will just be too great, even with 9.9s on bars and beam. 

NCAA Schedule

The Weekend Plans – January 8-10

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It’s here! Wait, how do we do this again?

Top 25 Schedule

Friday, January 8
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Ball State @ [21] Kentucky
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [25] Central Michigan, UW-Whitewater, Winona State @ UW-Eau Claire
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [2] Florida @ Texas Woman’s
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – BYU @ [4] Utah
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Michigan State @ [18] Arizona
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [15] Illinois @ [23] Missouri
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [11]Nebraska, Bowling Green @ Arizona State
Saturday, January 9
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – [9] Georgia @ [7] Michigan
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – NC State @ [17] Penn State
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [1] Oklahoma @ [5] LSU
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Iowa State @ [20] Minnesota
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [24] Southern Utah, West Virginia @ [16] Denver
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – [22] Ohio State @ Washington
Sunday, January 10
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – [23] Missouri @ Lindenwood
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [3] Alabama @ [6] UCLA
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – Nor Cal Classic ([8] Stanford, [14] Cal, UC Davis. Sacramento State @ San Jose State)
5:00 ET/2:00 PT – [10] Auburn @ [12] Oregon State
As always, the full schedule is available at the link at the top. Note that Arkansas and Boise State will not be competing this weekend. 
FRIDAY
-Let the live blogging begin! I’ll be here from the start, though there aren’t any really enticing matchups on Friday (you’re not even trying…), so I’ll probably bop around from meet to meet, missing everything important. I do want to make sure to watch a fair chunk of Nebraska since we rarely get to see Nebraska during the season. Florida against TWU will be broadcast on Aunt Flogymnastics, so those of you watching it are required to provide updates of honesty in the comments. You have your mission.

-For Florida, this will be a very comfortable win, but as I mentioned in the preview, I’m looking forward to seeing the lineup strategy. I’ll also be interested to find out where Peyton Ernst is at this point, how Alicia Boren does in her debut given how important she is to the team this year, and how many 10s Bridget Sloan gets. Over/under?

-There’s a little less mystery about Utah because we saw them at the RRP and they diligently release their lineups a million days in advance. This too will be an easy-peasy meet, but we’ve got a lot of event debuts (Lee and Schwab on bars, Merrell and Partyka on beam and floor), which is always reason for a keen eye. Bars and floor are the most depleted since last season, so watch for stuck-at-9.825-itis, though that may be expected to some degree this early in the season. But, is there potential to go much higher?

-Speaking of depleted, Nebraska has a bunch of empty spots in these lineups, and depth will be a major storyline this season. I’m hoping to see as many different freshmen as possible competing to give the team more options than I currently think there are. Let’s not make this not a six-AAers kind of season since that is the most nerve-wracking thing in the world. Someone find the bubble wrap. I’m also interested to see how Arizona State fills out these lineups, as in, can they? There are almost four people on the roster this season, but might it be a little less depressing than last year? A little?

 SATURDAY

 -Now that’s more like it. We’ve got two fairly huge meets on Saturday, which overlap because, once again, pull it together everyone. 
-Georgia travels to Michigan to open the season, and this will be the first meet of the year that actually has an uncertain outcome. Michigan does enter as the favorite, however, competing at home and coming off an impressive first meet for a team that was in so many pieces so recently, but it’s not open and shut. As we know, the Wolverines are still not a deep team and will need the exact competitors they showed in Cancun to be competitive with the best teams in the country this year. But now, after the Cancun success, it’s 197 or bust. Anything less is a regression. 
As of this point, Michigan’s strengths compared to Georgia look to be beam and floor given the troubles Georgia had on those events last season. The most important things the Gymdogs need to show in this first meet are a reborn, not-horrifying beam lineup (I’m hoping to see Cherrey and Jay and Schick among the new options to give this lineup some pop) and improved floor endurance versus this point last year. If they can prove those two events are under control, it will minimize any advantage Michigan might have in the second half of the meet. Georgia’s asset should be vault because of Jay and Rogers, though both teams are showing a solid number of 10.0 SVs. While bars will be very different for Georgia this season, for now at least the old story remains that Georgia needs a lead at the halfway point to have a chance. Please change the narrative, beam.
-The main event of the day, however, will be Oklahoma and LSU. Yikes. Showdown. I’m already excited. Nothing like starting the season by heading to LSU to test your mettle as the #1 team in the country. This should be an exceptionally high-quality meet, even in the first week of the season. LSU already looked in form at the preseason showcase, and Oklahoma always starts exceptionally prepared. I’m ready for both of these teams to hit 197 right off the bat, and I don’t think that’s a difficult accomplishment or expectation. 
Depending on who LSU has available, these teams are pretty well-matched on vault and floor. LSU has the bigger routines 1-6, so give the Tigers perhaps a slight advantage but not enough to be decisive or conclusive as a prognosticator. It could go either way. The real challenge for LSU, this season and always, will be proving the equal of a team like Oklahoma on bars and beam. Oklahoma is going through its own little reinvention on those events, so checking how those lineups match up to those of the past couple seasons will be interesting. Still, bars and beam are Oklahoma’s events. It would be surprising to see any actual weakness there. LSU has a wildly, wildly talented crop of beam workers, but one that is unproven and without rock-solid lineup saviors. They’ll be thrown into the fire right away by having to keep pace with the storied Oklahoma beam, but that’s what it will take to win the meet. 
SUNDAY
-Sunday also brings its share of fun with a 5 ET/2 PT triple-header of serious meets. For reference, I’ll be back for day three of the live blogging weekend for Alabama/UCLA, so if you’re watching either of the others instead, keep the rest of us posted. 
-Though UCLA is at home, which always helps, the Bruins are not exactly known for starting quickly or being at top form in January, so Alabama has more on the line as the team that really should win. Much is expected of Kiana Winston (by me), so we’ll have to see how she looks since her cameo last season doesn’t really count. Winston is especially significant with Lauren Beers coming off preseason surgery, meaning she may not be normal four-9.900s Lauren Beers right from the start. 
The vault decisions will be fascinating. Alabama has a number of 1.5 options, but we’ll have to see how many of them come to fruition right away, while UCLA has some work to do to keep pace while lacking the same pedigree of huge vaults. Paging Pua Hall. For the Bruins, this meet is all about Ohashi watch. Without Peszek and with Peng limited, they need a star to step up, and Ohashi is the nominee. That’s particularly true in this meet because if UCLA is going to win, it will be with beam loveliness since I do expect Alabama to be farther along and show more difficulty on vault and floor. UCLA’s beam should be exceptionally fantastic this year (though Alabama’s will be no slouch), and it would be really disheartening to see one of those UCLA January three-fall meets in such an significant showdown. 
-Last season, Stanford started with not enough people to compete, so the goal this time is…enough people to compete. I have no expectations for Stanford early in the season because we won’t see real Stanford until, oh, mid-March (that’s pretty true for UCLA too), but gauging depth of scores, at least six potential competitive scores on each event, will be the major factor here. A prepared and solid Cal will smell blood again this season. 
-Auburn/Oregon State may feel like the ugly duckling of the day since so much attention will be on UCLA and Alabama, but that should be a pretty competitive meet itself. Auburn has multiple new routines to try out, so we’ll have to see if this group looks like one that might become a Super Six team again in a few months. Or is it going to be a case of Caitlin Atkinson and her interns like it was in 2014? To tally the upset, Oregon State must show who besides Maddie Gardiner is ready to compete with top-10 teams. It’s the old refrain: where are the 9.9s? Right now, Auburn looks to have more of them because of Atkinson, and while it doesn’t necessarily take 9.9s to win in January, the location of the 9.9s is a serious mystery the Beavs have to solve this season. It would be nice to see at least the larval stages of a few of them.