NCAA Gymnastics Power Rankings, Week 4: Tigers Tamed, Gators Chomp for First 198 Week four delivered plenty of drama. The reigning national champions fell victim to the season’s biggest upset so far, Florida reached the sport’s elite 198 milestone, and scores across the nation began rising as judges moved away from the lower scores of the opening weeks. With all the excitement, the rankings saw major movement this week, including a change near the top for the first time this season and the SEC teams continuing to shuffle for No. 8. 1. Oklahoma Last Week: No. 1 Even when tying its season-low, Oklahoma’s 197.550 is still better than the season-highs of all but five other teams. It’s solid win over Alabama marked its first SEC road victory, despite some deductions on handstands and vault and floor landings in the early rotations. The Sooners cleaned up on beam with a 49.575 and had no major concerns throughout the night. While KJ Kindler is confidently putting forward her strongest lineups, with only eight Sooners competing in every routine so far, depth remains a lingering question mark. 2. Florida Last Week: No. 3 The Gators won the race to the first 198, dominating rival Georgia in a statement rebound from their close loss in week three. While some of the gymternet debate swirled around the judging, Florida’s performance was strong, particularly on bars, where Skye Blakely and Riley McCusker posted 9.850-plus for the first time this season. Anya Pilgrim’s return to the floor lineup and her stellar all-around debut with a 39.550 further boosted the Gators’ outlook as the season progresses. 3. LSU Last Week: No. 2 After gaining momentum with a big SEC win the previous week, LSU stumbled at Arkansas, with mistakes on floor and beam leading to a loss. It was the Tigers’ first rough meet of the season, so there’s no need to panic just yet, but their margin for error is gone if they hope to claim the regular-season SEC title. LSU’s inability to perform under pressure after doing so successfully a week earlier raises questions about how it’ll fare on the road moving forward. Complete article at College Gym News
Not great, but better after 2 1/2 days into my antibiotic. At least it isn't cancer which I have now beaten twice. 1. at LSU: Yes, I agree with those who saw a UF win instead of a loss. It came down to a few scores in which I think the judges decided against sending 13,000+ LSU fans celebrating their 2024 national championship home with a close loss. For LSU, Kaliya Lincoln's vault received a gift at 9.725 when she hopped off the mats and towards the tunnel like she was headed to the lady's room before saluting the judges. Her vault was at best 9.60. I'd have given her a 9.50. Aleah Finnigan was awarded a 9.95 on floor that should have scored at 9.90 as she stepped in the wrong direction after landing short with her chest down. The female announcer, Samantha, had just finished saying that it was a .1 deduction. (shaking head) For UF, I have 2 scores I questioned. Anya Pilgrim received a 9.825 on bars and should have received a 9.90 like she did at home against Georgia. On Selena Harris, can't complain too badly about her 9.825, but she did receive at 9.875 at home. Bottom line, it's a good road score loss, but UF was slightly underscored while LSU was slightly overscored. 2. Georgia: The Gators done good beating down the poodles. The 198.125 score was well deserved. It was refreshing to see UF not darn near give away the home meet like it almost did in UF's meet 1. I still cringe when Ellie Lazzari performs. My hope is CJR requires her to specialize, say on floor where UF needs improvement. I wish Leanne Wong would ditch her beam mount after having messed up twice now. Get on the beam and throw 9.9+ scores rather than being the one dropped. It's amazing UF is #1 on beam without getting any help from Leanne. 3. Oklahoma - Watched last week at Alabama. As I predicted before the start of the year, OU is far too heavily dependent on their Kiddie Corps who account for 10 of OU's 24 routines each week. Lack of depth is an issue, and I don't think college gymnastics will see the best out of the Kiddie Corps until next season. KJ Kindler talks about floor being easy for her team. It helps that all of the OU gymnasts are proficient in being taught how to dance out of tumbling passes rather than risk having deductions. If this gets you the best scores, everybody else should take this page out of the OU playbook. 4. Yes, I still have UF with the best shot at winning the national championship. I'm amazed at how much better the Gators can be and especially on floor. Being #1 on vault and beam and #6 with lots of room to improve on bars are good places to be. 5. The Sunday meet at West Virginia with Utah is now an ESPN+ televised meet. I don't have ESPN+ but may buy a month to get to watch on Sunday. There is one bonus in that the softball game at USF between the Gators and bulls is an ESPN+ game during the month of coverage.
Glad you are feeling better, hoping you continue to feel a little better everyday till you fully recover..was so happy to see your analysis posted today..I enjoy reading your posts..
I too agree that Wong needs to ditch that beam mount. If you can literally put your hands on it and jump up and place your rear end directly on the beam and still have a 10 start value then why risk that. We don't have international scoring so there's no bonus for that, only deduction risk. I also think both Blakelys don't need the blind landing release off bars. I haven't seen Skye enough to determine consistency when healthy but Sloane hardly ever hits hers. Just do the damn layout and be more consistent with a landing you can see coming...any thoughts on that from more experienced watchers? I also think the Riley experiment should be over, play a freshman or sophomore in that spot and grow throughout the season, benefits us more in the future.
While digging around for research, I stumbled across a very interesting article that I know a few of you will really enjoy The River Dividing College Gymnastics In NCAA sports the term “Red River” is a popular name for the rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas. Predictably, the name itself comes from an actual river marking much of the border between the state of Texas and the state of Oklahoma. What this particular river has connecting it to college gymnastics is it acts as a wall dividing two distinct regions of women’s NCAA gymnastics. On the North side of the river is a collection of schools that were the trailblazers of women’s college gymnastics. The region where the sport achieved massive success and one of the pioneering regions in the development of college gymnastics. South of the Red River is Texas, the American state which infamously has no major schools sponsoring women’s gymnastics. The region of the United States where women’s college gymnastics suffered its greatest failure in getting universities to adopt the sport. Texas is the barren wasteland of college gymnastics. Its inability to attract large scale investment at the collegiate level is especially tendentious in contrast to the exact same region being the powerhouse region of the women’s Olympic program... Full article here
Skye Blakely is a world class gymnast and Sloane is dang good too. I think both have earned the right to their performances. It just isn't possible to be the best without introducing difficult elements to set the gymnasts apart from the others. Disagree on Riley McCusker. After missing what amounts to 2 years of performance time, Riley is just now getting her confidence and legs back under her. Riley scored 9.875 on bars against Georgia which was good enough to match Leanne Wong. I don't think we have seen her best yet as she is capable of hitting 9.90+ on her bars routines. I'm still hoping Riley gets her confidence and legs back under her on beam too. You really can't have too much depth on beam. Riley is capable of producing beautiful routines on both bars and beam. I'd be surprised if the coaches aren't doing everything possible to facilitate Riley's comeback as quickly as possible. Insofar as our freshmen are concerned, both Ly Bui and Taylor Clark are being given performance time. Lily Bruce missed all of her senior season due to an injured ankle. Lily just isn't ready for prime time yet. Finally, don't worry, be happy. I expect a national championship will be delivered by the Gators come national finals in late April.
Wonder why there are no Texas schools that sponsor college gymnastics I recently found out that on vault, any small hop forward is a -.10 deduction, up to-.3 depending on the distance of the hop. I thought a slight or small hop was -.05. This is why scores have been low across the board IMHO. The difference between a stick and a slight hop can be the difference between winning and losing. I'm in the camp of if you got it, flaunt it. It is much more entertaining to watch the best gymnasts having a higher level of difficulty on their routines. I also believe a judge would be more lenient with small balance checks or hops on gymnasts with tougher routines. They won't be looking as hard for deductions. Plus I think the gymnasts like the challenge and it helps motivate them when not doing the same ol boring routine each week. I was wondering about Lily Bruce and why we have not seen our top recruit out there performing. Riley just needs more reps. Im sure her confidence has been very low after a couple of misses. Gymnasts of her talent and prestige are notoriously very hard on themselves. By the time we are in postseason, Lui will be added to another rotation and her vaults will get even better. Taylor will be even more dazzling on floor. Our Bars lineup will have rebound and I won't be surprised if we are top 3. Like I said earlier, Vault will score 49.700+ more than once. We are the most complete team in the NCAA, we are deep and we are hungry! I predict a title this year, too!
I'm watching the Oklahoma-Arkansas meet. The Sooners are using 5 AAs and a total of only 7 gymnasts total. Kennedy Baker is co-commentator. She's really good at this. She is one of my favorite Gator gymnasts of all time❤️.
LSU was on fire tonight and scored 198.0 at home against Missouri. If that is the best they have, we are okay.
Love Kennedy Baker and am so sorry how her career ended with her Achilles heel injury. I do hope she has gotten over the racism she experienced/felt during her UF career. Apparently, all was not well under Rhonda Fain for Kennedy Baker and Kytra Hunter according to this ESPN article: Former Florida gymnast alleges frequent racism Kennedy Baker had her say with Jenny Rowland. I am glad to see things were better for her under Jenny Rowland's leadership. It would be awfully nice to have Kennedy Baker's full public support for UF gymnastics. Things have changed much over the years in the racial makeup of UF team rosters. Trinity Thomas is a huge example and outstanding UF ambassador. Hopefully Trinity can help with Kennedy with them both working for ESPN. UF has much to be thankful under Jenny Rowland, just have to win the big one at the end of the season.
The OU Kiddie Corps did not get the job done again at a high enough level. The 3 senior AAs led the team. The final score, 197.825, may be close to the peak of what OU can deliver due to such strong reliance on true freshmen, say a peak of 198+-. Have an injury to one of the OU 3 AA seniors and the Sooners can turn out the lights on the season as the would have no way to recover. Bottom line, this is not the typical OU team the media is pointing to as a likely national champion. My top 3 preseason: 1. Florida 2. LSU 3. Oklahoma I have seen nothing to change my preseason expectations.
Somebody with ESPN+ will need to take the lead tomorrow. Insofar as I know, it isn't possible to add ESPN+ through YouTube TV to which I subscribe. I don't like missing the UF vs. Utah showdown in a neutral location, but those are the cards I've been dealt. The meet is on ESPN+ at 2 PM ET for those who have ESPN+. No. 2 Florida Competes Sunday in Tri-Meet at West Virginia with No. 4 Utah - Florida Gators
Good article on Selena Harris-Miranda: Natural Competitor: Harris-Miranda Brings A Hate-To-Lose Attitude - Florida Gators Apparently, there was a lot of illnesses on the team last week that I hope has been cleared up for this week.
a bit of a pain, but you might want to give this a try....you should be able to cancel before getting charged: No, ESPN+ does not currently offer a standalone free trial. However, you can get a free trial of Hulu + Live TV, which includes ESPN+. How to get a free trial of ESPN+ through Hulu + Live TV? Go to the Hulu website Find the "Watch Live TV From 95+ Channels" section Click "Start Your Free Trial"
Been there and done that and I'm still with YouTube TV. Hulu + Live TV was slow and had too much buffering, so I decided to stay put. Amazon and Disney MUST detest each other. I use fire sticks which work just dandy for the most part, but the Amazon Watch ESPN App is unworkable. Amazon will sell me ESPN+, but the Amazon Watch ESPN App won't let you get past sign in. This has been the case for about a year now. I get to watch the ESPN app through my Silk Internet App because it will allow me to sign in with YouTube TV as my TV provider. Unfortunately, that gets me back to having no way to pay for ESPN+. I should just be thankful that I can watch the app to get our overflow sports on SECN+. When the big wigs get around to offering standalone sports streaming packages, these problems will go away. Unfortunately, that also means I will miss the first round of the NCAA gymnastics tourney as the regionals are shown, you guessed it, exclusively on ESPN+. Grrrr!
