(GYM) ***CLOSED***Gymnastics 2023 - 2024***CLOSED

Think Trinity will be around 58 after she knocks off the rust:

(1) Dr. Sam, PhD on X: "Two Gators on TOP and three in the top four https://t.co/j9jK1fZ6lp" / X (twitter.com)

Trinity has a legit shot at making the US Olympic Team along with Kayla and Skye even though she has not performed elite since 2019.

Simone Biles and Shilese Jones seems like the closest to locks if they don't mess up.

To be sure, a lot of outstanding gymnasts are not going to Paris with the US Olympic Team. I worry most about Leanne, but she is tough and will compete hard when the time comes.

 

NQS Top 16 After Week 8:

Standings (roadtonationals.com)

1. *Oklahoma 198.270
2. LSU 197.845
3. *California 197.810
4. Utah 197.645
5. Florida 197.600
6. Kentucky 197.560
7. Michigan 197.510
8. Michigan State 197.435
9. Alabama 197.425
10. UCLA 197.335
11. Denver 197.270
12. Arkansas 197.190
13. Missouri 197.180
14. Auburn 197.045
15. Ohio State 197.030
16. Minnesota 196.945

*See post #598 to see what I have to say about the scores of California and Oklahoma in Week 8.

 

Danie Ferris has the capacity to be a star in 3 events, vault, bars, and floor, beam not so much. Have to keep in mind that she is a young freshman as she should now be a high school senior, and she was injured in early December which set her back for the 2024 season.

I've been impressed with Skylar Draser, very athletic and talented in multiple events. Gabby Disidore is doing well on bars too.

I remarked coming into the season that Anya Pilgrim would be performing at a high level, more like a sophomore with a year of performing under her belt as she twice represented Barbados in international elite competitions. That experience was invaluable for her coming into UF.

If UF wins at UK on March 3, it will be a major injustice if Jenny Rowland does not win the SEC Coach of the Year. She probably should win it for what she has done with this young team to date, at worst an SEC shared regular season championship.

 

Following up of CJR's after LSU comment on UF having more left in the tank. UF current rank and averages in the 4 events:

Rank - Average
4. Vault 49.379
9. Bars 49.329
5. Beam 49.454
14. Floor 49.446
Total 197.608

Event Scores Against LSU:
Vault 49.600
Bars 49.225
Beam 49.625
Floor 49.700 (49.600 at Mizzou)
Total 198.150

One would think the extra in the tank would be on the floor due to UF's #14 ranking, but I think that is wrong. The trend on floor is up as UF has scored 49.600 and 49.700 in the last two meets.

While UF needs to stay within current trend on floor, the improvement has to come on bars. If we added a .05 improvement, maybe conservative but fair, on the three 9.80s UF counted on the bars, we can come to an approximate upside, likely top score, the 2024 Gators can achieve when hitting on all cylinders.

I think we are looking at the 2024 Gators scoring 198.300 on its best performing day. The 2023 Gators scored a season high 198.425 in the SEC Championships. If 198.300 is the best case, I hope UF puts that likely best number up in the national finals and takes what comes with it. In the meantime, UF is close to maxing out with its 198.150 against LSU. At some point soon, the trend of improving in every meet since the start of the season will end.

Looking ahead to the NCAAs, no, I don't think the Cal Bears got to 198.400 yesterday without biased/poor judging. I feel the same about Oklahoma's 198.675 last Friday, 3rd highest in NCAA history. However, I believe the teams with the most upside to make it to the final four are Oklahoma, LSU, California, Utah, and Florida. Kentucky can prove me wrong next Sunday, not impressed with their at Arkansas performance. Bottom line, an excellent team will get shutout of the NCAA finals.

 

College Gym News - The Dismount Week 8:

The Dismount: Week 8 - College Gym News

Records

Wong’s gym slam was just one of the record-breaking performances from week eight. According to Drew Porche, a whopping 21 schools set or tied various program records. Here’s a quick rundown of all the team-high scores from this weekend:

• Oklahoma’s 198.675 is not only the best score in program history, but also the third-highest score in NCAA history. The Sooners are also the first team to post scores of 39.700 or better on three events at the same meet.
• California broke 198 for the first time this season on the road against UCLA with a 198.400, more than a tenth better than the record 198.275 set last season. Sophomore eMjae Frazier also notched a new best individual all-around total for the Golden Bears with a 39.825.

Nice picture of Leanne for her gym slam.

Not tough on the coaches and judges. Skepticism is fine, but they have been an outspoken advocate of coaches and judges being better. This week CGN falls short, maybe does not want to take on Oklahoma. Nobody should get a pass on this crappy judging.

 

Alyssa Orgen officially added to UF's 2024-25 team:

Gymnastics Adds Alyssa Orgen for 2025 Roster - Florida Gators

- College Gym News

(1) Gators Gymnastics on X: "#Gators 2⃣0⃣2⃣5⃣ class adds another from the State ! Welcome to of Lakewood Ranch, FL! https://t.co/3LnChy1XLX #GoGators | ‍♀️ https://t.co/AevpEHXP0L" / X (twitter.com)

I'm just trying to be real on this addition, no offense intended, but the way UF recruits and the talent level of Alyssa, it's not likely going to be possible for her to break into UF's lineups. UF is loaded next year and beyond.

The background on Alyssa is she grew up a Gators fan and has been to UF camps, so she is obviously well known and liked by the UF coaches. Adding Alyssa doesn't necessarily mean she will develop into a major contributor in the future, but UF accepting Alyssa has allowed her to enroll in UF and be a Gators team gymnast, her lifelong dream. Kudos to CJR for making this happen.

In other recruiting news since the November signing period, Shilese Jones never signed her LOI with UF, has been taken off College Gym News list of 2024 available college gymnast recruits, and has taken down future Gator from her internet page. Shilese decided on Olympics and professional careers over education and college team gymnastics. I hope her plans work for her, but not at the expense of the four Gators who are also trying to make the US Olympics team: Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello, Trinity Thomas, and Leanne Wong.

 

I don't know about their power other than they should be the questioning and informed media to shine the spotlight on the coaches and judges.

College Gym News has been known to regrade meets and post the results. In the cases of Oklahoma and California scores in week 8, they should regrade and post the results. Skepticism isn't enough to make a dent in the corrupt scoring system supported by the coaches and judges. College Gym Fans media could do the job too.

If the meets get downloaded to YouTube, I intend to watch and comment on what I see as accurately as I can considering I'm not a trained judge, a coach, or have an expert connection to college team gymnastics. I've learned a lot over the years, but I'm not the person for this job that needs to be done and revealed in the college gymnastics media.

 

Key Meets for Week 9:

Friday: Alabama at LSU; 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Friday: Kent State and Bowling Green at Ohio State; 6:30 p.m. ET on B1G+

Friday: Auburn at Georgia; 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network

Friday: New Hampshire at Michigan State; 7 p.m. ET on B1G+

Friday: Michigan at Oklahoma; 7:15 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Friday: UCLA at Stanford; 8 p.m. ET on Pac-12 Networks

Friday: Minnesota, Washington and UC Davis at Boise State; 9 p.m. ET on Mountain West Network

Friday: Arizona State at Oregon State; 10 p.m. ET on Pac-12 Networks

Saturday: Utah at California; 5 p.m. ET on Pac-12 Insider - Calling BS! on this meet not being available for the public to watch.

Sunday: Florida at Kentucky; 2 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Sunday: North Carolina at Nebraska; 2 p.m. ET ON B1G+

Sunday: Oklahoma, Clemson and Penn at Texas Woman's; 3 p.m. ET - Pad the Sooners NQS More Meet.

Sunday: San Jose State, Lindenwood and Air Force at Denver; 3 p.m. ET

Sunday: Arizona at Washington; 4 p.m. ET

Sunday: Arkansas at Missouri; 6 p.m. ET on SEC Network

 

I'm calling BS on Oklahoma's 198.6750 score in week 8 which is the highest in Oklahoma history and the 3rd highest in NCAA history.

The meet is now up on YouTube. I watched the meet fast forwarding to stay on Oklahoma performances and scores. This is the way I scored OU on each event compared to the judges:

Event----------ETGator1----------Judges

Vault-----------49.4250-----------49.4750
Bars------------49.6250-----------49.7000
Beam-----------49.7500-----------49.8000
Floor------------49.5500-----------49.7000

Total------------198.3500----------198.6750

Oklahoma is the most talented and consistently high scoring team I've seen this season, my 198.3500 indicates this, but the home cooking judging was over the top with the .3250 difference. If there is a better beam team in the nation, I haven't seen it.

The most egregious over score was on OU's final floor routine which I graded a 9.9000 and the judges graded a 9.9750. The first tumbling pass was off with the gymnast pulling her front foot back slightly along with a slight movement to the side of the back foot to maintain balance. This would likely have been a .1 deduction everywhere except in Norman and in the PAC 12. One judge took .05 off and one judge turned a blind eye scoring the performance a 10.0.

Don't get me wrong, Oklahoma is a great team, but they are not the unbeatable team 198.6750 indicates. To knock off the Sooners this season, a team will have to be hitting on all cylinders and get some help from the Sooners. Oklahoma can still improve on vault which was their lesser performance event.

If anyone wants to score Oklahoma like I did, I'd be very interested in the result.

 

Leanne Wong = SEC Gymnast of the Week
Anya Pilgrim = SEC Freshman of the Week

Leanne Wong & Anya Pilgrim Claim SEC Weekly Gymnastics Honors - Florida Gators

Leanne won her first gymnast of the week award in 2024 junior season and has now earned 4 gymnasts of the week awards.

Anya won her 3rd consecutive freshman of the week awards and her 4th in her freshman campaign. No freshman in the SEC is doing it better.

 

Rules for regional seeding along with the 4 regional hosts:

For placement, teams ranked Nos. 1/8/9/16 are seeded into one regional, Nos. 2/7/10/15 are in another, Nos. 3/6/11/14 in the third and Nos. 4/5/12/13 in the final regional. If there are host conflicts based on how teams finish the regular season, “the lowest seeded host in the group will be exchanged with a non-host that holds a spot not greater or less than two seeded positions (and preferably one position) when possible,” according to NCAA postseason rules. However, in 2019, Oregon State had to be shifted three positions due to conflicts in the first two adjusted scenarios. Teams outside the top 16 are placed geographically where possible.

Arkansas
California
Florida
Michigan

I was going to see how the regionals would stack out through the top 16 teams using the Week 8 NQS, but it got a bit confusing to me. If someone wants to give it a go, plug in the top 16 NQS from Road to Nationals using these rules.

Standings (roadtonationals.com)

If regionals were this weekend, there would have to be several changes.