MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

It's Tuesday, March 15 and, if you're familiar with Shakespeare, you may recall that it is the Ides of March. Beware the Ides of March!  It's also time for Power Rankings. As per usual, these aren't the official Road to Nationals rankings, rather they are stories and people that have caught my attention throughout the week, whether it be note-worthy events or a reaction to something. Last week's Power Rankings were # 1 The Rankings Shakeups # 2 Greg Mardsen throwing shade at SEC scoring during the Georgia, Stanford & UCLA tri-meet # 3 Will the real Stanford please stand-up? # 4 Lindsay Mable # 5 Beam Fails # 6 Jessie Peszek Without further adieu, I present this weeks rankings:

More Pac-12 fun right here with UCLA facing off at California. Last year, Cal beat UCLA at their home turf. How will the Bruins fare in Berkley? Refresh the page every 5-10 minutes for updates!

NCAA season - so much gymnastics so little time, that's going to be my NCAA motto for the rest of the season, because this is LITERALLY the case. Not figuratively, literally. Meets all being held pretty much at the same time makes it hard to catch everything, especially when fighting against my television provider, but that's another story.  I wrote a full week one  recap for the Couch Gymnast, so today, I'm recapping the Alabama at UCLA meet, which thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I was able to catch up on.

From Oklahoma to UCLA to Cal - the NCAA could practically have an entire team represented at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. From one Ms. Brenna Dowell to the fabulous Danusia Francis.  Oh she is glorious, and her gloriousness is representing Jamaica at these worlds, along with Cal's, Toni-Ann Williams, who is just as fabulous and awesome.

The day has finally come. That day, is the day that Danusia Francis scored a perfect 10 on the balance beam.

The arrival of the new year means the arrival of NCAA season. NCAA season, that glorious time of year before the world cup events, Euros and Worlds. It's seriously better than Christmas time.

So as you are aware, the amazing side aerial that Danusia Francis does on the balance beam has been named in the FIG Code of Points for Spain's Silvia Colussi Peleaz. Whatever, I still think Danusia should charge Silvia royalties for that skill. A training video surfaced of Danusia training her copy right skill to a full twisting dismount from the side of the beam that is beautiful and amazing. Danusia is gorgeous on the beam and that side aerial is perfection and her full twist dismount off the side of the beam? Gorgeous! She may just need to copyright all of that. Post by UCLA Gymnastics .

This edition of Favorite Routines is featuring Great Brtiain's Danusia Francis on the floor exercise. Danusia was an alternate on the 2012 Olympic Team for Great Britain,  States-side, Danusia has been studying at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA)

UCLA Bruin Danusia Francis is known through out the NCAA for her sideways aerial on the beam. In this lovely gif she is seen training the aerial over the pit. It is amazing. Danusia looks like she's about 5'8' with her beautiful extension.  In the NCAA, which uses the Junior Olympic code, which is level ten, this skill is rated an E. In the FIG Women's Code Of Points, this is the same as your regular run of the mill aerial cartwheel on the beam,  a D.  Lame. Who do I need to write to get that changed?

Day One of the Gymnastics competition at the Universiade Games was yet another success for the Russian team. Coming out with a gold medal in the team competition and putting gymnasts in all four event finals for the women's gymnastics. After a competition of clean routines and high difficulty, Russia took the gold with 175.5, ahead of Japan who scored a total of 165. Japan's girls had beautiful, clean routines but they were nowhere near enough to match the difficulty of Russia. Coming in third was Germany who finished with a 162.05 total. Impressive since they were not billed among the top four teams who competed in the final subdivision. Princess of the Russian Gymnastics team, Aliya Mustafina came out qualifying in the top spot for the all-around final and the uneven bars final. Aliya had the highest score on the uneven bars with a 15 even. Not bad for a girl who's just gotten over the flu. additionally, she qualified for the beam final with 15.2 and floor finals ...