It's a new season of NCAA gymnastics and that means, I'm back with my power rankings for the week.
This is not RoadtoNationals.com rankings. These rankings are determining who holds the power in NCAA gymnastics this week... or not so much.Who is winning at life and who is breaking our hearts this week.
Get the lowdown below the cut -
1. The Power Freshmen
It was a huge deal to have two Olympic gold medalists actually saving their NCAA eligibility to actually compete in the NCAA. Madison Kocian basically walked and made a statement and casually just won the all around and won beam, bars AND floor. Then the next day she went to the Golden Globes with Simone and Aly and looked FIERCE. Kyla tied with Madison for the bars title with a 9.875 and she brought back her double layout from her pre-double front experiment days.
Speaking of people winning things, Maggie Nichols won the all-around at Oklahoma's home opener against Alabama with a ridiculous 39.725 and she won bars and floor. In her first NCAA meet. No big deal. Nothing to see her, move along. Maggie is just currently THE top all-arounder in the NCAA.
Who else won? MyKayla Skinner, who had ridiculous skills including her double double and full in on floor and that's watered down from her elite floor routine. And yes, she actually has good form. That's what happens when skills aren't basically thrown into a routine to get the start value up to a million.
In Minnesota, JO All-around champion, Maddie Karr made everyone say Nina who? When she helped Denver win their first meet of the season and won the all-around with a 39.500 and she won vault and floor with a 9.925 and a 9.9 respectively.
2. The Judge at the LSU/Georgia meet who had to do everything
Due to shit-tastic winter weather, one of the vault/bars judges was stuck in airport hell at the start of the Georgia - LSU meet. As a result, one judge had to go back and forth between bars and vault for the first two rotations. The delayed judge did arrive after the first rotation, but to keep the scores consistent, the same judge had to continue judging bars and vault. When one routine would finish, she'd have to quickly run across the floor to judge the next gymnast up.
That's 48 straight routines this woman had to judge. I'm giving her props because a lot of us gym nerds give the judges as much shit as football fans give the refs shit. "What was that call?" "Dammit judges, that was not a 9.95!" There's the common "we should have robot judges!" (No, no, no, no and NO. That's a Skynet situation waiting to happen. NO AI JUDGING. NO SKYNET!!!!). Mini rant over.
3. LSU & Oklahoma - Egregious home scoring or peaking too early?
For their first meets of the year, Oklahoma and LSU received scores of 197.750 and 197.825 respectively. (Ranking them #1 -LSU, #2 Oklahoma)
Those were HUGE opening scores. Just for comparison, Florida scored a 197.100 in their first meet against NC State. Oklahoma won NCAAs with a 197.675. LSU received a 197.450.
Their 2017 opening scores, while impressive, really have me giving them the side-eye. I'm not sure whether or not this is just egregious home scoring on both their parts or if it's peaking too early. Honestly, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and go with egregious home scoring.
Yeah, we'll go with that.
4. Guys, I think we broke Georgia...
Georgia....
Oh Georgia...
193.900...
How did that happen?
Why....
They struggled through that first meet. They lost Brandie Jay, Brittany Rogers and Mary Beth Box. Those are three huge names and they brought big scores to every event. They're having to rebuild their line-ups to replace all 10 scores they lost. Plus, they were down Gracie Cherry, who was MIA and Natalie Vaculik, whom rumor has it was in a boot.
They were hovering in the high 48s for their first three rotations, but then, they went to beam. It was not pretty, not at all. In the end, they scored a paltry 47.7 on beam- counting 2 falls and a couple more big wobbles from Sabrina Vega and Ashlyn Broussard. If there is a silver lining to this disaster...
This was terrible, I'm not going to lie, but the good news is, you can only go up from here. If Georgia thinks of this as a dress rehearsal of sorts for every other meet this season. They know where there problems might be and they can improve them. They're in a good spot. Yes, they had a big flop, but it's still the beginning of the season and they can improve from here.
Positive thinking! Georgia can be fixed!
Here's a playlist compiling all the gymnastics routines I could find on YouTube in one handy dandy place.
Who else held the key to power in NCAA this week that I didn't mention? Comment below if you care to elaborate!
This is not RoadtoNationals.com rankings. These rankings are determining who holds the power in NCAA gymnastics this week... or not so much.Who is winning at life and who is breaking our hearts this week.
Get the lowdown below the cut -
1. The Power Freshmen
It was a huge deal to have two Olympic gold medalists actually saving their NCAA eligibility to actually compete in the NCAA. Madison Kocian basically walked and made a statement and casually just won the all around and won beam, bars AND floor. Then the next day she went to the Golden Globes with Simone and Aly and looked FIERCE. Kyla tied with Madison for the bars title with a 9.875 and she brought back her double layout from her pre-double front experiment days.
Speaking of people winning things, Maggie Nichols won the all-around at Oklahoma's home opener against Alabama with a ridiculous 39.725 and she won bars and floor. In her first NCAA meet. No big deal. Nothing to see her, move along. Maggie is just currently THE top all-arounder in the NCAA.
Who else won? MyKayla Skinner, who had ridiculous skills including her double double and full in on floor and that's watered down from her elite floor routine. And yes, she actually has good form. That's what happens when skills aren't basically thrown into a routine to get the start value up to a million.
In Minnesota, JO All-around champion, Maddie Karr made everyone say Nina who? When she helped Denver win their first meet of the season and won the all-around with a 39.500 and she won vault and floor with a 9.925 and a 9.9 respectively.
2. The Judge at the LSU/Georgia meet who had to do everything
Due to shit-tastic winter weather, one of the vault/bars judges was stuck in airport hell at the start of the Georgia - LSU meet. As a result, one judge had to go back and forth between bars and vault for the first two rotations. The delayed judge did arrive after the first rotation, but to keep the scores consistent, the same judge had to continue judging bars and vault. When one routine would finish, she'd have to quickly run across the floor to judge the next gymnast up.
That's 48 straight routines this woman had to judge. I'm giving her props because a lot of us gym nerds give the judges as much shit as football fans give the refs shit. "What was that call?" "Dammit judges, that was not a 9.95!" There's the common "we should have robot judges!" (No, no, no, no and NO. That's a Skynet situation waiting to happen. NO AI JUDGING. NO SKYNET!!!!). Mini rant over.
3. LSU & Oklahoma - Egregious home scoring or peaking too early?
For their first meets of the year, Oklahoma and LSU received scores of 197.750 and 197.825 respectively. (Ranking them #1 -LSU, #2 Oklahoma)
Those were HUGE opening scores. Just for comparison, Florida scored a 197.100 in their first meet against NC State. Oklahoma won NCAAs with a 197.675. LSU received a 197.450.
Their 2017 opening scores, while impressive, really have me giving them the side-eye. I'm not sure whether or not this is just egregious home scoring on both their parts or if it's peaking too early. Honestly, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and go with egregious home scoring.
Yeah, we'll go with that.
4. Guys, I think we broke Georgia...
Georgia....
Oh Georgia...
193.900...
How did that happen?
Why....
They struggled through that first meet. They lost Brandie Jay, Brittany Rogers and Mary Beth Box. Those are three huge names and they brought big scores to every event. They're having to rebuild their line-ups to replace all 10 scores they lost. Plus, they were down Gracie Cherry, who was MIA and Natalie Vaculik, whom rumor has it was in a boot.
They were hovering in the high 48s for their first three rotations, but then, they went to beam. It was not pretty, not at all. In the end, they scored a paltry 47.7 on beam- counting 2 falls and a couple more big wobbles from Sabrina Vega and Ashlyn Broussard. If there is a silver lining to this disaster...
This was terrible, I'm not going to lie, but the good news is, you can only go up from here. If Georgia thinks of this as a dress rehearsal of sorts for every other meet this season. They know where there problems might be and they can improve them. They're in a good spot. Yes, they had a big flop, but it's still the beginning of the season and they can improve from here.
Positive thinking! Georgia can be fixed!
Here's a playlist compiling all the gymnastics routines I could find on YouTube in one handy dandy place.
Who else held the key to power in NCAA this week that I didn't mention? Comment below if you care to elaborate!
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