2016 NCAA: 6th Week Recap

This week in NCAA gymnastics, Oklahoma dominated the top of the rankings for the second week in a row and the gap closed between Auburn and Alabama when Auburn broke a 37 year winning streak of Alabama’s.

After winning the Perfect 10 Challenge, a quad meet against Denver, George Washington and Utah State, Oklahoma is once again at the top of the rankings for the second week in a row, with a 197.675. Their closest competition at the meet was Denver, who came in second with a 196.000. Nina McGee provided the Sooners with a run for their money, winning the title on the floor exercise above Oklahoma’s strongest floor performers, including Chayse Capps, Haley Scaman and Ali Jackson. George Washington’s Camille Drouin-Allaire tied Scaman and Jackson for the second place finish on the floor with a 9.9. Jillian Winstanley, also of George Washington put up a solid 39.250 in the all-around and took second place on beam behind Oklahoma’s Chayse Capps.

For the first time since 1979, Auburn beat their SEC rival, Alabama in a home meet on Friday night. Auburn had a huge confidence boost after making the Super Six final last year for the first time in twenty some years.  Auburn had some set backs with injuries from Emma Engler and A’Mirical Phillips early in the season, but they’ve been slowly gaining steam and consistency all year. Their effort paid off on Friday. Not only with winning against Alabama for the first time in 37 years, but, they also put up a season high of 197.275, beating Alabama by only .025.

The two teams were evenly matched on every event, matching or beating the other’s event score within 0.05 – 0.1. Auburn showed stellar consistency, scoring 9.8 and above on every event. Their lowest score, a 9.175 from Taylor Krippner after a beam fall was able to be dropped. The meet came down to floor; Caitlyn Atkinson needed to score a 9.925 on floor to win the meet for Auburn. She opened her routine with a stellar tucked full in, and ended with a clean double pike and she earned the 9.925 and the win for Auburn. Atkinson also won the all-around with a personal season high of 39.650; she also matched or beat her previous season highs on all four events.

Alabama rebounded Sunday afternoon in their home meet against West Virginia, scoring 197.375 to West Virginia’s 195.250. Alabama also put up a season high on beam of 49.550, counting four scores of 9.9 and above from Aja Sims, Keely McNeer and Katie Bailey and dropping a 9.3 from Lauren Beers after a fall on her side somi. . Abby Armbrecht competed for the first time on vault, scoring a 9.825 on her Yurchenko full.  West Virginia put up solid scores on vault and floor, with Zaakira Muhammed scoring a 9.9 for her near perfect Yurchenko full, tying for first on vault with Kiana Winston. West Virginia struggled on beam with two falls from Melissa Idell and Sarah Moore. Moore crashed on her elbow during her beam series, but was able to get back up and finish her routine. However, she appeared to be in pain after finishing her routine, citing questions of possible injury.

Kentucky also put up a season high of 196.050 in their home meet win against Missouri. They also had a season high on balance beam of 49.2, freshman phenom, Sidney Dukes put up a 9.9 on beam, a career and season high for her. Missouri put up a good fight, but struggled on beam, having to count a 9.625 from Shauna Miller and a 9.575 from Tia Allbritten when Michaelee Turner fell on beam, scoring only a 9.125. However, Britney Ward of Missouri won the vault title with a stellar and unique round off half on to front pike off vault, scoring a 9.875. Kentucky also won in a quad meet at Ball State with Kent State and Lindenwood. They had a high bars total of 49.100, but didn’t have quite the beam rotation they’d had on Friday, as Dukes fell, scoring only a 9.125. Kentucky was able to absorb the score with solid beam performances from the rest of the line-up.

LSU had to shuffle their line-ups due to injuries from some of their most relied on gymnasts. At Georgia, Lexie Priessman was injured during warm-ups, causing coach DiDi Breaux to replace her in the bars line up with Randii Wyrick, who was just coming back from a thumb injury. Wyrick fell on her release skill and scored only a 9.225. She came back to contribute a solid 9.875 on floor.  Also making line-ups for the first time this season, Julianna Cannamela, who competed vault, bars and beam, contributed solid scores on all of her events. Mostly, LSU is still struggling to stay consistent on the road.  They have yet to break a season high on the road. Beam seemed to be LSU’s main point of contention, having to count Sarah Finnegan’s 9.675 with her botched triple wolf turn after the normally steady and cool Ashleigh Gnat fell on her series.  Floor treated them far better, but there were still some small issues and Sarah Finnegan put her hands down on her double pike last pass. Despite their beam snafus, lead off performers, Erin Macadaeg and Myia Hambrick put up a 9.925 and a 9.9 respectively.

Georgia was able to overtake LSU and put up another season high of 197.525.  Brittany Rogers was the star of the show. On vault, she busted out a double twisting Yurchenko and showed elite level skills on bars, with a Stalder to Ricna to Pak salto, to in bar stalder to Van Leeuwen, dismounting with a stuck double layout and beam with her full twisting back handspring and her Omelianchik. She tied for first on beam with Erin Macadaeg with a 9.925. Mary Beth Box stole the show for Georgia on floor with her clean, beautiful tumbling and her bouncy, curly ponytail, tying with Brandie Jay for the floor title.

Like LSU, UCLA was also dealing with injuries. Katelyn Ohashi is still out with a fractured sternum she endured a couple of weeks ago against Arizona. Sadly, UCLA lost Hallie Mossett when she was injured from a crash on bars in the warm ups for their home meet against Oregon State. UCLA made some substitutions from their depths and were able to go on without Mossett or Ohashi.  Danusia Francis competed the all –around for the first time in her collegiate gymnastics career. Not only that, but she won the all-around with a 39.450. Rechelle Dennis competed for the first time this season on bars in Mossett’s absence, contributing a solid 9.725. Sophina DeJesus had an uncharacteristic fall on bars when she missed her hand on her mount. Luckily, UCLA was able to drop her score and she put up a 9.975 on beam and a 9.9 on floor. DeJesus demonstrated lots of difficulty in her beam routine, including a front aerial to back pike, a full turn in back attitude and sticking her front gainer full dismount.  Making her freshman debut in style was Nicki Shapiro, younger sister of former national team member and Stanford gymnast, Samantha Shapiro. Shapiro only competed on beam, but she scored a superb 9.9 on her routine, showing confidence in her skills and poise under pressure.

Oregon State started to show a little more consistency after struggling for the first part of the season. The team broke their streak of 195’s finally, scoring a season high of 196.225 to UCLA’s 197.425. Maddie Gardiner is the stalwart all-arounder of the team, contributing an all-around score of 39.250. She was solid on vault, bars and beam with her wolf turn to splits on beam. She landed with her chest a little low on her last pass on floor.  Jamie Radermacher put up Oregon State’s best floor score with a 9.85, having just returned from her mother’s funeral (her mother passed the week before).

Stanford overtook Denver for the 12^th place ranking after their meet at Arizona, scoring 196.650 to Arizona’s 196.150.  Elizabeth “Ebee” Price took another all-around title this season scoring a high of 9.975 on bars and 9.925 on floor to her 39.650 all-around score and winning on all four events. Stanford struggled on beam; scoring 48.900 to Arizona’s clean 49.125. They had to count a 9.675 when Melissa Chaung and Rachel Daum both received the score.

For Washington, last weekend’s disaster at home was a distant memory as they posted another season high of 196.250 at Utah. Senior Allison Northey put up a season high in the all-around of 39.550, with a 9.9 on beam and a 9.925 on floor, all season highs for her.  Joslyn Goings provided some solid scores for Washington in the all-around for the third week. On beam, she showed a solid triple series of back handspring, back handspring to layout step out.

For Utah, it was a usual solid meet. Breanna Hughes won the all-around with a 39.575 and due to some shifting of line-ups, Maddy Stowe competed floor in lieu of Samantha Partyka due to a minor injury. Utah has efficiently filled the gap left behind by Kari Lee after being taken out for the rest of the season due to a torn Achilles. Partyka has stepped up to the plate in the all-around and has provided some consistency on beam.

Solidifying their place in the top ranked teams, Boise State has eked its way into the top echelon of NCAA gymnastics teams this year with stellar consistency. For the past five weeks, they have put up scores consistently in the 196.250 – 196.450 range. They currently sit in 9^th place with an average of 196.210, sandwiched between Auburn in 8^th and Georgia in 10^th.  Where this team really excels is bars. They are currently ranked 7^th on bars in the NCAA. Their top bars performer is Krystine Jacobsen who is ranked 6^th in the NCAA for bars with an average of 9.895. It’s easy to see why. Her skills are performed with beautiful amplitude and her form is top notch, legs glued together, fully extended with toes pointed, handstands right on top of the bar. She matched her season high of 9.95 at Friday’s meet against San Jose State.

As the post season draws closer and closer each week, the playing field gets more and more competitive. Consistency is now of great importance as the RQS starts factoring in. Only the top 36 ranked teams by RQS continue on to regionals and from there, the top two ranked teams from each of the six regional competitions will make it to the NCAA Championships in Fort Worth. The gaps between these top ranked teams will get narrower and narrower as the season progresses. As of right now, the difference between the 12^th and 13^th ranked teams, Denver and Stanford is only 0.017. It comes down to the smallest of details. In the coming week, we should see teams cleaning up these small details and working on perfection.

This week, Florida will be back on the road to travel to Missouri, while LSU is back in their element at home, where they will host Auburn. Michigan heads to the high desert for a tri-meet at Utah State with UC Davis on Friday. Saturday, Alabama, Cornell and Denver will head to Pennsylvania for a quad meet at Penn State. Oklahoma will hope to de Georgia at home, while Stanford will host Utah and Oregon State will host California. Sunday, Washington is back home to host UCLA and West Virginia hosts Kentucky.

Schedule week 7 –

Friday, February 19 6:30 ET/3:30 PT – Western Michigan @ Eastern Michigan 7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Florida @ Missouri 7:00 ET/4:00 PT – New Hampshire, North Carolina, William & Mary @ George Washington 7:00 ET/4:00 PT – UW-Eau Claire @ Gustavus Adolphus 7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Illinois-Champaign @ Michigan State 7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Air Force, Minnesota @ Iowa State 7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Arkansas @ Maryland-College Park 7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Hamline @ Winona State 7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Illinois State @ S.E. Missouri 7:30 ET/4:30 PT – UW-Stout @ UW-Oshkosh 8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Ball State, Seattle Pacific @ Northern Illinois 8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Centenary College @ UW-Whitewater 8:30 ET/5:30 PT – Auburn @ LSU 9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Ohio State @ Boise State 9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Utah State @ BYU 9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Michigan, UC Davis @ Southern Utah 10:00 ET/7:00 PT – San Jose State @ Sacramento State Saturday, February 20 1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Brockport State @ Cortland State 2:00 ET/11:00 PT – Texas Woman’s @ Pittsburgh 4:00 ET/1:00 PT – Alabama, Cornell, Denver @ Penn State 4:00 ET/1:00 PT – Oklahoma @ Georgia 5:00 ET/2:00 PT – California @ Oregon State 5:00 ET/2:00 PT – Towson @ Iowa 5:00 ET/2:00 PT – Utah @ Stanford 6:00 ET/3:00 PT – Pennsylvania, Temple, Ursinus College @ Rutgers Sunday, February 21 1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Bowling Green @ Kent State 1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Bridgeport, Brown, Yale @ Southern Conn. 1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Western Michigan @ Central Michigan 1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Ithaca College @ Rhode Island College 1:00 ET/10:00 PT – West Chester @ Springfield College 2:00 ET/11:00 PT – Kentucky @ West Virginia 3:00 ET/12:00 PT – Nebraska, North Carolina State @ Iowa State 4:00 ET/1:00 PT – UCLA @ Washington

Week 6 Rankings via RoadtoNationals.com:

Article by: Maria Layton

Photo cover: Brittany Rogers from here

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