The NCAA gymnastics season kicked off on Friday, Jan. 6th. Expect a season of upsets, surprises and most of all, great gymnastics.
If last year’s NCAA season taught us anything, it would be to expect the unexpected.
Oklahoma broke Florida’s three year winning streak when they won their second NCAA championship title. No doubt Oklahoma’s goal is to hold that coveted championship trophy in their hands yet again. For Oklahoma, Ranked # 1 in the preseason coaches’ poll, they’re the team everyone else is chasing. As they know from past experience (ahem, 2015), it’s easier to be the team chasing rather than the ones being chased. Luckily, a big strength is being able to stay focused on the present, and in competition, focusing on the things they can control (read: “details”) rather than the things they can’t (the judges, the opposing team(s), crowd, etc). This strategy has proven successful for them last season and it’s going to be their biggest asset going into 2017.
Oklahoma starts their season at home, competing against the third ranked team, the legendary Alabama. This will be a strong start to the season for both of these teams. Alabama, is a team that will want to challenge Oklahoma for the national title to earn their seventh national title and their first since 2012.
Chasing Oklahoma in the #2 pre-season ranking is LSU. LSU is hungry for that title and they could be (and will likely be) Oklahoma’s biggest competition for the national championship title. With a high caliber roster that includes Olympic Alternate Sarah Finnegan and British Olympian Ruby Harrold. They lost three seniors, Michelle Gauthier, Randi Wyrick and Jessica Savona. Luckily, the Tigers have the depth to replace the holes in the line-ups left by them. Last year, with the graduation of some of their top seniors, Myia Hambrick stepped up to the plate in the all-around to fill those empty spots. Hambrick was also one of the most consistent athletes on the team and was definitely a huge part of LSU’s success last year. Now in her junior year, she’s likely still going to be a big part of the team, especially in the all-around as she delivered consistently week after week last year and it was very apparent watching her that she enjoyed being in a leadership position and she’ll be expected to provide leadership, especially now that she is an upper classman.
Last year, the Tigers placed second at the NCAAs just over two tenths behind the Sooners. They need to focus on consistency and stay consistent all year long. Also, they’re going to need to work to peak at the right time. Like last year, LSU starts their season at home hosting # 10 ranked Georgia.
As it is the year after the Olympics, the elite ranks have flown the coop and settled at their respective schools. Basically, the freshmen elites in NCAA could be their own Olympic team. Florida and UCLA alone could easily put together a team with their combined ranks.
Florida, along with UCLA, gained a batch of Former elites in their roster, but they had their roster gutted with the graduation of three of their key players, including Bridget Sloan, Bridgette Caquatto and Bianca Dancose Giambattisto. All three were integral parts of Florida’s line-up and it goes without saying, Bridget Sloan brought Florida to a legendary status and was frankly, a legend in her own right, a two time NCAA all-around champion, a many many time All-American and certainly a big factor in why Florida won three years in a row. Sloan, Caquatto and Dancose-GIambattisto were major contributors to Florida’s bars line up.
Both Sloan and Caquatto were staples in floor and vault line ups as well. Other than the graduating seniors, Florida also lost Peyton Ernst, after she was released from her scholarship and transferred to Alabama and it was recently announced that Ericha Fassbender would not be eligible to compete this season. But, one can’t count Florida out just yet. Head coach Jenny Rowland still has key players in Kennedy Baker and Alex McMurtry and also last year’s Freshman phenom, Alicia Boren. There’s also the elite freshman squad of Amelia Hundley, Rachel Gowey, Meagan Chant and ninja level 10, Sierra Alexander. They also gained a transfer, Rachel Slocum, from Maryland, who can also help fill spots on vault and floor. All questions (okay, some of them) will be answered when they go to North Carolina State for their first meet of the season.
UCLA graduated three of their key players, Sophina DeJesus and her viral floor routine, Sadiqua Bynum and the fabulous Danisa Francis. Between the three of them, they left behind 2-3 holes in the line-up on each event. 2016 was the year Sophina went viral. That’s almost a once in a lifetime thing. While going viral may or may not happen, what is happening is the gaggle of eager freshmen willing to fill those spots at a moment’s notice. Madison Kocian world bars champion, Olympic champion (team) and bars silver medalist, basically is the obvious answer since it would practically be a crime to not have an athlete of that caliber in the bars line-up. Kyla Ross, also world medalist and Olympic team champ herself, is also a super obvious choice, provided she remains healthy. Then there’s Felicia Hano, Kyla’s Gym-Max teammate, who with her mad vault and tumbling, is a big possibility for the floor line up. Then there’s Macy Toronjo, who resurfaced training beam after an injury kept her from competing all last year. With their deep pool of talent, UCLA should expect a return to the Super Six final again anything less would be unacceptable. They’re starting their season at home competing against Arkansas.
If 2016 was the year of the underdog teams rising up. Cal had a tremendous year. They made it to NCAA’s for only the second time in their school’s history. No doubt, Cal got a boost in their scores from the devaluation of the Yurchenko full to a 9.95 that went into effect last season. Cal was the team with the most 10.0 valued vaults. Now that they’ve had a taste of glory, Cal will want more. Definitely another NCAA Champs berth, possibly a Super Six berth?
Cal likely received a big ego boost being ranked # 10 this season and it will give them a boost for their opening meet, the Nor Cal Classic, which will be hosted at home. They’ll take on # 11 Stanford, Sacramento State, San Jose State, and UC Davis. Stanford is likely going to be Cal’s biggest competition in terms of making it to NCAAs again this year. Stanford, despite a slow start to their season, pulled themselves up the rankings to make the NCAA championships. That’s what Stanford has gained a reputation for, starting off the season slow, but peaking at the exact right moment. True to form, they will expect that to happen again this year. They lost two of their top athletes, Ivana Hong and Taylor Rice, who frequently provided scores on beam and bars. They could easily fall into the trap of using Elizabeth “Ebee” Price for every top score ever.
Utah: After coming in 2nd at the 2015 NCAA championships, not making the Super Six final in 2016 was a devastating blow to Utah. No doubt, this season, they will be pissed off enough to make a Super Six comeback. Their freshman class of Olympic Alternate, MyKayla Skinner, Junior Olympics uneven bars co-champions, Kim Tessen and Missy Reinstadtler. Skinner has already shown up at Utah’s Red Rocks Preview on Dec. 9th, with big (albeit, watered down for her). She showed up with a double twisting Yurchenko on vault and a double double and a full in on floor. Utah released their line-ups for their home opener against # 7, Michigan. For her official debut, Skinner will compete in the all-around. Kim Tessen, who put up a beautiful bar routine at the RRP, is being put in the bars line-up.
Much like Utah, Michigan is on the road to redemption this season as well. After being among the top ranked NCAA teams, by the time regionals rolled around, an NCAA spot was basically a sure thing. Until everybody fell on beam. Michigan started off their year in a high note, but in the end, they didn’t hit when it mattered most.
**Week 1 schedule – per RoadtoNationals.com **
Friday, January 6
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Texas Woman’s, Utah State @ Arizona
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Kentucky @ Eastern Michigan
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Georgia @ LSU
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – UIC @ Michigan State
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Arizona State @ Iowa State (Beauty and the Beast)
7:45 ET/4:45 PT – Alabama @ Oklahoma
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Oregon State @ Auburn
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Ball State, Illinois-Champaign @ Missouri
Saturday, January 7
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Bridgeport, New Hampshire, William & Mary @ Rutgers
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – Southern Conn. @ Towson
3:00 ET/12:00 PT – Gustavus Adolphus @ UW-Oshkosh
4:00 ET/1:00 PT – Bowling Green, BYU, Temple @ Penn State
6:30 ET/3:30 PT – Ohio State @ Pittsburgh
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Arkansas @ UCLA
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Michigan @ Utah
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Denver @ Minnesota
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – George Washington, Yale @ (Little Boston Invitational)
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – Winona State @ Air Force
Sunday, January 8
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – UW-Eau Claire @ Central Michigan
1:00 ET/10:00 PT – West Virginia @ Maryland-College Park
2:00 ET/11:00 PT – Florida @ North Carolina State
2:00 ET/11:00 PT – Iowa, Lindenwood, Western Michigan @ Northern Illinois
Monday, January 9
10:00 ET/7:00 PT – Sacramento State, San Jose State, Stanford, UC Davis @ California (Nor Cal Classic)
Pre- Season Coaches Poll Rankings Dec. 11, 2016
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Oklahoma
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LSU
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Alabama
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UCLA
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Florida
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Utah
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Michigan
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Auburn
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Georgia
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California
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Stanford
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Nebraska
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Oregon State
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Denver
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Boise State
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Minnesota
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Arkansas
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Arizona
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Missouri
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Washington
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Kentucky
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Iowa
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Penn State
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Illinois-Champaign
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George Washington
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Southern Utah
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Ohio State
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Michigan State
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West Virginia
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Utah State
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Central Michigan
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Kent State
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North Carolina State
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Eastern Michigan
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New Hampshire
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BYU
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Article: Maria Layton
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