Did We Win? — NCAA Week 5

The Nail-Biters

Michigan State (197.525)
defeated
Michigan (197.425)

Battle Michigan delivered. You wanted a close meet? We got it. You wanted scoring drama? I give you these two identical 9.850 vaults.

(Psst: My feeling is that Ranger should get the scoring benefit of superior height, distance, and body position, but 9.850 is also way too much given the size of that lunge.)

The hackles were raised! The stage was set! Overall, Michigan State was still rewarded for the existence of Sage Kellerman (9.975 vault, 9.925 bars) with a .250 lead after the first two events.

In the second half of the meet, the tables turned and Michigan was the stronger side. But despite a solid third-rotation beam score of 49.425, Michigan’s beam still felt like a slight missed opportunity because the judges looked willing to go all the way. Jahzara Ranger took a .100 step on dismount and scored 9.875. Kayli Boozer had a wobble-step forward on the beam and scored 9.900. It could have been a turning point, but instead Michigan lost more ground to the cupcake party happening over on floor, and MSU owned a .300 lead heading to the final rotation.

Then, it was a matter of waiting and watching to see if Michigan’s own cupcake party on floor would be enough to pass Michigan State squeezing for dear life on beam. In the end, Michigan State did just enough staying on beam that Michigan would have needed 10.0s from both Carly Bauman and Jahzara Ranger in the last two spots on floor to force a tie. It almost happened (9.975 and 9.925), but in the end Michigan State scraped through.

Utah State (195.350)
defeated
Boise State (195.250)
Air Force (194.225)
Sacramento State (193.425)

The Mountain West and Mountain Pacific teams are continuing to deliver the best pure sport in college gymnastics. There’s barely a tenth in it every week.

This time, Boise Sate invited everyone over to their…potato igloo? (I don’t know anything about Idaho) and was being a consummate host for two rotations, making all the guests feel welcome with solid scores while also reminding everyone whose roof they’re under. Boise State had the lead after two events, but Utah State and Air Force were both within a tenth.

The result, however, hinged on rotation three when Utah State smashed out a 49.300 on floor, counting nothing lower than 9.850. Despite finishing the meet with their own floor opportunity, Boise State was not going to be able to keep up with 49.300. Blake Pascal would have needed 9.975 from her final floor routine to tie the meet, a mark no Boise State gymnast has ever scored on floor, where the program record of 9.950 is co-held by 17 different people.

Air Force, meanwhile, fell out of things at the end by counting a miss on bars, though Maggie Slife remained the actual star of the show, winning the all-around and also every event title. Her 39.475 AA is the second-highest in Air Force history (behind only herself), and her 9.950 on bars ties for the program record with herself and Anna Salamone.

Southern Connecticut (193.000)
defeated
Brown (192.875)

Southern Connecticut visited Brown for a warm mug of upset. Caveat: this was one of those meets where they also invite boys to wrestle with each other while the rest of us get work done, so it was almost impossible to tell what was going on at any given moment. But apparently Southern Connecticut was able to amass a lead in the first half of the meet, mostly through hitting and start value, and never let it go.

Critically, Brown was without Umi El Mammann’s anchor vault, which meant they had to count a Yurchenko layout (9.75 start) in the first rotation. Then came the bars falls, when Emily Ford found that one of her hands went for a spa weekend on a Jaeger and then Sophia Dewar missed a Gienger. That meant Southern Connecticut had a lead of more than a point at halfway, which only grew after floor, when Abby Royer continued her streak of only scoring 9.950s (one judge went 10) to rank second nationally. At that point, SCSU had enough of a buffer that a kickover front apocalypse in the first two beam routines did not spoil the upset.

Just barely. A 9.825 from Lindsey Yang in Brown’s anchor floor spot would have won the meet (a score she has surpassed each of the previous two weeks), but she had to tuck her intended layout out of a back 1.5 to get it to her feet, which also meant a UTL deduction for not having .2 bonus in the second pass of her two-pass routine.

Stanford (196.975)
defeated
Cal (196.825)

With a margin of .150 between the two teams, Battle Bay lost the closeness contest to Battle Michigan’s single-tenth margin and should feel deeply ashamed about that. Not good enough.

It actually seemed like Cal had given this one way early. Beginning on its best event (bars) while Stanford was on its worst event (vault), Cal would have expected a hefty lead after the first. But this week, Stanford figured out how to get two hands on the vault table for everyone and ended up trailing Cal by only .050 with the good events still to come.

But then Stanford counted a fall on beam. Gasp and shock. It started when Levi Jung-Ruivivar got wolf turnt in the second position, and then Ana Barbosu fell on a punch front and still scored 9.400, and suddenly Cal had an .025 lead going to the last rotation. Charitably, Jennifer Williams appeared in exhibition for Stanford after those errors and also fell on an aerial to make everyone feel better.

The result was still in flux until the middle of the final rotation when Cal started getting too 9.7ed on beam. Tonya Paulsson had to redo her acro series after an aerial wobble and Miki Aderinto also got full turnt (regular type), which meant Stanford just had to stay 9.8y through a floor, which was comfortably doable for a massive, huge .150 margin of victory.

LSU (197.675)
defeated
Missouri (197.500)

Missouri says the motto this season is GUAC.

I think it’s actually SALSA (Shady-Ass Losses to Southern Adversaries).

After coming a couple tenths shy of beating Alabama last week, Missouri was at it again, this time against LSU. LSU won each of the first three rotations by a slim margin, but all I could see, remember, or know was Konnor McClain sticking a dismount with actual, real-life toe point and then sighing her way through a post-stick balance check and demonstration of the not holding finish position deduction.

With a .325 lead heading to the final event, LSU really just needed a normal stay-on beam rotation and Missouri wasn’t going to be able to pass, even with a big finish on floor.

And that’s exactly when things got dicey (well, more dicey) and we officially broke Alex Perlman. Good fight, but he was always going to come off eventually. When Coen wobbled and had to redo her acro series for 9.850 and then Drayton checked her way through a 9.925, we lost him, and that was even before Lincoln bent at the hips past horizontal on a full turn and McClain grabbed the beam and took a step on dismount en route to LSU’s 49.325 rotation score with no mistakes at all.

All of that did force Kailin Chio to hit a good one in LSU’s anchor spot to get rid of the 9.550 and seal the victory. Which she did. With a 9.975. Really an under-performance after last week’s 10.

Minnesota (197.050)
defeated
Iowa (196.775)

Minnesota doesn’t mess with road meets. Minnesota has two 197s at home and only 195s on the road so far this season and, returning home this week, sneaked out a victory against Iowa in a somewhat rare meet that did not hinge on any mistakes. At least, not big ones.

Both teams hit 24-for-24 counting routines with no score lower than 9.700. It was one of those meets where everyone did pretty well, and this is simply how the hierarchy shook out. Mostly, it came down to a couple missed opportunities in anchor spots for Iowa. On floor, JerQuavia Henderson had a couple slightly off landings that the judges decided to see for what was the drop score of the rotation instead of the best one, and then Sophie Schriever had a missed connection on beam that one judge decided to see for another 9.775, and that was all it took.

NC State (195.875)
defeated
Pitt (195.525)

Pitt took a .375 lead after two events, and it looked like they might have this one, especially up against an NC State vault rotation that deeply, deeply felt the absence of Ashley Knight.

But as they often do, things turned on beam. For Pitt, Olivia Giunta got start-valued after adjusting her foot between her straddle jump and stag ring for a 9.8 start, and then her score had to count after a Mali Morgan 2-fall routine in the subsequent position. NC State, meanwhile, was able to limit the mistakes after low leadoff scores on both of the final two events to overcome the deficit and take this one.

San Jose State (195.900)
defeated
Southern Utah (195.525)
Texas Woman’s (194.875)

Fulfilling the destiny of the Mountain West and Mountain Pacific teams, San Jose and Southern Utah also delivered one of the closest contests of the week. The broadcast of this one appears to be missing, but Southern Utah led a close one right up until the final three routines. SUU finished on beam and started solidly but then ended with a 9.675, a 9.625, and a 9.200 to slip behind San Jose State and their three 9.8+ floor scores.

That Was Kind of Close

Maryland (196.275)
defeated
Illinois (195.725)

Oh, Leaps, Huh: Though Maryland led throughout, Illinois had a chance to take it with a big final rotation on floor, but once Ava Banks got stuck in a leap tornado on her attempted combination, coming after a judge conference about Olivia Coppola’s routine, the meet was Maryland’s.

Ohio State (196.625)
defeated
Nebraska (196.025)

Beam Legit Or Don’t Beam At All: With less than three tenths separating the teams going to the final rotation, Ohio State needed a solid beam to keep the lead. Ava Jackson hitting a real, actual tour jete position and Courtney McCann hitting a real, actual 2-foot layout gave Ohio State’s beam team not just a hit but a meet-best 49.425.

Clemson (197.025)
defeated
North Carolina (196.375)

Transfer Power: Ella Cesario scored the 3rd-highest AA ever for Clemson to help the team to their 3rd-highest overall score ever (and highest since season one) as Brie Clark’s floor 9.950 also tied the Clemson record for the 4th time.

New Hampshire (195.700)
defeated
Yale (194.975)
Towson (194.925)

Don’t Fall, And Other Helpful Advice: Towson dropped out of contention early after counting a bars fall in the first rotation, while New Hampshire finished the meet with season highs on both beam and floor.

West Virginia (195.875)
defeated
Kent State (195.100)
Pitt (194.775)
Cornell (193.275)

Weather The Storm: After starting the year with a sub-50% hit rate on beam and nothing better than a 47.650 in the first month, West Virginia stayed on the beam for eight whole routines including two exhibitions.

A Clear Victor

BYU (196.300) d. Arizona (195.250)

Arizona counted five scores under 9.7 to go sub-49 on vault, beam, and floor.

Oklahoma (197.550) d. Kentucky (196.475)

Kentucky stayed on for six entire beam routines for the first hit meet and first 196 of the season.

Brockport (188.250) d. Ursinus (187.175)

Brockport gained back 1.550 in the final rotation on floor to avoid the upset after a first-rotation bars-pocalypse

Winona State (188.500) d. Simpson (187.425)

Simpson set records. A bunch. Team vault 48.275. Evalyn Resnick beam 9.775. Liz Sisler bars (tie) 9.625. Emmie Barton #2 all-around 37.525.

Ball State (195.675), d. Oshkosh (194.525), SEMO (194.500), Illinois State (194.025)

Oshkosh beat two DI teams with the 2nd highest score in team history. Hannah Hughes entered a 6-way tie for the team beam record with her 9.825.

Western Michigan (195.500) d. Bowling Green (194.275), Eau Claire (189.325), Greenville (185.225)

Score another one for DIII. This is Eau Claire’s 5th-best team score ever, and Greenville’s Amara Nelson scored the 3rd-best AA in team history with 38.375 and came up a quarter tenth shy of her own beam record.

LIU (192.375) d. George Washington (191.000)

Four falls saddled George Washington with its lowest bars score in 16 years in an upset loss to LIU.

It’s a Blowout

Georgia (197.550) d. Auburn (196.050)

Utah (196.450) d. Arizona State (194.925)

Texas Woman’s (193.450) d. UC Davis (191.925)

Alabama (197.450) d. Oregon State (195.825)

Ithaca (189.675) d. Rhode Island (187.900),Springfield (186.800)

Northern Illinois (193.100) d. La Crosse (191.400)

Georgia (197.675) d. Central Michigan (195.900), Temple (192.200). Fisk (188.775)

Penn State (196.375) d. Rutgers (194.575)

Florida (198.050) d. Arkansas (195.975)

UCLA (198.150) d. Washington (195.775)

West Chester (192.650) d. Cortland (189.225)

Denver (196.525) d. Iowa State (192.550)

Penn (194.900) d. Bridgeport (190.500)

Stout (187.150) d. Hamline (181.350)

Whitewater (191.875) d. Gustavus Adolphus (183.950)

Eastern Michigan (191.575) d. Wilberforce (155.025)