Did We Win? — NCAA Week 2

Oklahoma (197.500)
defeated
LSU (197.500)
UCLA (197.000)
Utah (195.900)

The closest result of the week came from the first session of the Sprouts Quad, in which Oklahoma and LSU both (eventually) finished on 197.500. But not before we were treated to the best of all sporting drama: a lengthy score delay in order to figure out that everyone is actually the same and tied. With a side game of Bad Lip Reading between Jay Clark and the meet referee.

Leading by a half tenth with one score still to resolve, Oklahoma seemed to have the win sealed since Konnor McClain’s gale-force switch 1/2 on beam was never going to score high enough to count for LSU. But just then (gasp! bated breath!), Lexi Zeiss’s beam from earlier in the rotation got its third new score of the day. It was initially entered in as a 9.775, then a 9.800, and then became a 9.850 after SV inquiry (the double wolf turn and gainer tuck 1/1 are both one tenth higher in NCAA than in L10, which is how it’s a 10.0 SV). That .05 increase to 9.850 was exactly enough to seal the tie.

But also it wasn’t a tie. The meet had some rando trophy to give out (there’s a special middle part and it spinnnsssss), so we had to use postseason tiebreak rules and Oklahoma won because LSU dropped two falls. No trophy for you! No middle part that spins!

UCLA finished third with 197.000, mostly on account of a couple shakier beams and having two Yfulls—the only non-10 vaults we saw. Utah, meanwhile, opened the meet by going river rafting on beam for three straight falls in spots 2-3-4, and there was no coming back from that, even after Avery Neff scored the season’s first 10.000 on vault.

Minnesota (196.775)
defeated
Arkansas (196.700)

While most of the college gymnastics world was deciphering Jay Clark’s pointing intentions like they were the Rosetta Stone, Minnesota and Arkansas delivered a tight affair of their own.

Arkansas jumped out to a .250 lead in the first half of the meet, thanks in no small part to the stuck Y1.5 vault debut from Allison Cucci, But Minnesota pulled it back in rotation three, resolving last weekend’s beam screams and reasserting that beam is by far their best event. Three 9.9s from Minnesota leveled the meet as Josc Roberson finished Arkansas’s floor with a chest-down double tuck that scored 9.825. Or as it is more commonly known, an SEC Zero.

At that point, it was advantage Minnesota going to floor, and even a last-gasp 9.950 from Roberson on beam while Gerdes nearly face-planted her double pike on floor couldn’t save the competition for Arkansas.

San Jose State (195.175)
defeated
Arizona State (195.100)
UC Davis (193.250)

From the Committee to Establish Upsets comes this submission: San Jose State, which finished last season ranked 49th and miles out of regionals, went to Tempe and defeated Arizona State and UC Davis, both of whom advanced to regionals last year in the top 36.

Arizona State would have expected to win, but their primary nemesis was falls on the first two bars routines, which turned this into a meet instead of a runaway. Still, San Jose led ASU by only .025 heading to the final rotation, when Arizona State was on floor and San Jose on vault. So Arizona State still would have been favored. That was, until Mikaela Pitts of San Jose scored 9.925 for her huge handspring pike 1/2 with a step back—the kind of thing that usually only happens to home teams with single-digit rankings. That put San Jose out of reach with a meet-best 49.125 vault.

UC Davis had a real time of it on bars as well for a 47 and wasn’t ever really in contention for the win, But does have a Stick Gigantic Hat. Which is just as important.

Denver (196.575)
defeated
Stanford (196.475)

The weekend’s other within-a-tenth result belonged to the tightly matched affair between Denver and Stanford, one that was in limbo right until the final routine. Going to the anchor spot for each team in the last rotation, Stanford had a one-tenth lead, but Ui Soma got trapped a double wolf tornado on beam, while Cecilia Cooley scored the nation’s first floor 9.975 of the season to drop the 9.775 from Amanda Hargraves and allow Denver to leapfrog Stanford by a tenth.

In important elite college debut news, Levi Jung-Ruivivar competed bars, beam, and floor—winning bars from the leadoff position—and Ana Barbosu took the all-around title with this dramatic choreographic interlude (and also maybe some scores).

Now we need the commentators to play along. “Floor is really a place to show off your personality” *stab* *stab* *stab*

Oshkosh (191.950)
defeated
Whitewater (191.775)

Oshkosh nearly let this one slip away with three misses on beam, but a 48.700 on floor in the final rotation clinched a victory, ending up less than two tenths behind last week’s total even with the beam issues. It did, however, mean Oshkosh slipped just behind La Crosse in the DIII rankings after La Crosse also got a season-opening 192. Despite the loss, Whitewater still sits #3 among DIII teams, one of four to have hit the 191 mark thus far.

Texas Woman’s (195.575)
defeated
Pitt (195.325)

Pitt owned a lead of .350 heading to the final rotation against host TWU, which is typically a misleading position for road teams since they still have to go to beam while the hosts go to floor. But if there was ever a reason to expect tradition to be upended, it was this meet. Texas Woman’s was putting up just the minimum five gymnasts on floor, while Pitt has extremely high potential in its “the continental 48 are dumbbbbb”-themed beam lineup with two Englands, one Wales, one Alaska, and one Hawaii (and one Norway in exhibition).

But no. TWU came through with a big final floor rotation to flip the result, hitting all five routines for 9.750+ as Pitt counted a 9.3 on beam, clinching the win with one routine to go.

Ursinus (186.200)
defeated
Cortland (185.850)

We had an upset in DIII land in week 2 as the hosts Ursinus took down a Cortland team that finished two whole points ahead of Ursinus in the rankings last season. Even though Ursinus trailed by over a point heading to the final rotation, Ursinus senior Sidney Schreiber hit a front 2/1, rudi + loso, and a top-10 quality tour jete 1/2 + split jump full to score 9.850 and seal the win, coming just .025 short of the program floor record.

But they did set a new coordinated floor swimming record.

Rutgers (194.975)
defeated
Ball State (194.275)
Western Michigan (193.025)

Rutgers got the win in this one, though it will be somewhat less satisfying than last week’s opening 195 because of a counting fall on beam bringing the total down into the 194s. Still, Rutgers was never really in danger of losing this one because all three of the teams had a similar tale to tell. It was more about which team’s hits were best able to overcome the bad one, and that was Rutgers.

Ball State had to count a bars miss in the 8s, which undermined some of the possibilities coming from Szymanski’s 9.900 on bars and Middleton’s 9.900 on beam. (We’ll always have that 198 from 2024.) Western Michigan also suffered a dip compared to last week’s 194, having to count a beam miss in the 8s as well as a 9.4 on floor.

Georgia (197.000)
defeated
Ohio State (196.250)

Georgia did the job for an opening 197, successfully exorcising the beam demons from last season’s debut by hitting 6-for-6 this time with three 9.925s.

Overall, Georgia recorded seven scores of 9.9+ and would have been sitting in 4th or 5th in the rankings this week if not for a stretch on vault where Avery Moll under-rotated her Y1.5, coming right after Jaydah Battle fully catapulted herself over the castle walls and out of frame.

That sub-49 vault rotation from Georgia kept Ohio State right in contention at the halfway point, but beam proved the clincher as a couple counting 9.7s for Ohio State weren’t able to keep pace with those 9.925s from Georgia.

Arizona (195.425)
defeated
Washington (194.650)

Washington’s hopes to build on a competitive mid-195 from week one were dashed in week two by a chronic case of the 9.6s. Washington didn’t have to count any falls but counted seven scores in the 9.6s and another eight in the 9.7s to drop into the 194 zone and fall behind Arizona by nearly eight tenths.

Arizona, meanwhile, is in the classic January position in college gymnastics of having won the meet (yay!) but having done so with a score that’s not really the level they’re looking for to build up a competitive ranking (less yay!) That is, save for floor, where Arizona finished with a strong 49.250 featuring four scores over 9.850, including two in the 9.9s and one in the room where it happened.

Michigan (197.225)
defeated
Cal (196.350)
Michigan State (196.225)
Kentucky (194.925)

Michigan is one of the few college teams that will truly, honestly, not-just-faking-it be happy with the first competition of the season, winning the second session of the Sprouts Quad with a 197.225. That would have been Michigan’s second-highest score in all of 2025.

The competition ended up allllmost verging into blowout territory but didn’t look like that until the very end, when Michigan zoomed ahead by putting up a casual beam 49.650, a program record. Which is weird because Natalie Wojcik graduated like three years ago. So how can you set a program beam record?

Cal was right in this thing through three events, improving on the opening week score by a few tenths with another lovely bars rotation, while pre-meet favorite Michigan State survived a meet peppered with odd mistakes, like Sage Kellerman missing her vault and Nikki Smith having a case of popsicle fingers on bars. And those are things that don’t happen.

For the most part, it was oopsies on beam in the first rotation that characterized Kentucky’s performance, but can Cadence Gormley’s save really be called an oopsie?

Alabama (197.475)
defeated
Clemson (196.550)

Alabama took an early lead and did not relinquish it, recording the team’s best opening-meet score in history. As in, all of history. Ever. Which is a surprising and non-small feat because of…you know…Alabama. Azaraya Ra-Akbar is the real deal and started her college career with a 9.975 on bars, which is the headline, but Chloe LaCoursiere having her first ever multi-9.9 meet is the subtitle because real, reliable hits from her also elevate the execution quality of the lineups.

Clemson doesn’t have the full complement of routines to keep up with a hit competition from a team like Alabama but did improve on week one with a 196.550 that shows room to grow given a sturdier beam performance.

Not Too Close

Eastern Michigan (192.925) d. Bowling Green (191.900)

Eastern Michigan survived two 47 rotations to take the win despite their lowest score since 2023

Florida (197.725) d. North Carolina (196.675), Temple (193.875), West Virginia (193.450)

–Florida defeated the country
–Kayla DiCello returned from Leg Prison to do VT, UB, BB
–Sydney Seabrooks defeated Florida on floor with 9.950
–West Virginia invented the accidental hitch kick combo

Auburn (197.150) d. NC State (196.075)

Paige Zancan tied for the national vault lead with 9.975 for her FHS handspring pike as Auburn cruised on vault and floor

Iowa (196.000) d. Illinois (194.925), Iowa State (193.425), Illinois State (191.900)

Iowa stayed on beam for five routines and improved over a point on week one’s result

BYU (195.675) d. Oregon State (194.525)

Oregon State suffered the rare counting fall on vault for a 47.900 and a loss

Maryland (195.700) d. New Hampshire (194.500), George Washington (193.200), LIU (190.400)

–Transfer Aine Reade made her Maryland debut, doing the AA against her former team New Hampshire
–Danish elite Camille Rasmussen made her much-anticipated college debut, competed bars and beam for LIU

Southern Utah (195.675) d. Boise State (194.300)

Boise State counted a 9.4 and 9.5 on floor to drop well behind familiar rivals Southern Utah

Utah (197.300) d. Utah State (195.825), BYU (195.725), Southern Utah (195.675)

Utah recovered from the three-fall beam affair on Saturday to take a comfortable Monday victory (bars said “Oops, all 9.9s!”) before a week off next week

It’s a Blowout

Greenville (185.900) d. Fisk (184.025), Centenary (182.500), Wilberforce (169.850)

Central Michigan (194.750) d. SEMO (192.800), Fisk (188.600)

Penn (194.850) d. Cornell (192.775), Bridgeport (188.700)

Brown (193.025) d. Southern Connecticut (190.725), Rhode Island (189.325), Springfield (183.425)

Penn State (196.225) d Yale (193.850)

Missouri (197.275) d. Nebraska (194.600), La Crosse (192.100), Stout (184.675)

Sacramento State (193.925) d. Alaska (190.500)

Brockport (191.200) d. Ithaca (187.600)

Eau Claire (187.300) d. Gustavus Adolphus (183.700)

Kent State (195.350) d. Northern Illinois (191.675)

Air Force (194.750) d. Winona State (190.025)

Towson (195.325) d. West Chester (187.900)

Simpson (186.600) d. Hamline (176.475)