Welcome to The Gymternet’s coverage for week two of the 2016 NCAA gymnastics season!

This week kicks off tonight with two meets, including No. 1 LSU competing alongside No. 23 NC State at the Lady Luck Invitational. LSU is coming off of a tight win against Oklahoma last weekend, where the two squads battled it out neck-and-neck, though the Tigers proved to be unstoppable on floor, counting four scores in the 9.9 range. This week will be a relatively easy win, though with the top spot in the rankings, I see them wanting to maintain that status and not holding back even a little.

Tomorrow is a super busy night with tons of big SEC match-ups, but I think the most exciting meet should be between No. 3 Florida and No. 5 UCLA. Both programs are insanely attractive to elite recruits, and the night will be a sort of reunion for many former U.S. national team gymnasts, including Katelyn Ohashi, Sophina DeJesus, Hallie Mossett, Bridget Sloan, Grace McLaughlin, Kennedy Baker, Peyton Ernst, Ericha Fassbender, Bridgey Caquatto, and technically Jordyn Wieber as well. The Gators come in as the higher-scoring program in week one, but UCLA more than beat them in terms of energy and heart. Still, I always give the edge to Florida at home no matter how well the Bruins do, though hopefully we should get some really close rotations along the way.

Also on Friday are No. 4 Oklahoma hosting No. 11 Cal and No. 51 Texas Woman’s, No. 6 Alabama hosting No. 14 Missouri, No. 7 Utah competing at No. 30 Southern Utah, No. 7 Auburn hosting No. 21 Kentucky, No. 12 Oregon State in a five-squad showdown at No. 46 Lindenwood, and No. 15 Georgia traveling to No. 16 Arkansas. Of these, there’s no major drama and the higher-ranked teams should all be able to pull off the win, though if Georgia has to count falls, I could definitely see the Razorbacks upsetting them at home.

On Saturday, the fired-up No. 1 Michigan hosts No. 28 Ohio State, and while this meet won’t really be a fair battle between the rival athletic programs with Michigan miles ahead of their competition, it will be interesting to see if the Wolverines can hold onto their ranking after an excellent start to the season.

There are a couple of other Big 10 rivalries happening as well, with No. 23 Minnesota up against No. 25 Maryland and then No. 29 Penn State against No. 31 Nebraska, both of which should be very close battles. The Big 10 will also see No. 19 Illinois travel to No. 40 Rutgers, though the Illini should have that locked down pretty easily, even on the road.

The newly-championed No. 7 George Washington hosts their annual Lindsey Ferris Invitational on Sunday afternoon, always a great meet, with competition from No. 45 North Carolina, No. 56 Temple, and the currently unranked ivy league Cornell and Penn squads. GWU will run away with this one, but tune in to catch some early glances of an up-and-coming program in its early days.

Sunday will also see several top teams competing for a second time in the weekend, with No. 4 Oklahoma traveling to No. 16 Arkansas and No. 6 Alabama competing at No. 7 Auburn. Whenever the state Alabama and Auburn rivals get together, it’s always a really thrilling meet, but now that the programs are so closely-ranked and competing at a similar level, this is going to be a killer to watch. Auburn’s home crowds always lose their minds for their girls, and I have a feeling it’s going to be even crazier this year.

The weekend continues into early next week. I love the traditional No. 15 Georgia meets on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and they always have a good battle against No. 22 Stanford. Both programs struggled a bit in the first week, though Georgia without counting falls has a really good thing going, so I definitely see them taking this one as Stanford works through their usual early season lineup drama.

Monday will also see No. 13 Denver at No. 39 Iowa and No. 36 Washington at No. 43 Arizona State, and then on Tuesday night you’ll get a D3 match-up between Minnesota programs No. 63 Winona State and No. 68 Gustavus.

Enjoy the weekend! All times listed below are in ET and we’ll update links for live stats and streams as they become available. After a meet is over, you can find the official results here as well.

Article by Lauren Hopkins
Photo thanks to Utah State