Cutting it a little close this week! Funny how quickly the weekend approaches when you have work to do. You probably know a lot of this by now but for those who don’t pay attention, here’s what you missed. All results from this week’s meets are linked on our schedule, and you can view the full rankings as well. Hint: Oklahoma overtook the number one spot from Florida!

Georgia’s Epic Upset

Okay, nothing else in week five beats this story. Florida came in after approaching 198 the previous weekend while Georgia hasn’t been able to put together a full beam rotation all year. After two rotations the teams were only a couple tenths apart, but we all know what happens when Georgia goes to beam. Naturally, unsurprisingly, they saw falls from Vivi Babalis and Natalie Vaculik and everyone expected Florida would take the win.

But then on floor, Florida’s superstar Bridget Sloan had a big stumble, setting in motion a series of odd events, including their usual anchor Bridgey Caquatto – apparently sick with the flu – sitting out, Ashley Hiller having a rough go in her place, and then two falls from Kennedy Baker and Alicia Boren on beam. This was all Georgia needed for inspiration, and they came up with one of the best floor rotations I’ve seen this season, with nonstop hit after hit after hit bringing them half a tenth above Florida to defeat the number one-ranked program in the country.

It all seems a little too perfect, especially with a finish that close, but for real, it was magical to watch Georgia use the rage from their weak-as-usual beam performance, find their way in while watching Florida make errors of their own, and then just blow it up when it counted. Truly one of the best meets I’ve seen in a long time, and doubly exciting for Brittany Rogers, who got to say she helped the Gym Dogs kick butt (her floor was a highlight of their defeat of the Gators, by the way!) before flying up to Nova Scotia to compete all four events once again on Sunday at Elite Canada. #Boss

LSU and Michigan Back on Track

LSU and Michigan also found their grooves this week, with both teams finally breaking the 197 mark each with a 197.425. The Tigers saw Myia Hambrick stepping up to the plate with a phenomenal meet while Ashleigh Gnat continued to own it on vault and floor, and freshman Sarah Finnegan fought back from a bars fall to hit a 9.925 for her gorgeous beam.

They handily defeated Arkansas, as the Razorbacks picked up a 196.15 in what was an oddly low-scoring meet. I definitely think they were underscored pretty much everywhere, though nowhere was more apparent than Amanda Wellick, who was low-balled on all four of her events.

Michigan’s 197.425 came in a triangular meet in which they hosted Eastern Michigan (195.875) and Maryland (194.075). They’re still without senior Briley Casanova and freshman Olivia Karas had another fall, this time on bars, but that aside it was an excellent and consistent day. None of their event scores was especially strong, but they posted scores of 49.3 to 49.45 on all four showing expert balance in their lineups.

Oklahoma Nearly Gets 198…Twice.

The Sooners competed in two meets this weekend, going 197.925 at a quad meet at Texas Woman’s on Friday and then 197.9 at home against Big 12 foe West Virginia on Sunday.

Friday’s meet was extra special because Chayse Capps came in like I’ve never seen her, simply destroying everything she did and finally getting a perfect 10 for her gorgeous beam. She also got a 9.975 on floor, and her all-around score of 39.775 ties Bridget Sloan’s for the best thus far in 2016 as well as blasting through Oklahoma’s all-around record. She is pure magic and was truly on another plane that night, where all of the Sooners looked crisp and solid, especially on floor, where they looked like they were in postseason mode.

Capps was once again a standout on Sunday, going 39.625 in the all-around while notching a 9.95 on beam and a 9.925 on floor. Keeley Kmieciak, the team’s other all-arounder this year, continues to be rock solid in everything she does, McKenzie Wofford NEEDS a 10 on bars before she graduates or I’m going to cry, Ali Jackson was phenomenal with her 1.5, and the team showed a great fight to a 49.6 floor score coming back from Natalie Brown’s fall early in the rotation.

If they can compete like this at nationals, they’re the team to beat this year. For serious. There’s not a weak link in the bunch.

UCLA’s #PauleyPoints Give Bruins Edge over Utah

This was a weird one. For fun, fellow Gymternet writer Joe Rinaldi and I pretended to be judges, scoring each routine before the actual scores came up to see how off or on we’d be. We were surprised at how accurate we were for the most part, but there were some instances where we were way under for UCLA but way over for Utah.

Utah was certainly low-balled on several routines. Like, Breanna Hughes got a 9.775 for her solid work and a step back on the dismount but Sophina DeJesus – with leg separation, multiple short handstands, and her chest down on her dismount before hopping forward – got a 9.85 somehow. #PauleyPoints There was also a questionable beam from Madison Preston, I think in her debut on the event, where she had a huge wobble (that should’ve been about three tenths off on its own) in addition to multiple other issues, but one judge gave her a 9.85 somehow?! Joe and I had her at about a 9.6.

Like Georgia magically getting almost exactly what they needed to win, the same happened with UCLA over Utah, by an even tighter margin. They squeaked by just 0.025 with a 197.1 to Utah’s 197.075, not that it matters given that average scores matter more than win-loss records, but it still hurts my soul seeing judges not even overscore, but straight up ignore form issues or wobbles. UCLA did finish with some great work on floor, and I’m sure you’ve all seen her video go viral at this point, but hey, we gotta pick on someone and Florida had an off-week.

Pay Attention to Cal

Okay, so Cal came out last weekend to upset UCLA, which was awesome. They broke 196 after a shaky start to the season, shattering their previous high score this season. Good for them, right? La la la, until Monday when they posted a 196.825 like it was no big thing.

They weren’t even perfect, to be entirely honest. They started off super strong on vault, where they’re actually boasting five vaults out of a 10.0 start value, which has to be the greatest number in the country at this point. And they’re pretty diverse as well, with an FTY, a couple of Arabian Yurchenkos, a handspring front pike, tsuk full, and a Yurchenko 1.5. Such a fun rotation, and then they all hit bars and beam pretty well following that up.

But floor was where they were superb, fighting back from Desiree Palomares’ fall to put up huge scores and beautiful routines. Toni-Ann Williams went 9.95 for her powerful tumbling (her double pike was stuck nearly cold, and elite stuck!), Jessie Howe’s choreo is killer, and Zoe Draghi is the kind of performer everyone should aspire to be.

Arizona had a pretty solid meet as well, going 196 with no major errors anywhere, aside from a couple of hiccups on bars and stumbles on floor (the latter was actually funny…both Madison Cindric and Lexi Mills went stumbling backwards out of their first passes, and both times the gal assigned to pull the sting mat away happened to be kneeling right behind them, basically almost catching them with open arms). Overall, their beam – an issue earlier in the season – is becoming one of their strongest, most consistent assets, as every single one of their scores to count was either a 9.825 or 9.85. Head coach Tabitha Yim must be imparting her epic wisdom about how to scream at yourself mid-routine to stay solid.

BYU Wins the Floor Music Game

If you’re into sentimental favorites or just fun music in general, look no further than BYU. The Cougars had a great meet against Alaska, going 195.575 with solid sets from start to finish. Their floor music ranges from Sherlock Holmes in one routine to “I Want You Back” by Jackson 5 in the next and then “Sweet Child of Mine” later on. Seriously so much fun, and they’re all great performers.

I loved watching Alaska on beam as well. They’re working with former Parkette and Rutgers gymnast Alyssa Straub on this event, and she’s helped them with so many great skills and connections, including lots of gorgeous and fluid aerial work and diverse jump series as well. A couple of wobbles and missed connections meant it was their second-best event of the night, after their solid 48.525 on floor, where Simone Penker stole the show with her awesome “Sail” routine.

As always, M’rci Matsunami was a joy to watch, competing her incredible counter Kim on bars followed up by a stuck full-in. She was also the only member of the Seawolves to compete an FTY (many others have them but it’s still only the second week in the season for them so they’re not all quite ready to compete them yet), her beam was perfection, and she hit floor as well.

What We Didn’t See

It’s 2016 and somehow Stanford, sitting in the midst of the tech capital of the world, can’t even get someone with an iPhone to livestream their meets (jk, apparently they Periscoped their routines this time!). Where are you, Pac 12 Network?! So we missed their conference battle against Arizona State, where Elizabeth Price – taking a break from beam to rest – became the first gymnast to get a “perfect 9.95” on her FTY. She unfortunately had some breaks on bars, however, and the team was otherwise not at a high level on beam or floor either, though Price brought a season-high 9.925 to the table on the latter despite not originally expected to compete.

I also missed Kentucky at Alabama, a meet the Crimson Tide won 196.775 to 195.525. It was one of Kentucky’s better meets, and Sidney Dukes continues to slay, going 39.375 in the all-around, placing second. Their freshmen are incredible, and beam remains their best event. For Bama, Lauren Beers had falls on bars and beam, but her teammates rallied both times to not count either. With such a solid start on vault, they didn’t exactly follow through for the rest of the meet, but they still managed to get a solid enough score out of it.

Iowa is still on a roll, going 196.65 to upset Nebraska with a 196.35, something that hasn’t happened in nearly 20 years. Mollie Drenth killed it all day, winning the all-around with a 39.475, and they had especially gorgeous work on bars and floor. The meet ended not only with a win, but an engagement for senior bars anchor Johanny Sotillo, whose boyfriend proposed in front of the crowd! Love it.

Speaking of being on a roll, New Hampshire didn’t quite have their strongest meet in the quad they hosted on Sunday, but despite a few small errors and only fielding five athletes on floor, they brought it on beam again, coming back from Meghan Pflieger’s fall to post a 49.125, making them now the number two beam program in the country. Kelsey Aucoin and Casey Lauter continue to dominate there, with both currently in the top eight in the country, surrounded by such notables as Capps, Sloan, Danusia Francis, and Lindsay Mable. Get it. Check out our videos from that meet here (which I haven’t fully watched yet because there’s a lot, so enjoy!).

Denver also killed it again, going 196.675 at home against Utah State, where Nina McGee hit a 39.6 in the all-around after going 9.925 on bars and 9.95 on floor. They had a fabulous bars rotation and their floor in general is clean and solid, seeing Maggie Laughlin back in the lineup after being out with injury.

Article by Lauren Hopkins