Monday Rankings

We have finally, finally reached RQS land. This season just got real.

National Rankings for February 27, 2012
1. Florida – 197.195
2. Oklahoma – 197.145
3. UCLA – 197.025
4. Georgia – 196.830
5. Alabama – 196.730
6. Nebraska – 196.585
7. Utah – 196.555
8. Arkansas – 196.545
9. Oregon State – 196.250
10. LSU – 196.245
11. Penn State – 195.950
12. Stanford – 195.895
13. Missouri – 195.790
14. Ohio State – 195.760
15. Auburn – 195.515
16. Boise State – 195.405
17. Arizona – 195.390
18. Minnesota – 195.285
19. Denver – 195.270
20. NC State – 195.175
21. Illinois – 195.155
22. Arizona State – 195.145
23. Michigan – 194.795
24. West Virginia – 194.670
25. Washington – 194.525

Troester

Florida's big score over the weekend helped them erase one of their lackluster early scores and leapfrog Oklahoma in the RQS rankings. Given their talent level and their ability to hit routines the last few weeks, it's hard to argue against Florida as the top team in the nation, though UCLA certainly had a few things to say about that yesterday, recording a 198.050 for the top score of the season and their best score since 2004. All of the sudden they proved that the big five beam workers of Peszek, EHH, Zamarripa, Larson, and Gerber can make them the unexpected best beam team in the nation. Now, all they need is a convincing wig so they can introduce new walk-on freshman Vicki Tom as the 6th worker.

More thoughts:

• The descent of Utah continues after two weeks where the scores were a bigger story than the gymnastics. I still think that with their top lineups they are probably the 5th best team in the country, but they need to prove that this week against Oregon State. A loss would be disastrous. Lothrop needs to be back in the all-around, and Dabritz and Delaney need to be in as much as possible. Beers, Hansen, and Lofgren are not cutting it on bars.
• I'm not sold on Georgia as our fourth best team, especially with the descent of Shayla. If this team is relying on Noel Couch to go over 9.850, they are in trouble. Until Chelsea Davis is consistently going 9.9 on multiple events, this team is just Kat Ding and a prayer. 
• Surprising that LSU and Oregon State are so close in the rankings, but LSU has been zooming up ever since they got to forget that unpleasantness in Cancun. Both teams are in similar positions in having a couple huge events, but not enough to challenge the 197s. If these two could organize a swap, they could make at least one seriously great team. I do expect Oregon State to pick up the RQS once they drop some lower scores, though.
• Missouri at #13? I didn't see that coming. I should probably watch one of their meets some time.
• We're getting to the point in the season where rankings are solidifying. A six-tenth lead is near insurmountable at this point, especially with the way the top teams are scoring. I expect that only the top three teams have a legitimate claim on the top seed going into Regionals. Oklahoma may have a slight advantage in that they have more meets remaining than Florida or UCLA do.