Event Finals Live Blog

The last competition from Nationals gets underway soon. It will take forever, as it always does, so buckle in. We don't have that many vault qualifiers this year, though, because some of the best vaulters didn't make finals. When you're watching people flop out lame Yurchenko layouts, remember that we won't see Vanessa Zamarripa because the rules are stupid. If you can't do two 10.0 vaults, you shouldn't be eligible for Event Finals.

Alabama is the National Champion for the second year in a row. I really feel for Florida because they did everything right this year and didn't mentally implode at Nationals. Alabama landed their skills, and in a year when it was all about landings, that won them the title. It will take a little more time to reflect on what we saw and make some determinations, so on to Event Finals.

Watch Live

I sort of love Event Finals because the judging is often insane, but no one has much of a vested interest in the result, so we can all just laugh about it and enjoy the gymnastics.

Introductions starting now. I'm rooting for some Georgia and Oklahoma victories and for EHH to redeem herself from yesterday and win an event. Did someone just fall from the ceiling? What was that? They're having people drop from the ceiling and then carry the signs? That's just weird.

Marching to our events now. I hope we see people really go for it and pull out their big skills. DTY? Peszek's standing full? I assume the latter would be a definite.

Vault and Bars:
Courville - VT - Low chest on Yfull with a step forward, that won't do it. 9.800 is high for that. Second vault is just the layout, but stuck.

Zamarripa - UB - not quite as precise as Super Six and then the step on landing. Not her best.

Cheek - VT - good stick on the Yfull with a minorly low chest. Tucked Yfull, good for her for not doing the layout, but big steps back.

Olson - UB - nice deltchev, minor step back on the DLO dismount. Good routine, but I doubt it will stand up.

Gutierrez - VT - stuck Yfull, best so far. Layout second vault  - Alabama usually does this, but I assume Milliner will do a full later on.

Courtney - UB - surprise qualifier here, excellent dismount. She's improving so much on this event, but I agree with Suzanne that she doesn't have the appropriate level of difficulty. 9.8875, current leader.

Delaney - VT - fine Yfull with nice distance, but a hop back. Layout  with a big step back. At least we don't have a thousand vaulters doing these weak vaults.

Ding - UB - lovely first ahndstand, missed her giant full handstand, beautiful stuck DLO. That should be in first place and I hope it wins again this year. The commentators told us it was a 10, but it's not according to the scores. Still, she will win, but it would have been nice to see her finally get a 10. Sure she missed that handstand on the giant full, but who cares at this point? I would have expected to see a career 10 from all of them.

King - VT - defending champ - step back on her Tsuk 1.5, could have been better, a little uncertain on that landing. Low landing on Tsuk full. Two iffy landings, so her difficulty may not help her here. She goes in behind Gutierrez, so no repeat.

Warmups for the second group now. Hopefully we see some difficulty from Milliner and Hunter because our winner should not have a layout second vault.

Giblin - VT - very nice stick with good body position, similar to Gutierrez but maybe a bit less distance.  Tucked Yfull as second vault, hop in place. She will end up below Gutierrez.

Caquatto - UB - misses a handstand on the low bar and takes an odd step on her dismount. She almost never does that.

Ding - VT - beautiful in the air on the Yfull but had to take steps on her salute. Should have been a stick. Tuck full as well - they're being critical about people just tucking their legs to do a second vault, but I'd rather see that than the layouts. Current leader.

Shapiro - UB - her handstands have improved at Stanford because they deteriorated during elite, close on dismount but a good stick.

Dabritz - VT - big hop back on landing the Yfull, which is a shame because she really does have those two vaults. I guess she didn't. Same vault. She can do the 1.5, but didn't here.

Gerber - UB - Handstands weren't awesome, but she was lovely. Step back on the dismount. Great career. UCLA will need PPL to be their new elegant Canadian.

Milliner - VT - Starts with the full, step back with a little piking. Will probably still go ahead of Ding if she pulls out a good 1.5. Pretty good with a step back. Neither were awesome, but she'll go into first surely.

Johnson - UB - Major issue at the start. I've never seen her miss this routine. That's a shame. Ding is our winner, Shapiro 2nd, Courtney 3rd. Of the UCLA gymnasts in this, who would have thought Courtney would finish highest?

Hunter - VT - She starts with the stuck 1.5, best vault so far in the competition. Huge bounce back out of the Yfull. That could give it to Milliner. Florida looks spent.

We're not getting updates on the scores for Milliner or Hunter (or Johnson but she had an error). Ding will win bars as we wait and move to our second two events. Scoring? Could we, please? Milliner goes 9.825 to move ahead for now. Hunter is our winner with 9.8750. Nice consolation for Florida.

How about this for a vault solution? Gymnasts must show two different vaults during the season to be eligible for vault finals at Championships.


Beam and Floor:
Stone - BB - nice pass into the Korbut, two swing down skills, though. Hop forward on dismount. Suzanne mentions the crossed legs deduction on dismounts, which they never take anyway.

Ferguson - FX - good 3/1, complete. "This reminds me of a mime or something. It's so fun-loving." Oh Suzanne. Good punch out of double full. Nice routine, but I don't think it will win.

Peszek - BB - wobble on standing full, which is a shame. She can do that much better. Punch front, that's new and nice. They should consider adding that next year. She won't win with these mistakes, but this is fun to see.

Hunter - FX - good high DLO, she's performing very well and seems to be the only Gator who's in this mentally today. 9.925 is very good but not unreachable.

Grable - BB - excellent loso series, but doesn't have to difficulty to contend with this routine.

Updike - FX - huge bounce back out of a double pike mount and has to put her hands down. Huge height on her 2.5, but another fall on the punch layout.

Stack-Eaton - BB - good acro, has to hang on with her toes on the walkover, good sheep (as far as sheep jumps go), onodi is very nice, I'm glad she added it back. Sticks 1.5 dismount, and she will be the leader and be hard to beat.

Pisani - FX - let's get this girl a title. Bounce out of her half in half out, but it was minor. A little low knees in the double pike, so I think this won't be enough to pass Hunter.

Wong - BB - wobble on her two loso series, so she won't be the leader. Good popa and a stuck double full dismount.

EHH - FX - Didn't upgrade the mount, so she won't have enough difficulty, but this is excellent. Beautiful hit routine. Can we give this to her? Performance-wise it was no contest, and that should count in EFs. She goes ahead of Hunter. Could we really see a win here? I'd love that.

Priess - BB - They have been right on on this event all weekend. That was a little wonky on the Rulfova, so I don't think it should go ahead of Stack-Eaton. Good difficulty, and I'm glad they are throwing it in. Nice, but GSE was better.

Warmups now for the final routines of our season.

Ferguson - BB - this has been perfectly clean through most of the routine. Sheep is a little lacking, but good stick on the double full. Clean but may not go ahead of GSE.

Ding - FX - Good first pass with a straddle + punch, drills double pike middle pass, lovely landings on everything in this routine. Best she's done? Probably. She goes ahead of EHH, which is not appropriate, but this day is all about Kat Ding, and it's hard to argue with that. Kat Ding NCAA FX Champion?

Hong - BB - clean on her walkover + bhs loso elite series. Wobble on the side somi will take her out of it.

Dickerson - FX - perfectly stuck landings on all of her tumbling, but just something a little missing. I don't think it will go into the lead.

Pisani - BB - misses her switch split in both position and wobbling, otherwise a clean, strong routine.

Jones - FX - Efficient tumbling, nice split positions, this is an overlooked routine that is pretty nice. I hadn't seen it for a while. Kathy is making it clear she thinks EHH should be ahead of Ding.

Matusik - BB - Well done to her for making finals, just a few too many deductions in this routine. Gainer 1.5 dismount.

Zamarripa - FX - She's getting a bit better as a performer, but this routine is not up to event final calibre.

EHH - BB - Just off on her side aerial + loso series, didn't fall but had enough of a wobble that she will not win a title. Not her best routine.

GSE - FX - Good dbl Arabian as always, great double pike to end. This could challenge Ding.

Spinner - BB - Finishing up the competition for us on beam, she's been consistently 9.9, but the lack of stick means she won't do that today.

DeZiel - FX - Last on floor, good pike full but I'd like to see her land a little more legs together. Good clean routine, but I don't think it will be the leader.

Titles:
Vault - Kytra Hunter
Bars - Kat Ding
Beam - Geralen Stack-Eaton
Floor - Kat Ding

The only result you can really argue with is floor. Ding? I don't see it, but a fun competition with some nice beam upgrades that made that final the most interesting.