Week 2 Rankings and Notes

Top 25 Rankings - (GymInfo)
1. Oklahoma - 197.188
Week 2: 196.675
Week 2 leaders: AA - Brewer 39.425; VT - Scaman, Kmieciak 9.900; UB - Spears, Scaman, Wofford 9.850; BB - Brewer 9.825; FX - Albright 9.900

The Sooners fell back to the pack rather significantly after the quick start in Week 1, this week putting together a strong vault score before seeing a Kmieciak calamity leading off on bars followed by a tepid final three events. It's the lowest team score for Oklahoma since the opening meet of last season against Georgia, but the 197.700 from last week still gives them a fairly comfortable advantage going into Week 3. 

2. LSU - 197.038
Week 2: 196.875
Week 2 leaders: AA - Courville, Jordan 39.375; VT - Morrison 9.925; UB - Courville 9.900; BB - Courville 9.875; FX - Savona 9.900

LSU also dropped off in scoring somewhat from last week, but like Oklahoma, their ranking remains intact because no other team did well enough to leap ahead of them. There were flashes of strength for the Tigers throughout this week's meet with one or two strong performances per event, but a wobbly beam and uncharacteristically insecure series of floor mounts put them under 197 and under Georgia. 

3. Florida - 196.863
Week 2: 197.075
Week 2 leaders: AA - Sloan 39.700; VT - Sloan 9.950; UB - Sloan 9.925; BB - M Caquatto 9.950; FX - Sloan, Hunter 9.900

Florida jumped a spot from last week on the strength of joining the 197 club, led primarily by Bridget Sloan's 39.700, the highest AA score in the nation so far this year and already the fifth time in her career already she has broken the 39.7 plateau, which is sufficiently ridiculous. Lots of 9.7s in the meet for Florida, but Macko and Sloan were the class of the team, as they will need to be, for no sub-9.9 scores across 7 routines.

4. Utah - 196.763
Week 2: 196.875
Week 2 leaders: AA - Wilson 39.450; VT - Wilson 9.975; UB - Dabritz, Lothrop 9.900; BB - Delaney 9.850; FX - Dabritz 9.950

Here's the thing. Utah would be #1 in the country right now if not for this counting falls business. The back three on vault are proving as formidable as they seemed, and the floor numbers have been astronomical, good enough for #2 in the nation. Next week the Utes host UCLA, and expect nothing about the scoring trend for either team to change in that meet. It's just this small matter of the beam still. Utah is the only team in the top 10 yet to break 9.850 on the event. 

5. Michigan - 196.663
Week 2: 196.800
Week 2 leaders: AA - Sampson 39.625; VT - Sheppard 9.925; UB - Sampson 9.925; BB - Sampson 9.875; FX - Sampson 9.950

Michigan quietly leapfrogged a few teams with this week's 196.800 in which Sampson recovered from a couple iffy events in the first meet to begin to deliver the 39.6s we've come to expect and help erase some of the lower scores on a couple events. Ditto the small matter of the beam, though, as has become tradition for Michigan these days. Fun fact of the week: Since the start of 2013, just two teams have scored better than 196.500 in every single meet—Florida and Michigan.    

6. Georgia - 196.608
Week 2: 197.175
Week 2 leaders: AA - Rogers 38.925; VT - Cheek, Davis 9.900; UB - Davis 9.975; BB - Cheek 9.875; FX - Jay, Reynolds 9.900

For reference, NCAA gymnastics weeks officially end on Sundays and begin on Mondays, but if today's 197.400 were included in the rankings, Georgia would have a 196.806 and would currently be in 4th. With that score, the Gym Dogs currently boast two of the top four scores recorded in the nation so far this year and have followed up a respectable run of away meets in the first weekend with a very strong run of home meets in the second. Lindsay Cheek is having quite the season so far, scoring under 9.875 just once in 12 routines. 

7. Alabama - 196.600
Week 2: 196.050
Week 2 leaders: AA - Bailey 39.150; VT - Beers 9.950; UB - Clark 9.875; BB - Sims 9.825; FX - Sims - 9.800

The Tide found itself without Diandra Milliner and without 9.8s this week in a loss to Nebraska, dropping from 3rd to 7th in the rankings. There were a number of scores we would never expect to see (like Kim Jacob going under 9.8 on both beam and floor because nothing in the world makes sense) in what turned out to be Alabama's lowest team score since a 196.000 against Kentucky on February 10th, 2012. 

8. UCLA - 196.525
Week 2: 196.425
Week 2 leaders: AA - None; VT - Sawa 9.950; UB - DeJesus 9.950; BB - Francis 9.925; FX - Sawa 9.975

The Bruins would be right up toward the top of the rankings if this were a three-event sport, but unfortunately for them, beam is a thing. The absence of Larson is really showing there, and a lack of Peszek as well this week made the rotation just one Danusia away from horrifying. UCLA was the only team this week to have at least one routine go 9.925 or better on every event (welcome to the scoring decisions from that meet) and across two meets, the Bruins have received four 10s from individual judges but have yet to get it from both judges at the same time.

9. Nebraska - 195.438
Week 2: 196.250
Week 2 leaders: AA - Wong 39.550; VT - Wong, Stephens, DeZiel 9.875; UB - Wong 9.875; BB - J Lauer 9.925; FX - Wong 9.950 

In spite of a rough bars rotation, Nebraska was able to knock off Alabama this week, which has to be a huge mental boost. Yet, they do drop several places in the rankings because of that UB 48.650 that brought down what otherwise could have been something 196.8ish. Wong has been the scoring queen, surprising no one, and she currently sits at level second in the nation with Courville, just a smidgen behind Grable. She'll be right in that hunt come Nationals. 

10. Arkansas - 196.125
Week 2: 196.050
Week 2 leaders: AA - Grable 39.525; VT - Grable 9.900; UB - Salmon 9.875; BB - Grable 9.875; FX - Grable 9.900

Speak of the Grable, here she is. She is the only member of the AA pack yet to score under 9.850 on any routine so far this year. I'm excited to see how she fares in Alabama next week. Let's see how long she can keep that up. Arkansas had a few more sub-9.8 performances this week than last week but still managed to stay above 196, which remains good enough to be part of the top 10 as most of the other contenders for this spot are taking a little longer to get their sea legs. And by sea legs I mean beam legs.

11. Illinois - 195.750
12. Stanford - 195.692
13. Minnesota - 195.600
14. Auburn - 195.550
15. Boise State - 195.500
16. Oregon State - 195.413
17. Arizona - 195.300
T18. Denver - 195.200
T18. Rutgers - 195.200
20. Kentucky - 195.000
21. Washington - 194.925
22. Kent State - 194.867
T23. Ohio State - 194.763
T23. Arizona State - 194.763
25. Cal - 194.717