Week 4 Rankings + Notes

That Florida gymnastics isn't marketing a shirt that says, "On Fridays, we get 10s" is ludicrous. Verging on lyyyyyudicrous. Florida's meet was the closest to a postseason-level performance we've seen so far this year (closest, but not there by any means), and now the Gators lead the rankings by a big, heaping margin this week with that 687.900 (because of Florida at home), highlighted by a "yeah, I'm down with that" 10.000 for Bridget Sloan on beam, a "squint...but also that Dos Santos" 10.000 for Kennedy Baker on floor, and a "Bahahahaha" 10.000 for Alex McMurtry on bars. At least she has a same-bar release this year.



Kathy is not OK with these piked giants. The judges are. The interesting thing is that McMurtry gets a heaping load of side-eye for this bars routine every time because she gets such high scores, but if she were going, say, 2nd or 3rd in the lineup and getting a 9.850 for this routine, we would be standing up and applauding for how much she has improved on bars from her Level 10 career, when she was getting 8s for hit routines. Compare her 10.000 to this routine from the Nastia in 2013, which scored 8.925, uninspiring even by JO scoring standards. Improvements, clearly.



But let's be honest, the biggest difference between 2013 and 2016 is going 6th in a Florida lineup. Many of the factors that got her an 8.925 remain, hence the saltiness about this 10.

And now Baker and Sloan.



Kennedy Baker is like, "This is the seventh-best floor routine I've done at Florida, and this is the 10?"



To the rankings!

Week 4 rankings

1. Florida – 197.438
Week 4: 198.175
Week 4 leaders: AA - Sloan 39.775; VT - Boren, Baker 9.950; UB - McMurtry 10.000; BB - Sloan 10.000; FX - Baker 10.000

2. Oklahoma – 197.185
Week 4: 197.550
Week 4 leaders: AA - Capps 39.575; VT - Jones 9.900; UB - Wofford 9.950; BB - Capps 9.900; FX - Jones 9.950

3. Michigan – 196.860
Week 4: 196.550
Week 4 leaders: AA - Karas 39.525; VT - Karas, Chriarelli, Sheppard 9.850; UB - Brown 9.875; BB - Brown, Karas 9.875; FX - Artz 9.975

4. Alabama – 196.855
Week 4: 197.525
Week 4 leaders: AA - Beers 39.650; VT - Beers 9.900; UB - Beers 9.925; BB - Sims 9.975; FX - Winston 9.925

5. UCLA – 196.758
Week 4: Monday meet

6. LSU – 196.525
Week 4: 196.750
Week 4 leaders: AA - Gnat 39.500; VT - Gnat 10.000; UB - Finnegan, Zamardi 9.900; BB - Gnat 9.925; FX - Gnat, Finnegan 9.900

7. Utah – 196.342 
Week 4: Monday meet

8. Arkansas – 196.210
Week 4: 196.600
Week 4 leaders: AA - Wellick 39.500; VT - Wellick 9.900; UB - Wellick, Speed 9.850; BB - Wellick, Nelson 9.850; FX - Nelson 9.925

9. Boise State – 196.175
Week 4: 196.400
Week 4 leaders: AA - Collantes 39.475; VT - Stockwell 9.850; UB - Jacobsen 9.950; BB - Everyone 9.825; FX - Collantes, Krentz 9.950

10. Auburn – 196.080
Week 4: 195.975
Week 4 leaders: AA - Atkinson 39.400; VT - Rott 9.900; UB - Milliet, Engler 9.875; BB - Demers 9.850; FX - Atkinson 9.900

11. Georgia – 195.870
Week 4: 196.275
Week 4 leaders: AA - Jay 39.350; VT - Jay 9.900; UB - Rogers 9.925; BB - Rogers 9.875; FX - Box 9.900

12. Stanford – 195.856
Week 4: 196.075
Week 4 leaders: AA - Price 39.600; VT - Price 9.875; UB - Price 9.950; BB - Hong 9.925; FX - Price 9.875

13. Denver – 195.763
Week 4: 196.125
Week 4 leaders: AA - McGee 39.525; VT - McGee 9.850; UB - McGee 9.900; BB - McGee 9.850; FX - McGee 9.925; LIFE - McGee 60.000

14. Nebraska – 195.700
Week 4: 196.775
Week 4 leaders: AA - Williams 39.500; VT - Laeng 9.850; UB - Laeng 9.925; BB - Williams 9.950; FX - Schweihofer, Williams, Orel 9.875

15. Oregon State – 195.694
Week 4: 195.875
Week 4 leaders: AA - Gardiner 39.300; VT - Gardiner, Jimenez 9.825; UB - M Colussi-Pelaez 9.850; BB - Gardiner 9.925; FX - Perez 9.900

16. Missouri – 195.645
Week 4: 195.825
Week 4 leaders: AA - Porter 38.750; VT - Harris 9.875; UB - Porter 9.900; BB - Kelly 9.875; FX - Harris 9.850

17. George Washington – 195.517
Week 4: 194.950
Week 4 leaders: AA - Drouin-Allaire 39.250; VT - Drouin-Allaire 9.875; UB - Raineri 9.825; BB - Pfeiler, Zois 9.850; FX - Drouin-Allaire, Raineri 9.800

18. Minnesota – 195.469
Week 4: 196.075
Week 4 leaders: AA - Mable 39.150; VT - DeMuse 9.850; UB - Holst 9.975; BB - Mable 9.900; FX - DeMuse 9.875

19. Illinois – 195.363
Week 4: 195.725
Week 4 leaders: AA - Horth 39.400; VT - O'Connor 9.825; UB - Horth 9.900; BB - Kato, Leduc 9.900; FX - Leduc, Buchanan 9.875

20. Arizona – 195.217
Week 4: Monday meet

21. Cal – 195.150
Week 4: Monday meet

22. New Hampshire – 195.095
Week 4: 195.800
Week 4 leaders: AA - Lauter, Pflieger 39.150; VT - Pflieger 9.750; UB - Mulligan 9.900; BB - Lauter 9.925; FX - Pflieger 9.900

23. West Virginia – 195.083
Week 4: No meet

24. Southern Utah – 195.056
Week 4: 195.250
Week 4 leaders: AA - None; VT - Ramirez 9.875; UB - Yee 9.875; BB - Webb 9.900; FX - Brownsell 9.850

25. Kentucky – 195.031
Week 4: 195.025
Week 4 leaders: AA - Dukes 39.300; VT - Stuart 9.825; UB - Dukes 9.825; BB - Dukes, Hyland, Whittle 9.800; FX - Dukes 9.875

-The top 10 is still sort of a work in progress at this point because UCLA and Utah are yet to compete tonight, which will change the dynamic. How Utah adapts to life without Kari Lee will be the most interesting part of tonight's meets, but Valorie is teasing a Peng vault as well. It begins...?

-In addition to the four 10s recorded this week, Nicole Artz went 9.975 on floor, Aja Sims went 9.975 on beam for sticking her double tuck and showing everyone what dance elements are, and Bailie Holst went 9.975 on bars for a routine I haven't seen yet. But Minnesota is the best about uploading all the routines to youtube, so I'm sure we'll see it in due time.

-New Hampshire is in a fight with George Washington to see who can be the new, cool team this year, and UNH is gaining every week as Casey Lauter continues to be the gymnast you wish you had on your fantasy gym team. We need to make sure she makes it to nationals. Here's her 9.925 on beam (along with all the other northeast-based routines your heart could desire from David Pendrys).



-Lizzy Leduc had a rough start to her NCAA career in those first couple meets, but a 9.900 on beam and a 9.875 on floor over the weekend are very good signs that my anticipated O'Connor-Horth-Kato-Leduc quadrangle of triumph may come to fruition after all.

-Grace Williams hit a 39.500 in the AA, the best mark of her career by over a tenth. With Ashley Lambert MIA again, that increases the pressure on Williams and Blanske to be all the types of fantastic, and this is much more the kind of number we expected for Williams based on her exceptional JO career.

-Fun game: Denver scored 196.125 on Saturday. Without Nina McGee, the score would have been 195.475. That's an MVP. McGee better not get overlooked when it comes to naming the AAI six this year, even though Bridget Sloan has already won it. This is also a fun game to play with Ebee and Stanford, since Stanford would be ranked 600th without her.

-Georgia hit beam this week sort of! We'll take a sort of. It was a beam rotation that the Gymdogs endured rather than thrived in, but that's the first step. Vaculik came into the lineup, and weirdly, this is the most confident I've ever seen her look on beam. She's a beautiful beam worker (it should be her best event) when she's not terrified. We need this from her because two of Georgia's other lovely beam options, Schick and Cherrey, may have to be jettisoned by the business-end of the season for consistency. Even if Georgia does work out beam, it may not be the strength it could have been if that means sacrificing style and execution to get six hit routines.

-Also, Brittany Rogers is a lunatic woman and attempting to compete Georgia/Florida and Elite Canada this week. How is that...I don't even...? In other news, someone get her legs a therapy dog. 

Georgia's Brittany Rogers will be doing double duty this weekend! Competing Fri vs. UF, flying to Canada Sat, Elite Canada Sun #NCAAgym

— NCAA Gym News (@NCAAGymNews_) February 1, 2016

-The coach who picked Boise State #1 in preseason is looking at us all right now and going, "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmm." Except not really because...#1?

-Arkansas defeated Auburn in the Battle for Underdog SEC Darling of the Year, cementing the position as an outsider pick for a real postseason run in a meet that was marred by the physical destruction of every possible Auburn gymnast. With Phillips and Engler going down, the vault lineup in particular will need some serious help, putting more pressure on Atkinson, Rott, and Demers to bring the big numbers to overcome the inevitable low replacement scores.

-Sadly, a streak ended over the weekend when Michigan went sub-49 on beam for the first time since March 15, 2014. The fall from Artz was particularly unexpected, and while Michigan did record a perfectly fine 196.550 in the loss to Nebraska, the precarious depth situation did rear its head with the lack of Casanova clearly felt by all, particularly people watching that vault rotation. Michigan has no intention of counting Brown's vault score, which means the other five must not only hit but perform ideal vaults to keep the total competitive.

-LSU continues to break hearts on beam, recording a 48.600 and dropping to a wholly unbefitting beam ranking of 18. This week, the Tigers had only two truly acceptable hits, from Hambrick and Gnat, which isn't good enough even for this point in the season. Both of the falls came from gymnasts missing skills they never miss, Ewing on her layout and Finnegan on her triple wolf, but this can't be dismissed as an anomaly because falls and weird 9.700s have been the name of the game in pretty much every meet this season. LSU, you're on beam watch. Not everything can be Ashleigh Gnat's job.

-There's less to say about Alabama and Oklahoma other than that they looked goooood over the weekend. Alabama showed LSU what a beam recovery is and gleefully took advantage of a juicy Florida road score, even while continuing to exploring depth and shunning a top-strength lineup/missing Jetter. So many floor options. There are still questions about how competitive bars will be against the best teams, as well as who the six vaulters are (I'm not convinced by Bailey or Bresette yet, but Beers, Brannan, Guerrero, Winston, McNeer, TBD is enough to be getting on with), but the meet against Florida was a very good sign in spite of the loss.

-The last two weeks, we're starting to see the performances we expected from Oklahoma from the very first week of the season: not pristine post-season level, but impressive, consistent, and clearly 197. Yes, it was Metroplex and there were some Metroplexy scores in getting to that 197.550, a number that flatters a meh-landed vault lineup and too many wobbles on beam, but for the end of January, this is how a title-contending team should look. Also, Chayse Capps' best event is bars now. Apparently. I don't know either. I think there's still room to play around with those bars and beam lineups to bring out the best options. Are Jackson and Capps final lineup on bars (though if Capps keeps scoring like this...I guess so)? Is Jones final-six on beam? We'll see how this progresses.