#11 Nebraska Preview

Roster
Blanske, Hollie - Senior - VT, UB, BB, FX
Breen, Danielle - Sophomore - UB, BB
Chung, Kelli - Freshman
Crouse, Sienna - Freshman
Kuo, Megan - Freshman
Laeng, Jennie - Junior - VT, UB, BB, occasional FX
Lambert, Ashley - Junior - VT, FX, but can also do UB, BB
McConkey, Madison - Senior - in-a-pinch backup on UB
Orel, Catelyn - Freshman
Schweihofer, Megan - Freshman
Shows, Kami - Freshman
Williams, Grace - Sophomore - VT, UB, BB, FX

Recent History
2015 - 8th
2014 - 6th
2013 - 14th
2012 - 8th
2011 - 4th
2010 - 7th

2016 Outlook
It's difficult to have fluffy, leprechaun-filled Super Six dreams for Nebraska this year after even a cursory glance at the roster. For a team that has lost its star in Jessie Deziel and returns such a sparse supply of realistic routine options, a great deal of pressure will be heaped on an unproven freshman class to contribute not just depth but multiple counting routines on every event, every week. Otherwise, I fear this could turn into a "just the five vaulters again" kind of season. This freshman class does have potential, and with the scoring strength of some of those vital returning gymnasts, remaining a solidly mid-high 196 team and adopting a fairly secure position in the fight to return to nationals seems realistic, as long as actually everyone stays healthy. Competing with the greater star power and depth of the teams ranked in the preseason top 10, however, seems a much greater challenge that would require the emergence of some diamonds in the rough.

Key Competitor
Grace Williams. For someone who was one of the great standout JO gymnasts in her age group after a brief stint with junior elite, Williams' performances were a little too 9.825 last year. I had higher expectations of her becoming the replacement DeZiel on this team, not languishing as a supporting player. She has the talent to be the best-scoring gymnast on this team, and now that DeZiel is gone and those critical 9.9s have been lost, the pressure is on her to become a couple times more brilliant. Those 9.9s have to come from somewhere if Nebraska is to have any chance of unsticking itself from 8th-12th ranking purgatory.

Vault


Vault is Nebraska's event, traditionally the team's highest score by a pretty healthy margin. The beginning of last season was no exception when the Huskers started with those back-to-back 49.750, 49.600 scores led by the Lambert 10s. While those scores did not hold for the whole year and drooped down toward the 9.850s as we went along (an issue to keep an eye on) the possibilities remain solid. Much like a more powerful version of Oregon State, however, the Huskers have lately been a team of fulls. If they aren't able to forage for as many 10.0 starts as other teams, will they begin to lose some margin on an event that is more important for them than it is for others?

Lambert will lead the way with the biggest and most stickable full on the roster. She certainly has the power to up the difficulty (and did perform more complex yurchenkos back in the day), though that was a lifetime of health traumas ago. Similarly, Blanske had a 1.5 as a JO gymnast, as did Williams for a hot second when she tried elite, but we're talking 2010-2011 here. So who knows? Part of the fun of vault at the beginning of this season will be watching for who suddenly has a secret 1.5 we weren't expecting. Nebraska can certainly teach a vault. We know that.  

Expect Lambert and Blanske to be the top vault scorers regardless, with Laeng and Williams also returning for scores at least somewhere into the 9.8s. Among the freshmen, I like Schweihofer to get into the lineup since she has the biggest full of the group. Beyond her, Crouse also has an OK full, Shows had a full for a minute way back pre-Achilles tear, and then Orel and the sophomore Breen had 1/2s in JO, so people do exist. It's just a matter of how existy they are. Because of the top-scoring vaulters, I still like this lineup for somewhere around a 49.300 average, but they'll have to Nebraska a couple vaults from the newbies to remain at the level we expect.