Hello everyone, and welcome to Gymnastics Insider!
The last week of the regular NCAA gymnastics season happened, and it was a doozy. We had a few surprises, and a few tears were shed as the seniors said their final goodbyes.
Here are some quick hits as we head into conference champs weekend:
- Florida killed it in another 198+ win (198.5750) at Kentucky (197.2250). Selena Harris-Miranda led the way with a 10 on beam — her second beam 10 in a row — and a 39.7750 in the all-around. Then, Florida posted this incredible photo:
Florida’s 198.5750 is the highest team score of the year so far, and they got it at an away meet. Good on them for shaking things up so late in the season.
- Meanwhile, Alabama lost at home, earning a 197.4250 to Georgia’s 197.5250. Bama had to count a 9.7500 on vault and a 9.6500 on beam.
- In more predictable news, Oklahoma (197.9250) won at Michigan (197.1000), LSU (198.0750) beat Arkansas (197.1000) at home, and UCLA (197.8500) beat Utah (197.4000) at home.
- Kailin Chio won three 10s in one meet, on vault, beam and floor, for LSU. She already had those 10s in her record, but this is her first perfect 30.
- Jordan Chiles got 9.9500s across the board in her senior night, earning a 39.8000 all-around. Her father sang the National Anthem, warming my stone-cold heart.
NCAA standings and schedule
After week 11 (NQS):
Oklahoma 197.963
LSU 197.917
Florida 197.700
Alabama 197.500
UCLA 197.478
It’s Conference Champs weekend! Here is your schedule for the top teams competing tonight (all times Eastern):
3pm: Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri (SEC Conference)
6pm: Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, UCLA (Big Ten Conference)
7pm: Arizona, BYU, Denver, Iowa State, Utah (Big 12 Conference)
8pm: Alabama, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma (SEC Conference)
Clearly the biggest item on the menu is the final meet of the night, featuring the top four-ranked teams. We’re basically getting a Four on the Floor sneak peek, and whoever takes the win will get to bring that confidence into the postseason! We’ll get our brackets on Monday.
Full standings and schedule at Road to Nationals, and CollegeGymNews has a recap.
ISU update
Rumor has it Iowa State gymnasts got their year of eligibility back! I’ve reached out to the school for confirmation.
Haylee Hardin has officially committed to Clemson, where she’ll matriculate as a junior next year.
There are nine ISU gymnasts still up for grabs, and you can keep up to date using the transfers database.
Elite news
The Doha Apparatus World Cup, originally scheduled for April 15-18, has been cancelled due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
As my personal Middle East correspondent (my husband) put it, “Yeah it would be crazy to have a competition in Qatar right now.” So it’s good to hear they’re making some sound decisions over at World Gymnastics.
World Gymnastics also changed the worlds qualification rules accordingly: each athlete’s top three scores will count toward the rankings, instead of the top four.
This is good, except that Team USA’s dudes didn’t attend Antalya and won’t go to Cairo for safety reasons. The U.S. will qualify a men’s team for worlds, so the cancellation doesn’t change anything for them. But what about other athletes who might hope to qualify via the world cup series but opted to skip Antalya and Cairo? I’ve reached out to World Gymnastics for comment.
- Former GAGE athletes Lavi and Vivi Crain have moved to World Champions Centre.
Antalya Apparatus World Cup (results)
Russia swept the titles at the Antalya Apparatus World Cup last weekend, an unsurprising result considering how dominant they’ve been throughout the series.
Lyudmila Roshchina took vault (13.483) and floor (13.333) gold and bars silver (13.433). Milana Kayumova won bars (14.233) and beam (12.766), following up on her bars silver and beam bronze at Cottbus. Kaylia Nemour was absent, as was Anna Kalmykova.
Russia is gunning for individual worlds spots this year — they can have a maximum of five, and no more than two can qualify through each apparatus. Here the world rankings.
Here’s the rest of the apparatus world cup schedule. We have nominative registrations, but they’re old and it’s unclear who will show up. Cairo has far fewer athletes than Osijek, and its most recent roster is from March 2.
Apr 3-6 Cairo World Cup (Cairo) (roster)
Apr 9-12 Osijek World Cup (Osijek) (roster)Apr 15-18 Doha World Cup (Doha) CANCELLED
British Championships
The women’s senior all-around will have two sessions. Subdivision one will compete at 10:30am UK time, and subdivision two will go on at 3:48pm. All the event finals will take place on Sunday. Here’s how to watch — get those VPNs ready!
Five at the IX: UCLA
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