(GYM) Gymnastics 2023 - 2024

After reviewing the 4 regionals, I've decided the Gainesville and Berkeley regionals are the toughest routes to nationals. In both regionals, there are 3 teams that are nationals' caliber. That is not the case in the Ann Arbor and Fayetteville Regionals as they have 2 teams each that are national's caliber.

Based on NQS - My Projections in Bold:

1 Oklahoma 8 Alabama 11 Michigan 16 NC State

Michigan finished second to Michigan State in the regular season and 3rd behind Michigan State and Minnesota in the conference championship. The wolverines have had a rebuilding year.

2 LSU 7 Kentucky 12 Arkansas 15 Minnesota

Arkansas and Minnesota are similar teams neither of which are national caliber.

3 Cal 6 Denver 9 UCLA 14 Auburn

UCLA has higher upside than Denver. The pioneers have to show me wrong. With anything close to the 197.325 Cal scored in the PAC 12 Championships, it could be Denver and UCLA advancing in an upset. This will be a highly competitive meet as Denver showed improvement over the last few weeks of the season and may have peaked at just the right time. Most of the season, the pioneers had an NQS rank of 9 or 10.

4 Florida 5 Utah 10 Michigan State 13 Missouri

Utah is back to full strength after missing Amelie Morgan for the last month of the season when she was competing with the British National Team. The Red Rocks won the PAC 12 Championship after finishing 2nd in the PAC 12 regular season behind Cal.

Michigan State won the B1G regular season and conference championships, the best team in the B1G by far. The Spartans are deep and talented. They have the capability of taking out either the Gators or Red Rocks if they have a good meet or either UF or Utah have an off meet, see the 197.300 SEC Championships for the Gators.

Florida consistency has been in the Gators favor as they are only one of two team to not score below 197 in 2024. The other team is Oklahoma.

This will be a highly competitive meet. I wouldn't be surprised with an upset in Gainesville.

 

This is to follow up on my post #788 on the previous page regarding likely overscoring of Oklahoma in the Big 12 conference championship that was held in Lloyd Noble Center on Oklahoma's campus.

I watched the Sooners performances and scored each of their routines. As in the OU meet the week before, the judges overscored the sooner performances choosing to ignore .05 deductions in many performances. The historic all-time high score of 198.950 was not warranted.

The judges scoring of OU:

Vault 49.675
Bars 49.725
Beam 49.775
Floor 49.775
Total 198.950

My scoring of OU:

Vault 49.600
Bars 49.600
Beam 49.600
Floor 49.750
Total 198.550

As you can see, OU was overscored by .4, but the 198.550 as scored by me is still a terrific score. The Sooners all-time high 198.775 the week before in the bama meet was similarly overscored. The Sooners looked better in the Big 12 conference championships as they hit more vault landings. Jordan Bowers was better individually than the week before. I have her at 39.900 while the judges had her at 39.925.

Now the bad news for the rest of women's college gymnastics. The Sooners are the head and shoulders best team in the nation. I can see them being scored with a national championship around 198.600, not in the historic nosebleed territory of 199. The only team in 2024 that can beat Oklahoma is Oklahoma.

 

SEC Honors 2024 are Pathetic Joke:

Trio of Gators Claim SEC Honors - Florida Gators

These decisions are so ridiculous that the SEC awards are a pathetic joke.

 

Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association

WCGA All Americans:

Two Gator gymnasts earn WCGA Regular-Season All-America honors - Florida Gators

The WCGA lists their All Americans based on performance using the season individual player NQS. The top 8 are 1st Team All Americans and the second 8 are 2nd Team All Americans.

Leanne Wong: AA 2nd; Bars 1st; Beam 2nd
Anya Pilgrim: AA 2nd; Vault 2nd - missed 1st by .005

Congratulations Anya and Leanne on jobs well done.

At least these All Americans mean something unlike the crapola All SEC Teams and COY selections:

Jenny Rowland was snubbed by the SEC even though she led UF to the regular season SEC Championship with the youngest team in the SEC. UF also beat LSU in Gainesville and UK on the road. How the SEC arrived at LSU HC Jay Clark and UK HC Tim Garrison doing a better job to share SEC COY is beyond any rational thinking I can imagine.

Anya was placed on the All-SEC Freshman Team, but not the All SEC Team while Konnor McClain of LSU and other freshman, 2 at Georgia, were put on both the All SEC Team and the All-SEC Freshman Team. All Anya did was to be the only freshman in the nation to have two WCGA honors, has the only 10.0 on floor in the nation, and won 5 SEC Freshman of the Week honors including 4 consecutively. There is no freshman in the SEC more deserving of the All SEC Team. To top off the SEC injustice to Anya, Lily Smith of Georgia was given the SEC Freshman of the Year, NOT!

Sloane Blakely and Skylar Draser deserved SEC recognition too. Sloane Blakely finished 10th in SEC All-Around NQS one spot behind Lily Smith of Georgia who made the All SEC Team, the All-SEC Freshman Team, and the SEC Freshman of the Year. As a true freshman, all Skylar did was to successfully lead off on vault, bars, and beam for UF all season long.

Thanks to WCGA for putting sense into post season awards that the SEC severely lacked doing.

 

Florida Superlatives 2024 - Far more accurate than the SEC:

SEC Coach of the Year - Jenny Rowland

SEC Team - Leanne Wong; Anya Pilgrim; Sloane Blakely; Victoria Nguyen

SEC Freshman of the Year - Anya Pilgrim

Specialist Team - Danie Ferris - 10th in SEC on vault

Specialist Honorable Mention - Gabby Disidore - 21st in SEC on bars

Special Recognition - Skylar Draser led off 3 events all season as a true freshman and finished 12th in the SEC on vault.

Given that UF finished NQS 2nd in the SEC and 4th in the nation, these Florida superlatives accurately reflect the UF 2024 season.

 

Last year Utah, this year Iowa:

Iowa Head Coach Libby Under Independent Review - CollegeGymFans.com

Iowa Head Coach Larissa Libby has been placed on paid administrative leave while an independent investigation is run regarding concerns raised by members of the team and staff. The University has retained Phil Catanzano, co-found of the Education and Sports Law Group, to run an independent review.

 

I have been vindicated on my Oklahoma scoring. Look at the number of 10s for OU that were overscores:

Judge's Inquiry: Breaking Down March's Perfect 10s - College Gym News

Finally, some honest coverage questioning OU's scores. In OU's last 2 meets, I had OU overscored by .4 in each meet, not just the 10s. CGN posts the pictures and videos to prove it. Good job CGN.

 

Gainesville Regional teams, dates, times, and ticket sales:

2024 NCAA Gainesville Regional - Florida Gators

UF is back in action in the Friday evening session.

 

In 2024, UF is 6th in the nation in attendance one slot ahead of Oklahoma selling out home meets with 8,702. It would be nice if the article had referenced how many new seats are being added. I have no doubt UF will continue to sellout and especially so with what could be the best team in the nation in 2025.

 

For $10.99 + tax/fees = $12.60, you can enjoy ESPN+ for one month. Be sure to cancel after you order so ESPN will not continue to charge you later. You can only buy in one-month blocks of time. It's well worth the price as the meets are staggered this year so you can watch any meet of interest without having the meets overlap. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the best teams compete this week.

I signed up for my one month in early March so my ESPN+ will expire next Monday, the day after the regionals end. I suggested this to folks who post here back when I subscribed. I did watch a couple of other events on ESPN+, but it's not worth a monthly subscription standalone or bundled to me.

 

Play in regionals start today:

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024

Time Meet Stats Video
2:00 pm ET Michigan Play in: Ball St, Illinois TBD ESPN+
2:00 pm CT Arkansas Play in: Boise St, BYU Virti.us ESPN+

Play in regionals for Berkeley and Gainesville will be tomorrow.

Sessions 1 & 2 in Ann Arbor and Fayetteville start tomorrow, Thursday.

Sessions 1 & 2 in Berkeley and Gainesville will start Friday.

Ann Arbor and Fayetteville will conclude on Sunday.

Berkeley and Gainesville will conclude on Sunday.

Once regionals are completed, we'll have our 8 participants for nationals which will be held in Dallas, Texas.

 

Thursday, April 4th, 2024

Time Meet Stats Video

1:00 pm ET Michigan Session 1: Bama, Michigan, Kent St, PSU Link ESPN+

1:00 pm CT Arkansas Session 1: Kentucky, Arkansas, Arizona, NU Virti.us ESPN+

2:00 pm ET Florida Play in: Clemson, Iowa St Link ESPN+

2:00 pm PT Cal Play in: SJSU, SUU Virti.us ESPN+

7:00 pm ET Michigan Session 2: OU, NCSU, Ohio St, Illinois Link ESPN+

7:00 pm CT Arkansas Session 2: LSU, Minnesota, Oregon St, BYU Virti.us ESPN+

 

First upset of the regionals, Michigan finished 3rd in Ann Arbor session 1 having 2 falls on the beam which meant they had to count a fall. Alabama and Penn State advanced to Saturday.

In Fayetteville, while not an upset, Arkansas finished ahead of Kentucky in session 1. Both teams advanced to Saturday.

#36 Iowa State beat #30 Clemson in Gainesville when Clemson had to count a fall on bars. Iowa State advances to Friday.

 

best thursday scores: ou 198.05; lsu 197.80. judges were serious today.