Alabama v. UCLA Recap

NCAA season - so much gymnastics so little time, that's going to be my NCAA motto for the rest of the season, because this is LITERALLY the case. Not figuratively, literally.

Meets all being held pretty much at the same time makes it hard to catch everything, especially when fighting against my television provider, but that's another story. 

I wrote a full week one recap for the Couch Gymnast, so today, I'm recapping the Alabama at UCLA meet, which thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I was able to catch up on.

In Hollywood, while Nadia and Bart were walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes, UCLA was asserting their dominance over Alabama. But to be fair, I think Bama may not be at top strength. Lauren Beers was still recovering from her multitude of ailments and only competed on three events and they're trying to fill in some gaps left by the graduating seniors, as is everyone. UCLA is missing the greatness that is Sam Pezsek. But after Sunday, I think that those Bruins are gonna survive (well, this happens every year, so they kind of have to).

UCLA won by two and a half tenths, 196.550 to Alabama's 196.300. Alabama had to count some lower-ish scores, a 9.675 on bars, 9.7s on floor while UCLA didn't have to count anything lower than a 9.8 on their last two events.. But all in all, Bama put up as good a fight as they were able to. Mackenzie Brannan won the all-around with a 39.350 and took the vault title with a 9.9, performing a Yurchenko one and a half . She's a beautiful gymnast, lovely lines, extension and just nice presentation. On floor, she opened with a huge double Arabian, which she took just up to the corner of the floor. Katie Bailey scored 9.9's on both bars and floor. So all in all, mistakes aside, Alabama should have no problem going up from here.



For most of the meet, Bama had a small lead over UCLA, about a tenth or two, but after several huge performances on floor, UCLA was able to overtake the Tide. Katelyn Ohashi was loving her NCAA debut (in the all-around, nonetheless!).  She had a mistake on bars, but then did a flip flop flip flop two foot layout and the judges gave her a 9.8. While it was inevitable that Simone Biles would go pro, seeing her and Ohashi together at UCLA would have been so much fun! Le sigh.



 But, there was Peng Peng, her majesty as I have decided that she is the queen of everything and I think that Queen Elizabeth should just give her title to Peng. She's recovering from thumb surgery, so in order to protect her hands, she only competed beam. This was her "bluetooth" routine, hands free. Literally, no hands. No flares at the beginning of her routine (for now). But the difficulty, huge. She did an Aerial walkover to a two foot layout, a double turn and an aerial cartwheel into a double full dismount. Peng and Danusia Francis tied for the beam title. If Peng's routine is the "bluetooth" routine, then Nush's should be called the "Spirit Fingers." Because her routine involves her doing spirit fingers at not one, but two points in her routine. Wonder if she's sprinkling fairy dust on the judges so they give her a 10? She's got that glorious transverse aerial to full dismount that brings joy to all our hearts.





Angie Cipra decided to use her phone ring tone in her floor routine, literally. Judges must have thought it was clever, so they gave her  9.925.



I created a playlist on YouTube of routines from week one. I'll add to it as time goes on.

Rankings are below.

Rank	Team Name	Region	Conference	Division	Ave.	High
1(t)	L.S.U.	C	SEC	Div I	196.950	196.950
1(t)	Michigan	NE	Big Ten	Div I	196.950	196.975
3	Florida	SE	SEC	Div I	196.825	196.825
4	Oklahoma	SC	Big 12	Div I	196.725	196.725
5	UCLA	W	PAC-12	Div I	196.550	196.550
6	Alabama	C	SEC	Div I	196.300	196.300
7(t)	Auburn	C	SEC	Div I	196.175	196.175
7(t)	George Washington	SE	EAGL	Div I	196.175	196.175
7(t)	Utah	NC	PAC-12	Div I	196.175	196.175
10	Arizona	SC	PAC-12	Div I	195.700	195.700
11	California	W	PAC-12	Div I	195.575	195.575
12	Oregon State	W	PAC-12	Div I	195.425	195.425
13	Denver	NC	Big 12	Div I	195.375	195.375
14	Missouri	SC	SEC	Div I	195.275	195.350
15	Georgia	SE	SEC	Div I	195.200	195.200
16(t)	Arkansas	SC	SEC	Div I	195.150	195.150
16(t)	Kent State	C	MAC	Div I	195.150	195.150
18	New Hampshire	NE	EAGL	Div I	195.100	195.100
19	Illinois-Champaign	SC	Big Ten	Div I	195.075	195.075
20	Eastern Michigan	C	MAC	Div I	194.875	194.875
21	Kentucky	C	SEC	Div I	194.825	194.825
22	Stanford	W	PAC-12	Div I	194.800	194.800
23(t)	North Carolina State	SE	EAGL	Div I	194.700	194.700
23(t)	Minnesota	NC	Big Ten	Div I	194.700	194.700
25	Maryland-College Park	SE	Big Ten	Div I	194.400	194.400