The Mount: Week 7

As always, we’ll tell you who we think will win these top meets, give previews of other notable matchups and provide scoring and video links for every competition happening between Friday and Monday. And once again, we’re welcoming Casey to the pick em panel! But we don’t want to be the only ones with opinions. We want to hear your opinions too! So play along by answering who you think will win each matchup by participating in the polls. And if you feel strongly about your choices, feel free to let us know in the comments below. The records from last week’s college pick em are as follows: Casey (1-4), Elizabeth (2-3), fan vote (2-3).

No. 1 Oklahoma at No. 10 Georgia: Saturday, February 20 at 4:00 p.m. ET
Oklahoma Preview | Georgia Preview
Georgia’s adding a twist to its annual pink meet this year by adding green to the celebration to support all cancers. While it’s uncertain whether the Gymdogs will don pinkandgreen in their ensembles, its for a good cause nonetheless. But for the actual gymnastics side of things, Georgia is coming off back-to-back upsets of top five teams. Oklahoma comes into Stegeman Coliseum as the second No. 1 team to visit in three weeks. While it didn’t look like the Gators were capable of losing back then it happened. And while it doesn’t look like Oklahoma will have problems, anything can happen, especially when a beam is involved. The Sooners don’t have as many vulnerabilities as Florida did and has more lineup depth. The Gymdogs are coming off their best meet of the season and have a lot of confidence coming away from that meet. While on paper, Oklahoma is the better team, Georgia showed it can hang with the top teams.

No. 15 California at No. 16 Oregon State: Saturday, February 20 at 5:00 p.m. ET
California Preview | Oregon State Preview
California has been on a hot streak as of late, posting two second-highest-program-scores two weeks in a row. And those weren’t just tallied at home. One was away, proving the legitimacy of the efforts. Toni-Ann Williams might have started slow, but she is in true form now, matching her own program record last weekend with a 39.7 and hitting all four events for 9.9+s. Oregon State has struggled this year but is starting to put things together, especially with the help of Kaytianna McMillan coming in on more events. Cal has better supporting gymnasts than Oregon State, but when the Beavers hit, they can produce solid and consistent scores across the board. It’s shaping up to be a much more exciting matchup than many people probably thought at the beginning of the season.

No. 5 Utah at No. 12 Stanford: Saturday, February 20 at 5:00 p.m. ET
Utah Preview | Stanford Preview
In a rare occasion, Stanford’s home meet will have actual live video. But that’s besides the point. Utah will travel to northern California for Stanford’s final home meet of the year to take on the great Elizabeth Price, Ivana Hong and company. While Stanford is the lower-ranked team and definitely has the talent to beat Utah, you never know what to expect from the Cardinal this early in the season. Utah has put together many more solid performances this year across the board. The Utes are the favorites going in, but with a few mistakes here and there, things could get interesting. We’re still not convinced with their floor and beam lineups, but hitting is a good step in the right direction at this point in the season.

No. 8 Auburn at No. 6 LSU: Friday, February 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Auburn Preview | LSU Preview
It’s the battle of the Tigers. Auburn is coming off a performance of historic measures while LSU is coming off a somewhat shocking upset. LSU will be seeking to bounce back from a solid yet unremarkable meet. Auburn will be looking to continue its success. LSU typically performs very well at home and so far this season has a higher potential score than the Auburn. And Auburn isn’t as good away and isn’t capable of as high scores as LSU — at least not yet. Auburn will need to hope for some LSU mistakes if it wants to win this one.

Other Notable Matchups
No. 2 Florida at No. 19 Missouri: Friday, February 19 at 7:00 p.m. ET
Florida Preview | Missouri PreviewFlorida needs to get a move on producing good road scores if it wants to move up in the RQS rankings. With a number of lower away scores, putting together not just a good meet at Missouri but a great one is crucial. There’s little chance the Gators lose to Missouri — unless another string of mistakes happens like those at Georgia. Missouri is coming off a season-low upset loss at Kentucky. The Tigers will want to bounce back and put up a competitive number at home to help pad its ranking in the top 20. Missouri is having a remarkable season, but needs to continue its early-season success and not let the mistakes that occurred in Kentucky continue.

No. 11 Arkansas at No. 39 Maryland: Friday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Arkansas Preview | Maryland Preview

Arkansas is another team that has been exceeding fan’s expectations this season. Now that Leah MacMoyle is out after hurting her ankle at Florida, the team will need to replace her routines on vault and floor without missing a beat. Facing Maryland shouldn’t be a problem in the meaningless win-loss column of the standings, but putting together a high road score is another thing. The Razorbacks need a strong score to help keep them in the the conversation for not only the night session of the SEC championships but the nationals conversation as well. Meanwhile, Maryland will be holding its annual state pride meet. So above anything else, the leotards at least are bound to be flag-tastic.

No. 3 Michigan Team, No. 44 UC Davis at No. 23 Southern Utah: Friday, February 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET
Michigan Preview | UC Davis Preview | SUU Preview

Michigan has finally put it together, scoring its second 197+ score in as many weeks. While the Wolverines are sitting pretty in the rankings due to a low of high consistent scores, they have an opportunity to improve even more with a strong away meet at Southern Utah. There’s that one pesky mid-196 at Nebraska currently holding the team back. So getting rid of it will help Michigan’s cause. Southern Utah has done well so far this year. Putting together a solid meet across the board will be the goal Friday night. There’s little chance of picking up a win, but another nice home score should be very feasible.

No. 26 Ohio State at No. 9 Boise State: Friday, February 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET
Ohio State Preview | Boise State Preview

Boise State has exceeded most fans’ expectations so far this season. With consistency on their side, the Broncos have slowly kept their place in the top 10 in the rankings. With a strong bars lineup and underclassmen producing most of the strong routines, the team is working its way into being legitimate nationals contenders. Tonight’s meet is the first home competition of the season for the Broncos, so scores are expected to be at least a bit higher than the season averages so far. A good performance can only help the team. Ohio State has remained around the top 25 this season. With the help of some injury returners and other strong contributors, a hit meet could make things close.

No. 4 Alabama, No. 13 Denver, No. 54 Cornell at No. 28 Penn State: Saturday, February 20 at 4:00 p.m. ET
Alabama Preview | Denver Preview | Cornell Preview | Penn State Preview

Alabama already had a chance to redeem itself after the historic loss to Auburn, competing again two days later at home against West Virginia. However, Sunday was an exploring-depth-meet for the Crimson Tide. The real redemption will come this weekend. While the opponents aren’t the most fierce competition, the team will still have another opportunity to get a solid away score to add to its RQS. Denver is coming off its first loss of the season at the Perfect 10 Challenge. However, it was still a strong showing for the team and Nina McGee killed it as always. She’ll have another chance to prove herself Saturday, but will need the help of her teammates if the Pioneers want to challenge for the top score. But most importantly, the team will look to put up a solid road score to help move it into the top 12 come RQS time. Penn State, on the other hand, has had a meh season so far. Kiera Brown has been a nice contribution to the depleted team, but the Nittany Lions have yet to put together a complete performance.

No. 7 UCLA at No. 30 Washington: Sunday, February 21 at 4:00 p.m. ET
UCLA Preview | Washington Preview

UCLA is still riding the fame wave brought on Sophina DeJesus’ popular floor routine. Without many of its solid contributors, the team will seek to get more usable scores from some of its backups. Hallie Mossett and Katelyn Ohashi are out for the foreseeable future, and Peng-Peng Lee has yet to find a set of beam skills she can comfortably hit. The Bruins have done well this season so far to put together strong performances, but will use the competition at Washington to get rid of the score they received at California. Washington has done pretty well this season, starting off with an upset over Stanford and continuing with a strong performance at Utah. Coming back home should provide the comfortable atmosphere the Huskies need to continue the upward trend. Remain consistent and the team could have another usable score on its hands.

No. 20 Arizona at No. 49 Arizona State: Monday, February 22 at 9:00 p.m. ET
Arizona Preview | Arizona State Preview

In one of the bigger rivalry meets in the sport, the Wildcats will travel to the Sun Devils on Monday for the Pac-12’s Meet of the Week. Arizona is the clear favorite, so the competition will be more about putting together a consistent performance to enable it to throw out its 193 from its meet at Texas Woman’s. Arizona State finally managed not to fall 12 times off each apparatus this past Monday against Cal, and scored a season-high in the process. That needs to continue if the Sun Devils want to move up from No. 49 in the rankings. The potential is there, but the consistency is not just yet. Monday night is another opportunity.

These aren’t the only meets happening this weekend! To see all the matchups all in one place, take a look at our master schedule. You can also find live scoring and video links below.