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lineup of consistent Yurchenko fulls, featuring veterans Catie Conrad, Ciara Gresham, Sydney McEachern, Julia Schwartz and Kendall Valentin. Conrad and Valentin were typically the highest-scoring of these, though Conrad had some consistency issues earlier in the season. Kelsie Brooks also showed a nice full in exhibition a few times last season, scoring comparably to McEachern and Schwartz. She could also be a
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On bars, the Eagles lose no one, as neither Ebeyer nor Slocum was ever part of the lineup. Conrad, McEachern, Valentin, Kirsten Gendron, Natalie Gervais and Lacey Rubin were all regular contributors on the event, with Valentin and Rubin the strongest of the veterans. Both regularly scored 9.85 or
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higher, and Valentin topped out at 9.925 last season. There is definitely room for improvement across the board, though. The difficulty level of the lineup as a whole is somewhat low, particularly in the dismount category. Four of the six returning Eagles’ routines end with a giant full to double tuck, which does satisfy the up to the level requirement for a bar dismount, but only through connection. In addition, leg separation can be a bit of an issue for some of these veterans, both in handstands and transitions between bars. However, in recent training videos, it looks like the Eagles are hard at work correcting both of these issues. Freshman Hollie Minichiello should also make a great addition to the lineup, with a very clean Shaposhnikova and double layout dismount.
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Beam will again see the loss of Ebeyer, though that gap should be fairly easy to fill. Veterans Conrad, Gervais, Rubin, Valentin and Megan Hultgren should expect to return to the lineup, with Rubin and Conrad leading the way, with season highs of 9.9 and 9.875, respectively. Now-sophomore Katie Ford
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also had some excellent exhibitions last season, so with some more training and experience under her belt, she may be able to crack the lineup. To up their scores, veterans will want to zero in on their landings. There were a number of missed opportunities last season for stuck landings, so if they can drill those coming into the 2017 season, the Eagles should be ready to go. Freshman Amanda Arnold is perhaps the
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Slocum will be the biggest loss to the floor lineup as a nationals qualifier and regional champion on the event. Ebeyer also competed floor, typically scoring in the 9.8 range, though she and Slocum both had season highs of 9.9. Ebeyer also had the only E pass on the team, a front double twist. Returners
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Conrad, Gendron, Gervais, Greshman, McEachern, Valentin and Megan Marino all contributed to the floor lineup at some point last season, with McEachern as the highest scorer of the bunch. Most of these gymnasts had some consistency problems on floor in the first half of the season, so there should be a strong push to be fully ready and consistently landing everything at the start. One or two of these girls
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As far as the all around goes, Conrad and Valentin both competed all four regularly last season and should expect to again in the coming year. Both are capable of scores as high as 39.2, averaging a 9.8 on every event. With Slocum and Ebeyer gone, the only consistent three-event gymnast is McEachern, and to compete AA in her senior year, she would need a strong beam routine. This might be too tall an order, as she hasn’t competed beam at all in college, but never say never.
For more on potential lineups, check out our page here, or our previous conference-based series here. If there’s a team you’d like to see us cover, leave us a comment or drop us a line on Twitter — we love to hear from you! We’re already planning on analyzing George Washington, N.C. State, North Carolina and more, so stay tuned!
