The Mount: Week 5

The records so far for our 2016 season college pick em are as follows: Emily (14-7), Elizabeth (16-5), fan vote (14-7).

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. 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.

No. 7 Utah at No. 5 UCLA: Saturday, February 6 at 4 p.m. ET
Utah Preview | UCLA Preview
Always an exciting matchup, this competition will probably be closer than in recent years due to the fact that UCLA has been good from the get go rather than easing into things while Utah is still trying to find its place on the competition floor after losing a whole group of standout seniors. The Bruins will most likely be without Katelyn Ohashi who suffered a fractured sternum from her freak beam malfunction. But with Peng-Peng Lee slowly adding events back and other gymnasts stepping up, the loss won’t be insurmountable. However, Miss Val played around with lineups at Cal and the Bruins ended up losing the meet by more than a small margin. Utah is also without one of its stars as Kari Lee tore her Achilles tendon last week and is out for the rest of the season. Lee’s absence plus the struggles on beam the Utes had Monday will play into whether or not the team can beat a strong Bruin team at home. Utah seems to have fixed its floor problems after mixing up the lineup and posting a 49.625. The edge goes to Utah on vault and bars while beam goes to the Bruins. Floor will really depend on which team performs the best on competition day as the Bruins are No. 1 in the country on the event, but the Utes have the second-highest total this season.

No. 1 Florida at No. 11 Georgia: Friday, February 5 at 7 p.m. ET
Florida Preview | Georgia Preview
Florida’s the overwhelming favorite in this matchup. Even without Gainesville scoring and home fans and maybe even a mistake or two, the team is just better overall than Georgia at this point. But the Gymdogs have the opportunity to make it interesting with a few Florida mistakes and a hit beam rotation. Georgia has an advantage on vault, so don’t be surprised if the Gymdogs lead after one. The lineup features four 10.0 start values and all six can hit their landings when it counts. It’s time for Bridget Sloan to throw the Yurchenko one and a half. She might be the queen of gymnastics at this point, but even the queen needs to get some number under her belt rather than chucking the higher difficulty at the last minute. Bars is up in the air. Georgia can be great on the event, and looking at history, it should be the better team. But the Mc10 last week paired with Bridget Sloan perfection is hard to beat. The beam advantage goes to Florida hands down. Jenny Rowland is a beam coaching guru and Georgia’s been having so much trouble that a hit is all the team can hope for. Anything more will be icing. Floor is the Gators’ to lose. Georgia is strong on the event at home, but the Gators have more polish at this point in the season. Brittany Rogers needs to start scoring above a 9.75 and Brandie Jay needs to hit all her passes for a 9.9+ every meet out for the team to start challenging with the best floor lineups in the country.

No. 8 Arkansas at No. 6 LSU: Friday, February 5 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Arkansas Preview | LSU Preview
Even though Arkansas is coming off two come-from-behind victories in a row against Alabama and Auburn, don’t expect it to happen a third time at LSU. The team will be coming back with a vengeance after having beam mistakes at Metroplex cost it the win. Plus the Tigers at home are a force to be reckoned with. Vault and floor are obvious strong points while bars and beam need to be improved upon but when hit are some of the best as well. Arkansas just needs to stay consistent to be in position to take advantage of any LSU mistakes. And even if those mistakes don’t happen, the team just needs to focus on putting up another strong road performance to add to its case of being a legitimate nationals contender.

No. 19 Illinois at No. 18 Minnesota: Saturday, February 6 at 5 p.m. ET
Illinois Preview | Minnesota Preview
While both teams have underperformed so far this season, this matchup will be more exciting than we once thought. Closely matched in the rankings, both Illinois and Minnesota have stars with a small or no supporting cast to help pick up the slack. Illini Mary Jane Horth and Giana O’Connor have continued to succeed week after week but mistakes from teammates have led to losses and low scores for the team as a whole. LAst time out, Lizzy LeDuc and Sunny Kato finally showed glimpses of greatness. If they can get consistent, Illinois will be able to move up in the rankings. Minnesota has been the Lindsay Mable show lately. But even Mable has had some falls here and there. Bailie Holst had a 9.975 on bars that said, “Hey, I’m here too.” The Gophers need more of that from more people if they want to make any noise at this competition.

No. 20 Arizona at No. 21 California: Monday, February 8 at 10 p.m. ET
Arizona Preview | California Preview
Cal is coming off an upset win over UCLA and season-highs on three events and with its team total. Toni-Ann Williams is coming into form and the rest of the team is just plain pretty to watch. Arizona showed moments of potential against Utah Monday but still has areas of concern that are keeping it from being a challenger in the Pac-12 or even a nationals dark horse. Beam is beautiful to watch but the consistency isn’t there. Vault also needs improvement but isn’t all bad. It’ll come down tow which teams hits the most and which team is sharper on landings. It’ll be the small details that make the difference in this one.

Other Notable Matchups
No. 10 Auburn, No. 56 Illinois State, No. 2 Oklahoma at No. 57 Texas Woman’s: Friday, February 5 at 8 p.m. ET
Auburn Preview | Oklahoma PreviewOklahoma’s goal for this competition will be to continue what it started last week at Metroplex where it posted its season-high and had an overall complete performance to win the challenge. The team is still toying with beam and floor lineups, so beginning to get a good idea of who the starting six will be is important moving into February. Vault landings could be better, so that will be another goal for the Sooners in Texas. Auburn will be without contributing freshmen A’Miracal Phillips and Emma Engler after the pair suffered what appeared to be severe injures at Arkansas last week. Beam is still an issue like many other teams, so improving that will be important. Also becoming more confident on vault landings and shoring up bars and floor details will give the team a solid road score to add to its average moving into RQS calculations in the coming weeks.

No. 25 Kentucky at No. 4 Alabama: Friday, February 5 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Kentucky Preview | Alabama Preview

Alabama was somewhat overshadowed by Florida’s ridiculously good showing last week. The Tide finally put together a complete meet and is beginning to solidify lineups. However, head coach Dana Duckworth is still mixing things up and find the Goldilocks six that will eventually be those on the floor during the post-season. Still with the taste of defeat at home, the Tide will be itching to get back into their home arena to prove the loss to Arkansas was a fluke and won’t happen again. Kentucky will also look to put together a strong road meet and work to hit 49 on any event as it didn’t do that against Georgia last week.

No. 14 Nebraska at No. 27 Iowa: Saturday, February 6 at 12 p.m. ET
Nebraska Preview | Iowa Preview

Nebraska is coming off an upset win over Michigan. The Huskers remained consistent while the Wolverines fell apart on beam in a rare occurrence. Grace WIlliams finally showed up as the gymnast she was recruited as and not a lesser version. That gymnast needs to continue to perform while the others needs to continue to improve as the team moves through the season. Ashley Lambert is MIA and until she returns, the freshmen need to step up to fill the holes. Iowa started the season out not good at all, but have since improved. Continuing that trend is an important next step to moving up in the rankings.

No. 30 Utah State at No. 13 Denver: Saturday, February 6 at 8 p.m. ET
Utah State Preview | Denver Preview

It can’t be the Nina McGee show anymore. But we’re not complaining. McGee won or shared all four events and the all around last weekend at Bowling Green. But she needs help if the Pioneers want to make a push at nationals. Now sitting at No. 13, the team is close to the top 12 and has the capabilities to move up if it can just eliminate the wobbles on beam, improve the landings on vault and get Maggie Laughlin back from injury as soon as possible.

No. 23 West Virginia at No. 2 Oklahoma: Sunday, February 7 at 5 p.m. ET
West Virginia Preview | Oklahoma Preview

Oklahoma is doing double duty this weekend, come back home after a trip to Texas to compete against West Virginia. The Sooners will almost certainly use the second meet in three days to work on anything that didn’t go to plan during Friday’s competition. It’ll also be another opportunity to post a high score at home to add to the RQS bank. West Virginia has done well this season so far. Kirah Koshinski currently sits at No. 7 in the country on vault and Alexis Goldberg is No. 10 on bars. The team is coming off another competition Friday as well, so it will look to improve on the first meet’s results as well.

No. 26 Eastern Michigan, No. 36 Maryland at No. 3 Michigan: Monday, February 8 at 7 p.m. ET
Eastern Michigan Preview | Maryland Preview | Michigan Preview

Michigan will be looking to prove it’s more than just a consistent 196.9 team Monday. Coming off a loss at Nebraska where it had a 48 on an event for the first time since 2014, the team will not only want to bounce back from the mistakes but finally get over the 197 hump and prove it’s not only a nationals-worthy team but a Super Six one as well. The other three events are there, and we believe beam was a fluke, but the Wolverines will need to come out and show that for us to be certain. There’s also that little fact that Eastern Michigan beat Michigan in the preseason intrasquad. It’s unlikely to happen again, but we just thought we’d mention it.

No. 49 Arizona State at No. 12 Stanford: Monday, February 8 at 9 p.m. ET
Arizona State Preview | Stanford Preview

Stanford needs to start the move towards getting better at floor now if it wants to resemble a nationals-worthy team by April. Losing to Washington was a bit of a wake up call for the Cardinal, and floor and vault were the main reasons it happened (although Washington did put together one heck of a meet). Bars and beam are fine with only small things here and there that need to be fixed. Getting Taylor Rice back on floor will also help make the improvements. Arizona State just needs to focus on consistency. Staying on bars and beam are of the utmost importance at this point. ​

No. 15 Oregon State at No. 29 Washington: Monday, February 8 at 10 p.m. ET
Oregon State Preview | Washington Preview

Oregon State improved last week, especially on beam. However, for a team that’s fully capable of hitting 196 every week out, it’s only done it once so far. The Beavers will look to put together consistent events across the board as well as work Kaytianna McMillan back into more lineups. She’s an asset that needs to be utilized. Risa Perez finally got the big score on floor, so doing that again is also something that needs to happen. Washington is coming off an upset over Stanford. The team hit its season-high bar far, but still have places for improvement on vault and floor. If it can do as well or better than it did at metroplex, this could be an interesting meet against Oregon State.

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.