High-flying Tkatchevs, straight-as-an-arrow handstands, the most beautiful pointed toes you’ll ever see—there are so many things that can make a good bar routine. However, these gymnasts have the makings of the very best on the event.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Price (Stanford)
No, I didn’t just pick the gymnast that shares my name. Four years of watching this routine will never be enough. I still can’t get over the flawless transition from one Everest-high skill to another. And to top it all off with a stuck double layout? I don’t see how you could choose any other routine for favorite of 2018. Good luck, friends.
Mollie Korth (Kentucky)
This routine is really all about the dismount for me. While the interior of the set is nice, Korth performs one of the best full-twisting double layouts in the game. It’s rail-straight throughout and most importantly stuck. Hitting that dismount time and time again makes any little errors she may have at the beginning of the routine matter just a bit less—at least to me.
Emily M
Hailee Westney (Michigan State)
I love Westney’s calm, deliberate swing. She makes a packed set—including a Maloney, Ray and Pak—look easy. Combine that with her extremely unique stalder to toe-on front half dismount, and I’m in love. She competed this routine with such great extension and attention to detail every time out; it is one of my all-time favorites.
Taylor Houchin (Nebraska)
We missed out on a lot of routines from Houchin in 2018 while she came back from knee surgery, but we got a full season of this bar set. She has some of the best elite-level extension and form outside of actual former elites, in my opinion. I could watch her plant that blind full on top of the bar all day long, and connected into her big Tkatchev? Yes, please.
Rebecca
Kyla Ross (UCLA)
What is there to say? This was the best and most beautiful bars routine in the NCAA in 2018, and it will be again in 2019. Same bar releases, eat your heart out.
Ivy Lu (Minnesota)
Lu on bars is a leading contender for “best routine not to get a 10” in 2018. You can quibble about the handstand timing of her half turn on the low bar, but this routine is exquisite and earned every thousandth of its 9.955 RQS.
Emily H-F
Lexy Ramler (Minnesota)
While my bet is on Ramler getting her beam 10.0 first this routine is equally capable of going there. Exquisite toe point and lines and everything absolutely GLUED together on her Maloney to Pak to van Leeuwen connection. All of her bar work simply floats between the bars. And I too dare anyone to look at this routine and tell me it is less difficult than a Jaeger to overshoot to dismount set.
Lauren Diggan (New Hampshire)
Hop full. HOP FULL CONNECTED TO GIENGER. I love a good hop full, and Diggan’s is typically right on top of the bar. In the days of nearly all bar construction falling into one of about four typical builds, this routine is always a breath of fresh air.
Rachel
Lauren Wilson (UW-La Crosse)
Many people might not agree with this choice as Wilson’s routine wasn’t the flashiest or most difficult set out on the floor, but her lines are what really made this routine special. All the handstands, the toe-shoot, the stuck dismount—truly perfection.
Courtney Christoforo (Ithaca)
Not sure I could have chosen two more different routines. Christoforo is pretty much the exact opposite of Wilson in that she occasionally struggles with technique but has one of the most exciting routines in DIII. Her Maloney to bail combo and double layout made her a standout in her freshman campaign.
There were so many high-flying bar routines we couldn’t mention. What were your favorites? Let us know in the comments below!
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Article by Elizabeth Grimsley, Emily Minehart, Rebecca Scally, Emily Howell-Forbes and Rachel Riesterer
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