Fantasy gym—like everything since March—is a little different this season. The official game isn’t running because of all of the uncertainty. We know a number of you are playing in private leagues, so Fantasy Central lives on!
We’re keeping the College Fantasy Gymnastics weekly cadence as our guide: As far as we’re concerned, the fantasy “week” begins with any Wednesday meets, and ends with Tuesday meets; that’s why you’ll find us here every Tuesday talking about “next week”.
Reminder: Alaska, Bridgeport, Brockport, Brown, Cornell, Cortland, Ithaca, Penn, Ursinus, West Chester, UC Davis and Yale are not competing this season.
[UPDATED 1/12/2020 3:56 ET] Rutgers has pulled out of its tri meet at Michigan due to COVID cases in the program. The meet will now be a dual between Ohio State and Michigan.
Injury Updates:
- Kailey Gillings – Pitt – unknown season ending injury (1/4)
- Tori Loomis – Utah State – opted out of 2021 season (1/7)
- Sofi Sullivan – Utah State – opted out of 2021 season (1/7)
- Lauren Bannister – Bowling Green – torn achilles (1/8)
- Lara Burhans – Utah State – unknown injury; should be back sometime during season (1/8)
- Rachael Lukacs – Georgia – broken finger (1/8)
- Alisa Sheremeta – Missouri – missed week one for COVID-related issues (1/8)
- Anna LaCroix – Sac State – torn ACL (1/8)
- Sheridan Ramsey – Oklahoma – torn Achilles in September; expected to be back later in the season (1/9)
- Olivia Trautman – Oklahoma – will miss the first half of the 2021 season (1/10)
COVID Schedule Changes
We’ve had a lot of Big Ten schedule times rolling in slowly. Be sure to check our schedule for the most up-to-date meet times. So far, only times have changed, and there have been no cancellations.
We still don’t have full Pac-12 or MPSF schedules.
Week 2 Byes and Doubles
Byes: Arizona, Ball State, California, Centenary, Central Michigan, Gustavus Adolphus, Hamline, Michigan State, North Carolina, Northern Illinois, Sac State, San Jose State, Stanford, UCLA, Utah State, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout, UW-Whitewater, Washington, West Virginia, Western Michigan, Winona State
Note that the entire Big Ten is competing except Michigan State. On the other hand, the entire Pac-12 is out, except Arizona State, Oregon State and Utah, which have meets. The MPSF remains a mystery. On the MAC side, only Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan and Kent State will see action.
Our advice? Triple check the schedule before setting lineups.
Deep Cuts for Deep Leagues in Week 2
Tips for those of you in leagues with 10-plus players, where you need to be a little more creative to fill out lineups; especially in SEC bye weeks.
Vault
Ball State is on a bye this week, but if you’re looking for a savvy pickup for future insurance, Marissa Nychyk is a perennial vault savior; she competed in the all around last year, and did so at the team’s intrasquad last week. Teammate and freshman Hannah Ruthberg was in the all around as well. Mia Townes has a new Yurchenko 1.5 for Illinois. We’ve seen Martina Comin vault a few times on Nebraska’s Instagram stories, so she may crack that lineup.
Bars
Eastern Michigan is off this week, but consider picking up Raisa Boris if you’re short a bars score. She looked great at the Eagles’ intrasquad and should get you beam and floor scores as well. Illinois’ Mallory Mizuki has missed two years with consecutive ACLs, but we expect to see her on bars and possibly beam this weekend. Ohio State’s Elexis Edwards made the top six in the Buckeyes’ intrasqaud last weekend.
Beam
We don’t know where Dani Castillo is; she missed the Iowa intrasquad and has been posting Instagram updates from home in Miami; whether or not she’ll be in Iowa City this week remains a mystery. Note that in a radio interview, Sarah Brown did not mention Abi Walker in regards to Penn State’s beam lineup; we’d hold her out for now if you picked her up.
Floor
In that same interview, Brown notes that Erynne Allen has a new floor pass that Penn State hasn’t seen in years; we’re anticipating big E tumbling! Don’t forget that Kent State has some spectacular floor workers in Abby Fletcher, Jade Brown and Olivia Amodei.
Starts, Sits and Pickups for Week 2
Are you playing in a smaller league and still looking for advice about big names? Are you in a deep league but not sure what to do with that OU beam specialist? These tips are for you!
Vault
Rylie Mundell struggled at the Denver intrasquad here; she sat her Yurchenko 1.5 in competition and didn’t hit any in warmups. We saw Jaedyn Rucker and Alexia Burch roll up to Best of Utah in boots; both competed, so we can assume they’re precautionary. Something to watch, though.
Bars
Iowa State’s intrasquad lineup gives us some clues: Madelyn Langkamp, Addy de Jesus, Makayla Maxwell, Laura Cooke, Jade Vella-Wright and Natalie Horowitz all landed competition spots, with Andrea Maldonado and Phoebe Turner as alternates. Mia Sundstrom was not dressed out for Denver’s intrasquad; we’d keep her out of lineups for now. The Gophers’ intrasquad didn’t feature Ella Sirjord on bars as expected; we don’t know why. We’d keep her out of the lineup for now.
Beam
If you’re an Alabama fan, you know this lineup can get chaotic; Lexi Graber was pulled from the lineup after a bars fall, with Emily Gaskins subbing in at the last minute. We expect that Graber will get the spot this week. It’s unclear why Luisa Blanco wasn’t in this lineup. This is a deep event for Michigan, but we assume freshman Carly Bauman will make the top six, along with her new double tuck dismount. Minnesota’s Mya Hooten was in an alternate spot on beam in the Gopher intrasquad; she’s all around capable, but keep her on three for now. Rachael Lukacs is back at least to training beam for the Gymdogs; we don’t know when she’ll be back in competition, but don’t fret too much about her absence.
Floor
Denver’s intrasquad featured Lynnzee Brown back in the all around, but she competed floor in the seventh spot; she may be an alternate here for the time being, so proceed with caution. Teammate Amoree Lockhart wasn’t dressed out for the intrasquad and should be held from lineups for now; she did show some rod floor tumbling. We also noted Alexandra Ruiz with a new full-in, and we saw Alexis Vasquez add floor. We don’t yet know why Megan Monfredi was out for Kentucky.
Notes from the Fantasy Roundtable
Utah State doesn’t have a meet this week, but coach Amy Smith noted on Facebook that Autumn DeHarde, who didn’t compete at Best of Utah, had a “dinger” and should be back when the team returns from its bye.
We should see Hallie Thompson on every event except floor when North Carolina sees action, per coach Marie Case Denick.
Article by Emily Minehart with additional reporting from Jenna King, Mary Emma Burton, Kalley Leer, Talitha Ilacqua, Tara Graeve and Rebecca Scally
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