Last weekend, we watched the top NCAA gymnasts compete for team and individual national titles, with some of the strongest routines we’ve seen all season. In the regular season, each event is judged by two judges. For regionals, it goes up to four judges, with the high and low scores dropped and an average of the two middle scores. At nationals, however, there are six judges all watching for any small error, and a gymnast must get a 10.0 from at least five of those judges to receive a perfect 10.
Considering how difficult it is to score a 10.0 at nationals, it’s no surprise we only had one. Here I’ll break down the deductions I saw when watching the video in real time, and rank the 10.0 from one to five stars. As a reminder, here’s my rating scale:
⭐ This was clearly not a 10.0 routine (but still very good!)
⭐⭐ There was definitely a deduction there, but maybe the judges blinked?
⭐⭐⭐ 10.0 vibes, but not actually perfect
⭐⭐⭐⭐ It was a “college 10”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 100% a perfect routine
Vault
Kailin Chio (LSU), April 18
Deductions
Chio is known for her consistency, so since there was only one 10 this month, I did a side-by-side comparison of her nationals semifinal (on the right) and team final (on the left) vaults. As you can see, she has some leg separation on her pre-flight in both vaults, and both vaults have a small shoulder angle. These deductions are almost impossible to see in real time, but they do exist. She also has a small leg form deduction in her team final vault. In both, her form in the air and landing were flawless. In the team finals, she got a 10.0, and in the semifinal, she received a 9.9625.
In my opinion, although both were not perfect, the semifinal vault was better than the team final vault and should have scored higher. It was also cleaner than Keira Wells, this year’s NCAA vault champion, who had an early twist, some leg separation in her pre-flight and on the table, and a small balance error on her landing.
Using Lily Pederson as an example, she shows what a perfect pre-flight and block should look like.
If I had to rank these three vaults, it would be Pederson (who had a small knee bed in the air), Chio, then Wells.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Article by Rhiannon Franck
Rhiannon Franck is a former national-rated NAWGJ women’s gymnastics judge with over 15 years of USAG judging experience and nine seasons judging NCAA gymnastics. Outside of gymnastics, Franck works at a university as a nursing professor and loves to travel.
