Week two has just wrapped up. Or, if you prefer, week one part two. This week wasn’t any more normal or settled than last, with half of our teams making their debuts and few clean resolutions to the weirder tendencies of the teams who had their second meets. UCLA fixed itself and more, which is great, but Oklahoma’s still running five all-arounders and Michigan is still… like that. More to the point, I don’t feel any more empowered to declare which problems are real and which ones are just part of the journey. Everything has the potential to be a funny memory come March, and everything has the potential to be the beginning of the end.
Here’s what I’m watching, anticipating, and worrying about while I wait for this season to get normal.
Question: Have we reached peak neutral site invitational?
The first two weeks of this season featured more big neutral site meets than ever before. Were they better than the non-conference duals we used to have? Not really. Could we even watch them? Well, sometimes. Do the teams enjoy this? Debatable. Do they increase the number of eyes on college gymnastics? Emphatically not, especially when they can’t manage to start selling tickets until a few days before the meet.
What are we doing here? Sprouts at least got gymnastics into an NBA arena, which was cool, and on television, which is always a win. But the others? In the past, some of these meets have had really favorable scoring environments, which at least explains why teams are motivated to attend them even if it’s not ideal for fans who care about things like fairness. This year’s crop of neutral site meets didn’t even offer that. (I’m not complaining. Just an observation.)
The rumor mill does indicate to me that teams are tiring of these meets, or at least the unproven ones without television partnerships that are liable to break promises about video coverage and live scores. I wonder if next season will bring fewer, or at least fewer big teams in attendance.
Bonus Questions:
Everything OK, Wilberforce? First seasons tend to be a little rocky, and I have nothing but praise for the timeline on which Wilberforce had to go from not existing as a concept to the competition floor. (I also have nothing but praise for the leotards!) I’m just hoping that the reasons for this weekend’s incomplete team scores are more along the lines of conservative management of minor injuries or temporary illnesses than anything unpleasant.
Will Utah look less nervy this week? Coming at No. 4 live, the Utes shouldn’t complain too much about the way this season has started. (They might anyway.) Still, you get the impression watching this team that it would be relatively easy to score quite a bit higher. Avery Neff improving on every event week-over-week feels great, but it was balanced out by an increase in weird jittery errors by the rest of the team. It’s not that big of a deal; plenty of teams are doing much worse right now. I only comment on it because compared to what those other teams are struggling with, Utah’s problems feel easily fixable.
Comment: This is just how Florida works now.
Florida pulled out a home win despite counting a major error? Half of Florida’s stars didn’t compete on floor, but Lori Brubach did? The super pretty bars specialist fell? Somebody we thought wouldn’t be healthy enough to compete yet made a lineup and hit? There were some super baffling scoring splits and Twitter’s upset? Where I have I heard this one before?
Oh right, those things all happened in Florida’s 2024 home opener as well.
There’s a sense of inevitability about the Gators right now: They’ll phone it in in January in the name of pacing, get serious with the lineups in February, look good enough to be in the mix for the title but never the favorite, do enough in semifinals, and then fall short. Selena Harris-Miranda is good enough to be the person who changes that; I can’t wait for the first meet when she and Leanne Wong are both at 100%. For now, it feels like the same old story. I’m not going to get either upset or excited yet.
Bonus Comments:
I loved the idea of Kyrstin Johnson at Temple from the beginning, and it’s even more fun than I imagined. The big numbers will come. Temple is a great fit for someone who can own a stage like she can. It’s a team and a fan base that can match her energy, and that’s saying something.
I’m liking Penn State’s start. If you’d told me in preseason that Ava Piedrahita and Bella Salcedo would both be out, presumed injured, come January, I would have imagined that the Nittany Lions would be hurting right now. Apparently, they’ve got the depth not only to fill lineups without seven of their best returning routines, but also to score and rank very competitively. I was hoping for a great season for Penn State, and it looks like I might get it, even if it looks a little different than planned.
Concern: Is Georgia…the same as always?
Georgia grabbed headlines all through preseason with its coaching hires and transfer portal moves. It’s silly to expect a night-and-day transformation with a new coaching staff; gymnastics teams take time and TLC to evolve in a positive direction. Still, it’s at least a little bit funny how much Georgia felt like its old self in its opening meet this week.
Between injuries to major contributors, role players filling lineup spots that were projected to be taken by bigger names, and a good old-fashioned beam meltdown, this was classic Georgia, and not in the good way. There’s plenty of time to work out the kinks, and returning to Stegeman this week is a great opportunity to start. (I’ve envisioned Nyla Aquino as Stegeman’s new darling since she committed, so I’m excited to see that come to fruition.) I’m not making any prophecies of doom here. I’m genuinely just tickled that after such sweeping changes and such extensive hype, the vibes are so very familiar.
Bonus Concerns:
Poor LIU. I’m so glad this team got a new coaching staff, but this season was always going to be very challenging after Syd Morris’ retirement and is now even more challenging in the absence of several expected major contributors. Hopefully this is just a bump on the road to happier and more successful times.
Michigan should have seen this coming. The Wolverines’ poor development and attrition of underclassman talent over the last few years was always going to lead to the spot we’re in right now, where freshmen and inexperienced returners have to shoulder a heavy burden and struggle to do it. A pettier person might point out that some of us have been raising the alarm about this for years and were dismissed as bitter haters. This team will be fine, and this pressure will probably galvanize the freshmen and help them through the rest of their careers. It just didn’t have to be this tough of a transition period.
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Article by Rebecca Scally
