Week 2 was a little chaotic, with brilliance coming from unexpected places and some struggles on the biggest stages. Here’s what I’m wondering, pondering, and worrying about as we begin to settle into the real part of the 2026 NCAA gymnastics season.
Question: Is Stanford a normal gymnastics team this year?
Usually, the first half of a Stanford gymnastics season is high-grade chaos. Three important returners are AWOL, and we can’t get an explanation. None of the important freshmen are in lineups. There’s no sixth floor routine, and we’re scoring a 192 for some reason. I’ve learned to have patience, because when things settle down in March, the results are well worth the wait.
But I’m taken a little off guard this year to see the Cardinal have a first meet that was actually completely normal. The lineups were sensible, the freshmen were mostly present and successful, and the score was good. I don’t know what this version of Stanford even is! Was all the chaos concentrated into Summer Gronski’s vault?
Bonus Questions:
Where did Jenny Rowland get her iridescent silver pants? Because that was a LOOK.
Why didn’t I know how sick Utah State’s bars is? I absolutely loved this rotation at Best of Utah. A Shushunova and a Deltchev in the same rotation—both executed well? Sign me up. So fabulous.
Comment: Michigan State didn’t roar out of the gates quite like I expected.
The Spartans were absolutely not panic-worthy at Sprouts, and some of the mistakes, like Sage Kellerman totally missing her block on vault, were almost certainly flukes. But this is one of the teams I had the highest expectations for going into 2026, and I’d hoped to see more hints of that early on.
There’s a lot of room to grow on landings and some form/position issues, especially on bars and beam. I also didn’t love seeing a couple of underrotated vaults. The personnel situation is mostly fine (though having Olivia Zsarmani in lineups wouldn’t hurt…), so I was expecting to see a higher level of readiness. It could just be pacing. It certainly wasn’t a bad meet.
Bonus Comments:
What a spectacular upset by San Jose State this week! With a very impactful senior class graduating in 2025 and arguably the Spartans’ best gymnast transferring in the offseason, it would have been understandable for San Jose State to have a bit of a rebuild this year. Instead, it took down Arizona State in Tempe in its season opener—a really impressive result for a team that looks firmly back in the mix for regionals.
Texas Woman’s probably had the biggest result of the week. No. 25 and a win over Pittsburgh, with two events ranked in the top 20 and an opening meet record by like a point and a half! Unbelievable meet, especially for this time of year. That score would probably win WCGNICs.
Concern: Utah will have wanted a lot more out of this weekend.
Utah started the season with three big meets in 10 days, all in Salt Lake City, and then has almost two weeks off before competing again. Getting over 197.000 only once and ranking outside of the top 10 was not the plan.
The Sprouts meltdown was maybe an isolated incident, and Utah was hardly the only team to have a troubling go of it at that meet. Coming back stronger on Monday at Best of Utah will have softened the blow significantly. Having two weeks to troubleshoot may also turn out to be a good thing at this juncture. But the big picture is that Utah will enter week four without a single score it really wants to use for its NQS, despite a lineup of meets that should have been really favorable. It’ll be an uphill battle from here. Utah is a team that historically can channel anger into productivity. We’ll see what this team looks like in Ames on January 25.
Bonus Concerns:
I expected Arkansas to be doing more with all of those freshmen. I get that there aren’t infinite lineup spots, and Morgan Price naturally was going to take up quite a few of them. But to have the No. 2 freshman class in the country and only get one into lineups makes me a little sad.
What a nightmare start for Kentucky. I’m trying not to overreact since there really were bright spots in this meet. The Wildcats dug really deep and made some excellent saves to avoid counting a fall on beam after a leadoff miss, and I was delighted to see the extraordinarily talented Anna Flynn Cashion back in action after missing most of her freshman season. But it was really not good, and the issues with the floor lineup in particular were pervasive.
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Article by Rebecca Scally
