Minnesota at Michigan

Recap

The Big Storyline: The first half of this one went about as expected, with good vaulting on both sides, and exceptional bars from Michigan. Minnesota started the night on bars with some sloppy landings and missing some positions, giving Michigan the early lead. All hell broke loose in the third rotation. Nicoletta Koulos fell on beam in the two spot for Michigan. Erin Fortman followed that with an awkward fall on her last pass that left her looking sore and confused. Maddie Mariani fell on beam next, and Ali Sonier had a bizarre floor outing with falls on her first two passes. She seemed visibly injured and extremely frustrated. The fourth rotation wasn’t much better, with two more major mistakes for each team. It was a weird one, and both teams would like to forget it and move on.

Implications: There was a lot of panic about this meet on Twitter, but the reality is that this is week two for these teams after an abbreviated preseason. We saw Oklahoma melt down with four falls this weekend, too, and even Florida has shown uncharacteristic weaknesses. This season is going to be weird. There will be meets like this. NQS will only count four numbers this year. Both teams will drop this meet; it’s not the end of the world. More concerning is the possible Gopher injuries. The team does not have great floor depth at the moment, so we should keep our eye on that.

Records: The Wolverines’ back-to-back 49.400 numbers on bars in their first two outings of the year put them in rarified air. Since 1998, only Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia have completed the feat.

Controversies: Crisler floor strikes again! We’ve heard rumblings over the years from gymnasts that the Crisler Center floor is, in a word, a rock. In this one, it seemed to have a dead spot; most gymnasts who fell did so in the same corner, and we could see the floor depress quite a bit in slow motion replays. Here’s hoping that gets addressed before Michigan’s next home contest.

Preview

Current Rankings: No. 4 Minnesota at No. 3 Michigan

Why You Should Cancel Plans for It: Both Michigan and Minnesota came out swinging during the first week of competition, becoming the second and third teams in Big Ten history to open the season with a 197 or higher. Minnesota has become something of a power team: Its best event is shaping up to be floor and tit has the potential for four 10.0 starts on vault (just one shy of Michigan’s five). Both teams had a weaker-than-normal event last week, so we will be watching to see if they can clean those up to build on that performance. All in all it should be a really exciting matchup. 

What We’re Watching: Minnesota’s vault rotation: While they managed to salvage it with strong 1.5s from Ramler, Loper and Quarles, there were some things happening on that event last week. Mya Hooten balked on hers and then they threw in a layout from Emily Koch to finish off and avoid counting a zero. We know they are capable of more there. Similarly, we have our eye on Michigan lineups: Nicoletta Koulos performed an exhibition routine on every event but floor, but was one of the most solid performers of the day. We expect to see her breaking into more lineups. 

What Else You Should Know Before Tuning In: The last time these two teams met in a dual meet was 2012(!), so be prepared for an exciting face-off between two of the top ranked teams in the country and enjoy a preview of what we can expect at Big Tens in March.