College Week 9 Doodads and Whatnots

Table of contents:
NQS Leaders
Regionals Bubble
Ranking Changes
Meet Upsets
Record Breakers
Postseason Outlook

Top 25 NQS Breakdown

The top 25 teams and the origin story of how their rankings came to be. The RTN rankings are not yet dropping the additional home high for teams with 6 home meets (Missouri), so presumably that will only be taken into account at the end.

Drop Zone Watch

Who’s currently making the postseason top-36 cutoff, and who is set to be jettisoned in a fit of spring cleaning for the April meets

LAST IN

FIRST OUT

Changing It Up

The most significant ranking movement from week 9

–Iowa State moves off the rankings forever
The worst case scenario was realized today as Iowa State announced it has eliminated the women’s gymnastics program entirely. Or, sorry, “reimagined the women’s sports lineup.” See, your team isn’t dead. It’s just been creatively reimagined as not alive anymore.

Of course, we still haven’t received any explanation beyond “complex internal conflicts between individual teammates, coaching staff members, and parents.” OK, you’ve just described every sports team ever. If it’s that bad, then you clean house and hire a new coaching staff, facilitate transfers for anyone who needs to get out of the situation, tell the parents to redirect this same energy into a book club or clothing drive now, and try again. You don’t treat the program like a neck mole you’ve finally decided to have removed.

There’s no way a sport that’s perceived as valuable to a university would ever be shuttered for **um, I think she was mad** so it’s not hard to extrapolate this to all other women’s gymnastics teams as a warning shot not to make too much trouble. Strap on your leo, pose for the camera, and behave quietly. If you have any kind of “conflict,” then that’s going to be our excuse to do what we wanted to do anyway and ditch your losing-me-$$$$$ team rather than making any actual effort to fix the problem. The sad extra outcome is an all-too-familiar chilling effect in which people are afraid to identify unacceptable situations for fear it will become an excuse to take the whole thing away from everyone.

–The fight for regionals seedings
Annnnnnyway. The teams that still exist are trying to get a top-16 seeded position at regionals, and the only major shift toward the top of the rankings this week saw Auburn drop out of the seeded positions to #17 after scoring 196.150 at Oklahoma. Penn State moved up into the top 16 with another top-5 score in program history, a home 197.225 at the Big Ten Or So Quad.

If the season finished this way, Auburn would go into the LSU/Cal regional semifinal as an unseeded spoiler.

–Washington onto the bubble
Washington dropped from #34 to #36 this week after a 194.425 at that same Penn State quad, now occupying the final qualification position for regionals, sitting just .007 ahead of Ball State. Ball State, Rutgers, Towson, and Pitt are all still in half-tenth range of a spot at regionals.

Who’s Upsetting Me Now?

Meet winners who defeated teams ranked ahead of them (at time of meet)

#46 Boise State defeated #31 San Jose State, #32 Arizona State (and #49 Sac State)
And none too soon. Boise State rounded out the weekend with a Sunday victory at San Jose State for the team’s first 196 of the season. Boise State is on the verge of dropping out of regionals contention (10 spots below the cutoff) but is currently sticking around thanks to that 196…as long as another one comes this weekend.

#28 Utah State defeated #26 Southern Utah
Utah State put up the third-best score in school history at 196.875 to defeat Southern Utah on Monday. It…barely counts as an upset because these teams are evenly matched, but Southern Utah was at home and ranked two spots ahead, so there you go. The hosting situation gives it the edge over other “upsets” where the slightly-lower-ranked home team won:
#13 Minnesota defeated #15 Michigan State
#38 Pitt defeated #37 Ball State
#67 West Chester defeated #65 Bridgeport

The other big upset in the non-meet winners category was #48 West Virginia finishing 2nd at the Towson quad, ahead of the hosts #38 Towson. At this point last season, West Virginia was also ranked #48 and went on to make a magical push to get to regionals at the very last second. Again?

Record Breakers

Notable record-breaking (or tying) scores from week 9

Oldest Record Broken
Stanford’s all-around record of 39.825 was first set by Larissa Fontaine on February 21st, 2000. While is was subsequently tied (by Natalie Foley, Lindsay Wing, and Elizabeth Price), Sanford’s all-around record had stood at 39.825 since that day in 2000. Until Anna Roberts scored 39.875 last Friday to break it.

Oldest Record Broken (runner-up)
Erin Roe of Ursinus smashed the team’s old all-around record by going 38.950 at the Towson quad meet, besting the mark of 38.675 that had originally been set by Kaelin Ruoss in 2015.

Team Event Records
Florida 49.800 BB
Yale 48.900 VT

Team Event Records (tied)
Stanford 49.600 VT
Southern Utah 49.325 VT

Individual School Records (tied)
Skye Blakely 10.000 BB for Florida
Kailin Chio 10.000 BB for LSU
Kailin Chio 10.000 BB for LSU again
Anna Roberts 10.000 VT for Stanford
Maggie Slife 9.925 VT for Air Force
Erin Roe 9.825 VT for Ursinus

Team Total Top 5s
Stanford 198.150 (#2)
Air Force 195.825 (#2)
Whitewater 194.025 (#2)
Utah State 196.875 (#3)
Penn State 197.225 (#4)
Ursinus 191.775 (#4)

All-Around Top 5s
Cara Wong 38.100 for Gustavus (#4)

If It Ended Today…

If the season ended today, the regionals draw would be

#1: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Michigan, Penn State
(@ Kentucky)
#2: LSU, Missouri, Stanford, Cal
(@ LSU)
#3: Alabama, Georgia, Michigan St, Clemson
(@ Arizona St)
#4: Florida, UCLA, Utah, Minnesota
(@ Oregon St)