0 Comments
Tuesday, August 2
Check out freshman Erynne Allen's new tumbling! Watch on her Instagram here.
By Caroline Medley Today we take a look at last year’s Pac-12 Champions, the UCLA Bruins. The loss of their seniors will be substantial, as team leaders and lineup stalwarts Sadiqua Bynum, Sophina DeJesus and Danusia Francis have all graduated. However, with the large, talented class joining the team this year, including Olympic gold medalists Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian, the Bruins should be more than capable of filling in the blanks. With all the new talent coming in, vault may be a bit of a question mark until the day of the first competition. While the team will lose a 10.0 vault in Bynum’s Yurchenko Arabian, it’ll turn out not to matter much since the vault is being downgraded to a 9.95 this season anyway. While many Bruin veterans from last season’s lineup will be returning, some of them are capable of harder vaults than they performed in 2016. In addition, many of the newcomers are capable of very difficult vaults but may perform easier ones in order to maintain cleaner form. The only 10.0 start value vault that will return for sure is Napualani Hall’s Yurchenko 1.5. In addition, Angi Cipra, Rechelle Dennis, JaNay Honest, Peng-Peng Lee, Sonya Meraz, Katelyn Ohashi and Madison Preston all performed useable Yurchenko fulls last season with Preston’s being the best of the group. Ohashi performed the double in her elite days, so it’s possible she may work her way up from the full during the season. The freshman class boasts three former US National Team members — Felicia Hano, Kocian and Ross — who have all performed the Yurchenko double in the past. Kocian has stuck to the full lately, even at the Olympics, so it’s likely she’ll keep that for NCAA competition. Hano and Ross will also likely downgrade to the full, at least to start out, to focus on clean execution and get comfortable competing in the college environment. J.O. standouts the Glenn twins, Anna and Grace, who are known for their extremely clean gymnastics, have Yurchenko fulls as well. But with so many veterans doing the same vault, it’ll be tough for them to crack the lineup. Bars will also see the return of many veterans with useable routines. However, the incoming freshmen may overshadow many of them. Dennis, Honest, Meraz, Ohashi, Melissa Metcalf, Hallie Mossett and
By Elizabeth Grimsley
By Caroline Medley Today we focus on the Stanford Cardinal, who loses a stellar senior class. Melissa Chuang, Jenna Frowein, Ivana Hong and Taylor Rice will leave major holes in all four lineups, but with the addition of some strong freshmen, the team shouldn’t suffer much. Like many NCAA teams, Stanford used mostly full-twisting Yurchenkos in its lineups last season. The only gymnasts returning from that group in 2017 will be Taryn Fitzgerald and Dani and Nikki McNair. In addition, Elizabeth Price often performed a Yurchenko double, but she had the only 10.0 start value vault on the team in 2016. This leaves only four vaults for the lineup, but the incoming Cardinal should be able to fill in the blanks. Kaylee Cole, Texas Dreams alum and Bolivian elite, has competed both the Yurchenko full and double full in competition. She’s actually scored a 9.9 with the double in the past, so if she can consistently keep that kind of form, she may be successful competing it for Stanford. In addition, both California local Ashley Tai and Canadian elite Aleeza Yu both have excellent Yurchenko fulls to contribute. Yu, however, may not be up to full strength at the beginning of the season, as she got injured during the Elite Canada meet earlier this year. Consistency was a major problem for Stanford on bars last season. Returning to the lineup this season should be both McNairs, Price and Dare Maxwell, and each of them fell at least once last season. Finding a groove on this event will be key to the team’s success, both for those veterans and the |
Days until the 2017 National ChampionshipsArchives
July 2017
|