The Utah gymnastics team has been voted to win the Pac-12 championships by conference coaches. The Utes are the two-time defending champions and received six of the seven first-place votes. Rival UCLA was chosen as the projected runner up while Stanford was picked to finish third. The Cardinal earned the remaining first-place vote. Oregon State, California, Arizona, Washington and Arizona State round out the top eight in the poll.
In the overall coaches poll, six of the eight Pac-12 teams were voted into the top 25 with Utah sitting at No. 4, UCLA at No. 6 and Stanford at No. 8.
0 Comments
The preseason coaches poll is always a bit wonky. I mean, take a look at this year’s. Boise State got one first place vote. That alone makes you think it’s not super legit. So we decided to do our own power rankings, placing teams into five different tiers. Disagree with our thoughts? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter. Note these rankings are not official. To view the official preseason rankings, visit Road to Nationals. Tier 1: The “No doubt will make it to the Super Six barring alien abduction” teams
No. 1 Oklahoma No. 2 Florida No. 3 Alabama These are the teams that are going to qualify to the Super Six unless their bus breaks down on the way to the meet. Even with first-year head coach Jenny Rowland, Florida will still be one of the teams to beat thanks to standouts like Bridget Sloan, Alex McMurtry and incoming freshman Alicia Boren. Oklahoma is just good, and they’re going to do well. Alabama is not as firmly in this tier as the other two teams, but made its way in partially because it never seems to not qualify to the Super Six. Alabama always seems to find a way to win championships and finish near the top without ever emerging as a clear favorite. - Emily
More teams held their preseason previews over the last week. In part two of our intrasquad recap series, we take a look at Denver, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, UCLA and Utah's showcases. It was the first time for fans to see the 2016 editions of their favorite teams and the last time the gymnasts got to experience a less-stressful competition atmosphere before the season gets underway in January.
Denver
On Friday, Denver held its Gymboree Intrasquad where it scored a 195.25 by taking the top-five scores on each event. Nina McGee earned a 9.95 on floor and a 9.85 on beam. The team scored a 49.0 on beam, a 48.925 on floor, 48.85 on vault and a 48.475 on bars. Catch up on the social media highlights with our Storify and see more scores on Denver'spress release. To see what the Pioneers' lineups might be when the season starts, check our potential lineups based on intrasquads from this fall.
Florida
The Gators held their annual Orange & Blue intrasquad Thursday. The Blue team, led by senior Bridget Sloan, took the win over a young orange team that featured a plethora of freshmen and sophomores. The blue team featured Bridget Sloan, Kennedy Baker, Bianca Dancose-Giambattisto, Grace McLaughlin and Amanda Cheney while the orange team included Ericha Fassbender, Peyton Ernst, Ashley Hiller, Alicia Boren, Alex McMurtry and Bridgette Caquatto. Lacey Dagen, Claire Boyce and Morgan Frazier did not compete. Catch up on highlights from the competition in the video below, view a photo gallery here and see what the Gators' potential lineups for the season might be here.
Oklahoma is the No. 1 team in the country, according to the NACGC/W preseason coaches poll released Tuesday morning. In a bit of a surprise, the Sooners topped the rankings, receiving 29 first place votes and 2266 points total. Typically the first rankings of the year follow closely to the previous season's results. Oklahoma finished third in 2015. Florida came in at second with 15 first place votes and 2234 total points. The Gators are the three-time defending national champions but will be breaking in first-year head coach Jenny Rowland in 2016. Alabama, fourth-place finishers in 2015, is No. 3 in the poll after receiving four first-place votes and 2174 overall points. Despite receiving 14 first-place votes, Utah (2171 points) sits behind Alabama in the poll at No. 4. LSU rounds out the top five with three first-place votes (2119 points). No. 19 Boise State also received one first-place vote. UCLA, Michigan, Stanford, Georgia and Auburn make up the rest of the top 10. The Southeastern Conference has all eight of its members in the top 25 while the Big 10 and Pac-12 conferences each have six. View the entire preseason poll as well as the other 22 teams receiving votes on Road to Nationals. |
Days until the 2017 National ChampionshipsArchives
July 2017
|