By Caroline Medley
Today we’ll take a look at the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and how they’ll stack up in the coming season. Losing a large crop of seniors could definitely hurt them, but with a strong class of diverse freshmen, they could make up the ground they lose. Seniors Emma Hoffman, Claudia Salinas, Katie Stebick, Jenna Williams and Nicolette Wilson were all regular contributors to at least one event, so both veterans and freshmen will have to step up to fill those holes.
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By Caroline Medley We are back with our Big 10 potential lineup analysis series! Today we take a look at the Penn State Nittany Lions, who will be looking to improve on their 25th place finish in the 2016 regular season. Losing no seniors and gaining three solid freshmen, their depth should easily increase, but they’ll need more than that to crack the top 20. On vault, the Lions should return two 10.0 start value vaults. Briannah Tsang has a stellar Yurchenko 1.5 that earned her a 9.9 last year, and now that she’s healthy, Emma Sibson should return her handspring pike half as well. In addition, Kiera Brown, Sabrina Garcia, Mason Hosek, Jessica Jones, Gianna LaGuardia, Chanen Raygoza and Oni Timothy will all be expected to return Yurchenko fulls. However, none of them scored above a 9.875 all season. So if the team wants to up their vault scores, they’re going to want to clean things up. The biggest issue is form on landings — a lot of gymnasts are piking down early to try to stick. Focusing on height in the block will give them more time to finish their twist, and then they can go for the stick. Incoming freshmen Kristen Politz and Mikayla Waddell should also expect to contend for lineup spots with their fulls. Both are former state or regional vault champions, so they could definitely surprise come January. Bars will see the return of six regular contributors: Brown, Garcia, Jones, Raygoza, Tsang and Nicole Medvitz. All of them regularly scored in the 9.75-9.85 range and were fairly consistent, though all of them could raise those scores with some finer attention to detail. Freshman Tess McCracken could also hope for a lineup spot with her long lines and powerful Tkachev. Here, the Lions only have seven potential contributors (maybe eight as LaGuardia made a few lineups, though inconsistently) to fill six slots. If anyone gets injured, bars could potentially be a tight event for Penn State. By Caroline Medley Today’s installment of the Big 10 features the Ohio State Buckeyes! Having lost seniors Rachel Abrams, Maggie Dunn and and Samantha Kent, the Buckeyes retain many of their key players, including all of their all arounders. With the addition of five freshmen and Alabama transfer Amanda Huang, Ohio State should be in for an even better season this year. Vault will be a bit different for the Buckeyes, as one of their two 10.0 vaults has now been downgraded to a 9.95. Jamie Stone’s Yurchenko arabian is still clean and could potentially make a lineup, but it will likely no longer be given preference over a full. Michelle Burns, Taylor Harrison, Kaitlyn Hofland, Stefanie Merkle and Jaine VanPutten will all return fulls, and returning as the anchor should be Alexis Mattern. Barring any upgrades, her handspring front pike half will be the only 10.0 vault of the bunch. Transfer Huang as well as freshmen Nevin Adamski and Olivia Aepli should also bring solid fulls to the table and may contend for lineup spots depending on their execution. Also not to be counted out should be Casey Carvalho, a former Canadian national team member, who did not contribute in her freshman season. Her Yurchenko full scored fairly well in execution when she competed elite, so with some work, she could make a push to be in the lineup. By Caroline Medley Today we’ll take a look at the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who finished the regular 2016 season ranked 12th. Though the team only loses two seniors, Hollie Blanske and Madison McConkey contributed some key routines and could be hard to replace. But if all its gymnasts are healthy, and it utilizes its newcomers well, Nebraska may just be able to do it. Vault will see the loss of Blanske, who competed the team’s only 10.0 vault, the Yurchenko 1.5. Sienna Crouse, Jennie Laeng, Ashley Lambert, Catelyn Orel, Megan Schweihofer and Grace Williams will all return fulls, and Danielle Breen will bring back her Yurchenko half. Maryland transfer Abbie Epperson will also bring in a solid full, but she’ll need to clean up her landing if she wants to contend with the other veterans. Incoming freshman Alexa Clark has been training a Yurchenko full for some time, so she may be gunning for a lineup spot. But the biggest freshman story at Nebraska will be Taylor Houchin. She placed first in her subdivision at J.O. nationals this year and tied for second on vault with her 1.5. She’ll definitely be a great asset to the Husker team. By Caroline Medley Today we’ll take a look at the Minnesota Golden Gophers! You may be wondering - what happened to Michigan State? Not to worry. We haven’t forgotten it, but we believe the Spartans have some surprises in store for us on their roster this year. So we’ve elected to wait until they release it. In the meantime, we’ll continue our Big 10 series with Minnesota. The Gophers will feel some significant holes left by the senior class. Madeline Hanley, Lindsay Mable and Hanna Nordquist were all key contributors to the team last year, and their team will miss them dearly. However, with a class of seven freshmen and the leadership of coach Jenny Hansen, Minnesota should be able to put together a great campaign. |
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July 2017
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