Nice meet overall. Let's get the downside out of the way.
Slightly disappointing things were (1) we struggled on the beam, (2) a couple of questionable scoring decisions, and (3) the meet ended in a tie with Arkansas at 197.525 each.
Several positives:
- The score was a season high.
- New faces continue to make contributions
- Really solid performances on vault and bars. Passable overall on floor with one massively clutch routine.
Meet Summary:
- I strongly disagreed with scoring for Mati Waligora's beam. One judge said 9.8, which I thought was about right. The other said 9.6, and it's highly unusual for two judges to disagree by that much. Caused her final score to be 9.7, which mattered a lot because....
- Next lady up, Lili Hudson, fell. We were now two gymnasts into the apparatus with one below-average score and one fall.
- Third up was Ella Burgess. She showed great poise under major pressure, and turned in a 9.95. We had one scary wobble later on, but Rachel Rybicki steadied herself and we got off that danged apparatus with a ding, but not a disaster. On to the floor, with a former 0.225 lead whittled to 0.050.
- Mati Waligora got a fair score on the floor, but then a 0.1 deduction. For what, I don't know. I didn't see her step out of bounds. Regardless, she again ended with a 9.7 that I thought should have been better.
- Give Arkansas huge credit -- while we were on the floor clawing our way back, their first five gymnasts absolutely nailed their turn on the beam. The sixth fell, but given the first five scores, it's unlikely she would have improved the final total.
Credit to them. They're good, too.
- So we went into the last floor routine needing a massive performance. And in the clutch, Lily Hudson delivered. She redeemed her earlier fall on the beam with a 9.95 on the floor. Which got us to our best score so far this year, and a tie for the meet.
Gymnastics ranks teams by average score, not W-L record. So the high score was far more important than getting up off the mat (literally) to fight back for the tie. Still, competitive instinct kicks in, and it was nice not to get the L at home.
Luisa Blanco didn't compete in the floor or the bars. She didn't appear limited on either the vault or beam where she did well -- 9.95 and 9.85, respectively -- or on the sidelines. No obvious wrapping, taping, whatever. I don't know why she didn't do all four events.
Broader observations:
I think Ashley Johnston has instilled some confidence that we might have lost in the last couple of years of the previous regime. Ella Burgess delivered a 9.95 on the beam immediately after watching Lili Hudson's fall. Just a few minutes later, Hudson herself had a magnificent performance on the floor. To me, that indicates a fighter's mindset.
It just seems that we're competing more unafraid. Definitely not reckless (in gymnastics, the downside of reckless is just too great), but without the fear of mistake that I sometimes saw a couple of years ago.
I don't know Johnston. Never even met her. She looks like she just got out from a Kappa Kappa Gamma alumnae meeting. But I think she's really the proverbial steel magnolia. She's definitely a leader.
I'm also not sure of the gymnastics judging structure. To my untrained eyes, it looked like there were two active judges for each apparatus, plus someone else who didn't score. The third person seemed to be observing. Maybe a supervisor?
Anyway, Coach Johnston was talking to her with an, "Are you sure? Seriously?" look on her face. I couldn't hear what she said but could lip-read "Really?" more than once, combined with an incredulous facial expression. The gymnastics version of chewing on the refs, I guess.
Glancing at national scores, it looks like Oklahoma is a clear #1, and everybody else is competing for #2. Still, you never know what can happen on a given night, and I like what I see from this team.
I thought the opportunity for improvement is in consistency -- we seemed to have higher highs than Arkansas, but also lower lows. Admittedly, the scoring questions could have had an effect on that.
Slightly disappointing things were (1) we struggled on the beam, (2) a couple of questionable scoring decisions, and (3) the meet ended in a tie with Arkansas at 197.525 each.
Several positives:
- The score was a season high.
- New faces continue to make contributions
- Really solid performances on vault and bars. Passable overall on floor with one massively clutch routine.
Meet Summary:
- I strongly disagreed with scoring for Mati Waligora's beam. One judge said 9.8, which I thought was about right. The other said 9.6, and it's highly unusual for two judges to disagree by that much. Caused her final score to be 9.7, which mattered a lot because....
- Next lady up, Lili Hudson, fell. We were now two gymnasts into the apparatus with one below-average score and one fall.
- Third up was Ella Burgess. She showed great poise under major pressure, and turned in a 9.95. We had one scary wobble later on, but Rachel Rybicki steadied herself and we got off that danged apparatus with a ding, but not a disaster. On to the floor, with a former 0.225 lead whittled to 0.050.
- Mati Waligora got a fair score on the floor, but then a 0.1 deduction. For what, I don't know. I didn't see her step out of bounds. Regardless, she again ended with a 9.7 that I thought should have been better.
- Give Arkansas huge credit -- while we were on the floor clawing our way back, their first five gymnasts absolutely nailed their turn on the beam. The sixth fell, but given the first five scores, it's unlikely she would have improved the final total.
Credit to them. They're good, too.
- So we went into the last floor routine needing a massive performance. And in the clutch, Lily Hudson delivered. She redeemed her earlier fall on the beam with a 9.95 on the floor. Which got us to our best score so far this year, and a tie for the meet.
Gymnastics ranks teams by average score, not W-L record. So the high score was far more important than getting up off the mat (literally) to fight back for the tie. Still, competitive instinct kicks in, and it was nice not to get the L at home.
Luisa Blanco didn't compete in the floor or the bars. She didn't appear limited on either the vault or beam where she did well -- 9.95 and 9.85, respectively -- or on the sidelines. No obvious wrapping, taping, whatever. I don't know why she didn't do all four events.
Broader observations:
I think Ashley Johnston has instilled some confidence that we might have lost in the last couple of years of the previous regime. Ella Burgess delivered a 9.95 on the beam immediately after watching Lili Hudson's fall. Just a few minutes later, Hudson herself had a magnificent performance on the floor. To me, that indicates a fighter's mindset.
It just seems that we're competing more unafraid. Definitely not reckless (in gymnastics, the downside of reckless is just too great), but without the fear of mistake that I sometimes saw a couple of years ago.
I don't know Johnston. Never even met her. She looks like she just got out from a Kappa Kappa Gamma alumnae meeting. But I think she's really the proverbial steel magnolia. She's definitely a leader.
I'm also not sure of the gymnastics judging structure. To my untrained eyes, it looked like there were two active judges for each apparatus, plus someone else who didn't score. The third person seemed to be observing. Maybe a supervisor?
Anyway, Coach Johnston was talking to her with an, "Are you sure? Seriously?" look on her face. I couldn't hear what she said but could lip-read "Really?" more than once, combined with an incredulous facial expression. The gymnastics version of chewing on the refs, I guess.
Glancing at national scores, it looks like Oklahoma is a clear #1, and everybody else is competing for #2. Still, you never know what can happen on a given night, and I like what I see from this team.
I thought the opportunity for improvement is in consistency -- we seemed to have higher highs than Arkansas, but also lower lows. Admittedly, the scoring questions could have had an effect on that.
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