Super Six…and sad NCAA season is over
Congratulation to UCLA. Anna Li is my half Shanghainese princess. She would have been a brilliant gymnast if trained under the Chinese program. But then she wouldn’t have been as happy as she was tonight. Anna’s parents were in the stands and cheering hard, looking like children. Certain things you can only have in America.
Stanford should have been second if they didn’t falter a little bit on beam early on. Their floor choreography were actually with great taste if they didn’t just copy and paste music from every popular elite routines from the past five years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Exodus reappears on that team. Stanford girls look nice, happy and naive, and Carly Janiga was quite a joy to watch. She looked a good three years younger than Susan Jackson on the AA podium.
Utah…oh my. This team made that one girl (Robarts?) who used Shawn Johnson’s floor music sound like genius. How trashy can floor music get? Utah has astounded me. Some of their girls also had such messy hair that looked like they just had sex with each other. This team deserved to be last even without counting falls.
I contest that every team needs a Wogette, just as mascots. UCLA has Allison Taylor who could score 9.1 with a routine deserving no more than a 7.8. Oklahoma has Hollie Vise, who wobbled at a stupid full turn on beam, dismounted with a gainer full and still scored 9.9. I understand Hollie being a nostalgic favorite, but the girl is consistently overscored to a degree only a true Wogette can full-heartedly embrace with smile. Hollie’s bars and beam routines have no difficulty in them, and how does she get a 10 SV on bars with a double tuck dismount not connected to anything? (or is a reverse grip giant worth the same as a giant full in NCAA?) Oklahoma is quite a hideous team on vault and Natasha Kelley is the only person with a little bit of spark. They also had a girl attempting a sheep jump with feet on her knee. One thing though, their beam anchor, Megan Ferguson looks like a smaller version of Hollie Vise and is probably the prettiest girl in NCAA right now.
Nobody ever really had anything to say about Alabama, like nobody ever had anything to say about Kassi Price and Geralen Stack-Eaton when they were elites.
Finally Florida. This team peaked too early. They were not sticking vaults and lost a few tenths due to a complete Marissa King meltdown. Truth to be told Florida used the most gymnasts in their lineup, with basically all their scholarship gymnasts plus a few others going up (except for Randy Stageburg). Florida was probably hurt by home court advantage as they looked like they spent too much time handling press or attending late night parties or something. (Or going to a butterfly museum..)
I only watched the first session yesterday, and Sharaya Musser was the absolute star. When she went up after the Utah gymnasts she looked like their anchor. She should have scored a tenth higher than Annie Diluzio on floor and whoever they had anchoring on vault. Nebraska was also very impressive. Their girls have the best lines. They would have made it to Super Six if they didn’t start on beam.
I’m very sad that NCAA is again over. I love the over the top chessiness of this sport and will always giggle when Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs turns her head the other way on floor. The UCLA floor routines are something of a treasure mine, even if they all look the same. I will also miss my Anna Li and the feisty Brandi Personett, among others.
@1 year ago with 3 notes#NCAA gymnastics #Anna Li #Hollie Vise #Carly Janiga
