LA Nights: Mizzou ready for battle in NCAA Gymnastics Regionals Thursday

Mar 30, 2023 - 2:00 PM

It’s all led to this. After a great regular season in which the Tigers took down both then-no. 6 Auburn and then-no. 8 Alabama, we are here. The NCAA Regionals. The goal, obviously, is to advance to the NCAA National Championships in Fort Worth in a few weeks, just as they did a year ago when they shocked the country and ended up in 5th place (just outside the National Finals).

But first, the Tigers have to get past at least three of the four teams in their LA Regional Round 2, Session 2 Quad Meet (more on them in a bit) on Thursday, and then after advancing to the finals, they must again place in the top two on Saturday (also a quad meet, coincidentally). This setup is confusing as hell, you guys, and I had to enlist the help of my gymnastics guru friend Brenna (she’s a jayhawk but I won’t hold it against her in this case) to explain it all to me.

Per the NCAA’s website: The top two teams from each regional will receive an automatic berth to Fort Worth. In addition, the top all-around competitor and top event specialist from round two (that’s what today is— round 2) at each regional (who is not on a team advancing to nationals) will advance to the national championships. Event specialist qualifiers will only compete in the events they qualified.

So.... say Mizzou makes it to the Regional Finals on Saturday, but the team places third (this is hypothetical). That would mean we could see both Helen Hu (beam) and Jocelyn Moore (vault) compete in the National Championships as event specialists if they won their events but Mizzou as at team failed to advance. To avoid only seeing a couple of Tigers in that meet, it’s just best for team to get in the top 2. It will be tough, but they CAN do it. Anything is possible.

Let’s move on. But first, a hype video.

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Meet Info

When: Round 2— Thursday, March 28 | Regional Finals— Saturday, April 1

Where: Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion | Los Angeles, Ca.

Time: Round 2 Session 2— 7pm PT (9pm CT) | Regional Finals— 5pm PT (7pm CT)

TV: ESPN+

Live Stats: uclabruins.com

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What To Expect At The Venue

Pauley Pavilion is the home of UCLA basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics, and has an official capacity of around 13,800. The Bruins on their own averaged around 6,100 fans this season.

photosport.com

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Last Time On The Mats

When we last saw our Tigers, they competed in the SEC Championships. Something to note here: at the conference championship level as well as at the regional level, there are four judges on each apparatus. The high and low scores get dropped, and the other two are averaged. Throughout the regular season, there are only two judges. That whole “dropping scores” thing seems to lead to lower overall scores, judging from what I watched.

First rotation (Beam): Missouri opened up the meet with perhaps the hardest apparatus, though it is one they excel at on their good days. Saturday was a good day for all but one of the ladies on beam, and the Tigers earned a 49.375 team score (3rd highest of season) to start them off in first place. None of the top 5 scorers (the 6th and lowest is dropped, remember) had lower than a 9.80 and senior Helen Hu, who earned a 9.95 from 3 of 4 judges, placed second overall in the event at the culmination of both sessions.

Second rotation (Floor): Jocelyn Moore and Alisa Sheremeta earned the highest floor scores of the first session and tied for 4th overall with dual 9.90s to help with a team score of 49.325, but really, this was quite a low score for Mizzou, who normally is aove 49.50. FX was also the first sign of struggles for Sienna Schreiber, who had a pretty unncharacterisic meet.

Third rotation (Vault): Moore was incredible on vault, and while she only earned a 9.95, she did receive one 10.0 from the judges. Two of her teammates had significant troubles with their landings, however (I mean, I haven’t seen a landing like this from Mizzou all season, so it was concerning to see TWO of them), so the Tigers had to count a score in the 9.5-range and only managed a 48.90 team score, which is their 2nd lowest of season. One of the two who faltered was again Shreiber. Just a weird meet for her... Obviously, this scoring snafu dropped them in the overall standings, and allowed Auburn to control their own destiny.

Final rotation (Bars): Despite earning two perfect 10.0s from the judges, the other two watching Helen Hu’s masterpiece were apparently asleep, as they awarded the high flyer only a 9.90. Huh? Her final posted score was a 9.95, good enough for 2nd place overall. The others did very well, and they dropped a 9.85! After the tumultuous vault rotation, it was imperative for the Tigers to finish strong, and they did, earning a 49.400 (2nd highest of the season).

Overall: Mizzou finished strong, and came out of session 1 in second place with a program-high SEC Championships score of 197.00. When combined with session 2, the Tigers found themselves in 6th place overall, a tenth behind the Auburn Tigers, who they had defeated earlier in the season, and behind all of the evening session teams.

Five Missouri gymnasts earned All-Conference honors based on their placement at SECs, including: Jocelyn Moore (co-champion vault, floor); Alisa Sheremeta (floor); Helen Hu (bars; beam); Amari Celestine (vault); Sienna Schreiber (beam)

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Mizzou Individual Stats & Honors

data via roadtonationals.com

NOTE: Competitors require six performances in order to earn NQS scores, which is why some are missing.

WCGA All-Americans: Helen Hu (Second Team, Beam); Jocelyn Moore (First Team, Vault)

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Quick Comparisons

stats via RoadtoNationals.com

Per my own research, UCLA seems to perform well at both home and on the road, hence why they’re a 2-seed and hosting and ranked 4th nationally. However, looking at their scores, I’m not super, super intimidated. They have 4 scores (of 11) higher than Mizzou’s highest score, which was set on the road at Arkansas, but one of the 4 is only 5/100ths different. Stanford has scored in the 197-range three times this season, including a 197.575 in late February, so they’ll be one to monitor, especially on bars and beam. And, as you’ll see a bit later on, they may be out for blood chalk.

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About The Tigers’ Round 2, Session 2 Opponents

UCLA

The Bruins are led by newly-annointed WCGA All-Americans Chae Campbell, Jordan Chiles and Selena Harris. Per uclabruins.com, Campbell is now a 6-time AA after being named to the second team in both vault and floor. She finished the regular season ranked 14th nationally on vault and 12th on floor. Chiles, the 2020 Olympic silver medalist in the team event and 2022 World Championships silver medalist in the vault and floor exercise, ended the regular season with four first-team honors, and ranked 1st on bars, 2nd in the all-around, 3rd in vault, and 4th on floor. Harris, only a freshman, was named to the first team in the all-around and second team on vault, bars and beam. The PAC-12 Freshman of the Year ended the regular season ranked 6th nationally in the all-around, 14th in vault, 12th on bars and 9th on beam.

UCLA is coming off a second place finish behind Utah in the PAC-12 Championships, figting back from an early deficit on vault (49.175) to earn a 49.575 on bars, which was anchored by Chiles’ fifth 9.975 of the season to move them up to third place. In the third rotation, the Bruins scored a 49.50 on beam to move to 2nd place, and were anchored by the freshman Harris, who scored her fifth 9.95 of the season. In the final rotation, UCLA pulled out a 49.60, and despite two 10s awarded to Chiles, Utah was able to hold on to their lead, winning the title by the thinnest of margins, just .075.

Stanford

The Cardinal are led by All-Pac-12 honorees Chloe Widner and Brenna Neault. Widner, a senior, earned first team on bars and finished the regular season ranked 18th and also (per gostanford.com), matched or set career-bests this season on vault (9.9), bars (9.975), floor (9.95) and in the all-around. Neault, a sophomore, earned honorable mention honors in the all-around and finished the regular season ranked 30th nationally. For the season, she set or matched her best in all four events: vault (9.85); bars (9.95); beam (9.95); floor (9.925).

In the Pac-12 Championships, Stanford started the day with an iffy 48.95 on bars, led by Widner’s 9.90, which was tops in the sesssion. In beam, they recovered, scoring a 49.40, tying their third best score of the season thanks to matching 9.925s from Neault and Widner. Floor was a disaster, however, as they only managed a 48.475 and had to count a routine with a fall. The day ended on vault, where freshman Anna Roberts topped the team’s scorers with a 9.85. Overall, the Cardinal placed fourth (last) in their session with a 195.875, and it’s safe to say they will be on a warpath in Session 2 to show that this was an abomination, not the norm.

Boise State (Round 1 play-in)

The Broncos are led by Second Team All-American Emily Lopez, who earned the honor on the bars, and finished the season ranked 14th nationally. She earned a 10.0 on bars against BYU in mid-February, the first 10.0 in school history.

Individually, juniors Courtney Blackson and Emily Lopez will compete at the NCAA Regionals, regardless of whether or not they “win” the play-in. Blackson will compete on the vault, bars and floor, while Lopez will compete on both vault and bars. Lopez was named the MRGC Bars Specialist of the Year and Co-Vault Specialist of the Year, while also earning first team all-conference on bars and vault. Senior Adriana Popp was named All-MRGC second team on vault and beam, while sophomore Emma Loyim was named second team on beam.

The Broncos took third at the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference (MRGC) Championships with a 196.00 and received their highest event scores of the season on floor (49.15) and vault (49.175). Blackson was Boise State’s top performer on both floor (9.875) and vault (9.90). She was the co-champion on vault and tied for third on floor.

BYU (Round 1 play-in)

BYU is led by freshman Kylie Eaquinto, senior Elease Rollins, and sophomore Sydney Benson. Eaquinto earned MRGC Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Conference in vault, while Rollins earned Second Team Beam Specialist of the Year and Benson earned Co-Vault Specialist of the Year honors.

At the MRGC Championship, the Cougars started the night in the lead with a 49.225 score on floor, anchored by Rebekah Ripley’s team-high 9.875. Eaquinto’s dual 9.875 scores in both vault (49.05 total) and bars (49.125 total) helped keep BYU near the top of the standings. In the final rotation, Rollins’ career-tying 9.975 helped complete a team score of 49.175, and earn the Cougars’s runner-up finish behind Southern Utah (who’s in the other quad meet).

UPDATE (3/29, 6PM PT): Boise State wins the Round 1 play-in, and will move on to Round 2, Session 2)

(don’t ask me what the old format was... I am still a novice college gymnastics enthusiast)

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Should They Advance

The top two from Quad Two, Session 1 will move on to the Regional Finals to face the top two from Quad One, Session 2 (Mizzou’s quad)

stats via RoadtoNationals.com circa March 27

Per NCAA.com’s Claire Billman and Emily Minehart:

Both Utah and Auburn will likely be without superstars here, with Grace McCallum recovering from a knee injury and Sunisa Lee coming back from a non-gymnastics related health issue. Neither team has issued timelines for McCallum’s nor Lee’s return. Nevertheless, they remain favorites to advance.

Per my own research, Utah was prone to that sweet, sweet home cookin’ scoring all season long, and their top 4 highest scores (197.925-198.55) were all at home. In 11 meets, Utah scored higher than Mizzou’s highest score 5 times. Auburn, who Mizzou already beat this year, has 4 of their top 5 scores at home, but Mizzou’s highest score is higher than any of Auburn’s.

I’m so excited. LFG, Tigers.