Early Predictions for 2023-2024

[cuuf]

Welp, now that the season is done and the memory is still fresh in my mind. Thoughts about next season? It is obvious that we are somewhere in the OU dynasty timeframe. Not sure if we are at the beginning, middle or end. I dont see OU coming back to the pack for at least another 3 years. We still have the COVID years in effect and we do have the Paris 2024 interlude next season. I am going to assume that all contributing/core seniors are going to come back for 5th year. Of course that may change and we have seen Koulos finish at Michigan. Based upon how the season has ended and watching all the competitions this is what I think next year:

1. OU - Really only lose Trautmann, solid class coming in and until otherwise proven, they are team to beat.
2. Utah - I think its only Isa that they lose, looked great all year. Need to focus on that vault rotation
3. LSU - pains me, not a fan, but the pain of this season will pay dividends next year, unless they have another injury ride. Any team with a Bryant-Finnegan-Arenas 123 is going to be good.
4. UCLA - Im not too sure about this, Chiles and Marz are gone but otherwise have a solid core. I dont know who they have coming in significant and again, they need to have vaults.
5. Florida - I think Florida, UCLA and Michigan could probably all swap here, yes Trinity will be gone, But still a ton of talent and they showed they can compete without her, maybe not championship level but close enough.
6. Michigan - Losing Heiskel and Wojcik (sp?) is really going to hurt, and given how dependent on all-arounds Michigan seems to be, a total question mark on who will and can step into those two 9.9-10 guaranteed routines.
   Wildcards - Alabama, Cal, any other teams? Alabama was pretty young this year and inconsistent in post season. Cal looked amazing most of the year,

 

[irichluck21]

Alabama has some good athletes coming in Jameson Sears, Gabi Ladanyi, and Chloe LaCoursiere. We haven’t heard about COVID 5th years yet but hopefully Blanco sticks around. They lose Olsen.

Auburn loses Suni and Derrian, but hopefully Olivia Greaves is healthy and they have a decent freshman class coming in with Julianne Huff and Lyden Saltness.

Arkansas loses Flately, Hambrick, and Lovett but otherwise have a young team.

UCLA gets Sydney Barros and Katelyn Rosen, but lose Chiles and Frazier.

Clemson will be interesting to watch. They could very well shock and be the best ACC team.

Kentucky has a big group coming in including Delaynee Rodriguez, anticipate a few seniors returning for their 5th year, like Worley.

LSU is going to be restocked as well with the best recruiting class including Konnor McClain, Amari Drayton, Zoe Miler, and Brooke Simpson. Though the first three might defer for Paris.

Ohio State loses several post season routines, but with Vetter and Harris leading them(and hopefully 5th year for Edwards) should be ok.

Utah loses Isa (UB/BB), Hoffman (VT) , and Brenner (VT/UB/FX) so those are 5 routines they need to fill. McCallum back in the AA helps, but they are desperate for 10.0 SV vaults. Would love to see O’Keefe or Gilstrap upgrade and hopefully Eaker can do more than beam.

 

[Sasha]

It’ll be interesting to see if McClain goes through with her deferral or not.

UCLA: I’m having a hard time believing that they’ll be as good as this year. I know Chiles is only one person, but she’s instrumental on all four events. Hopefully they’ll have Sarah Ulias back on bars, they had to dig a bit deep there this year.

OU: no reason to believe they won’t continue to dominate. It’ll be interesting to see it goes with Addison Fatta.

Auburn: I don’t see them bouncing back to last year’s level, but with the new freshmen, they might be able to maintain their standing from this year.

 

[RedBirdie]

Barros formally switched to Puerto Rico, so we’ll see if she also defers. I have to assume she did so to make a run at 2023 worlds and Paris.

 

[MaryClare]

Is Finnegan missing a year too? I would think that for those gymnasts competing for other countries who don’t have the pressure of selection, it’s possible to continue with NCAA. Plus don’t ucla like to boast of how many student athletes they send to the Olympics? So they are probably going to be supportive of it

 

[blake]

I think Alabama will make it to nationals next year. In addition to the stellar freshman class coming in, they could definitely get more out of their rising sophomores, especially Little and German. I really hope Blanco returns.

 

[blake]

The Pac-12 in general I think. In terms of olympian student athletes, the top 4 teams are all Pac-12: USC, Stanford, UCLA, and Berkeley. Washington, Arizona, and ASU also ranked in the top 20.

ETA the list I referenced was actually for number of medals.

 

[GLeigh]

Utah has at least three Y1.5s coming in from Elizabeth Gantner, Ella Zirbes, and Camille Winger. I remember hearing Olivia Kennedy might have one as well. Elizabeth Gantner seems to be coming back from injury, but Ella and Camille have been competing vault and getting good scores.

 

[GLeigh]

Last I heard, Finnegan was still deciding about Paris, but said that even if she made a run, she wouldn’t defer.

 

[makam]

Has Grace said she isn’t trying for Paris? Her chances are probably lowest of the other olympians but her steady freddy gymnastics could be the last woman standing this time too.

 

[MaryClare]

She’s been removed from the testing pool, so effectively she has

 

[blake]

She seems really happy in NCAA and it sounds like she doesn’t have a strong desire to deal with the pressure of elite training/competition.
(https://www.deseret.com/2023/4/15/2...e-for-grace-mccallum-kara-eaker-amelie-morgan)

 

[irichluck21]

Barros formally switched to Puerto Rico, so we’ll see if she also defers. I have to assume she did so to make a run at 2023 worlds and Paris.

Barros doesn’t need to defer, she could do NCAA with level 10 routines and they would be fine to qualify to Paris as an AAer for Puerto Rico.
The competition will be much less for her internationally than would be attempting to make the US team. A yurchenko full would be more than enough internationally.

 

[makam]

She would have to add a few skills to meet all the requirements for UB though, right?

There have been a lot of perfect 10 scored vaults in NCAA this season and some of them even probably deserve that score. If someone showed up in international elite and did one of those “perfect” vaults, what score do you think the judges would give? Would they find 10ths to take off or would someone actually get that 14.2 with a 10 E score? Cuz that number would be among the highest scoring of all vaults from the recent European championships.

 

[RedBirdie]

They will always find things to take off. The code is written in such a way to ensure that not one can be perfect.

 

[ruby]

Last video I saw if Barros does not look promising, not even dir Puerto Rico.

 

[blake]

Chloe Lashbrooke is taking a 5th year.

 

[blake]

She won PR nationals, so I assume she’ll be going to Pan Ams.

 

[irichluck21]

Puerto Rico was 12th at Pan Ams last year and counted various 11s,10s, and even a 9.4 on bars.
The highest non vault score was an 11.5 on bars. One vault got into the 12s, otherwise the other three vaults were 11s.
They did not earn an individual qualification to Worlds.

PUR’s current crop is weak in terms of difficulty as well as execution, so Barros winning is not a surprise.

Even with some watered down difficulty she would easily win if she minimized errors. If she can still vault a DTY, that alone gives her a tremendous scoring edge. Even with a yurchenko full, she should have a huge edge on just vault alone.

Barros should also make Worlds with 4 hit routines, whether she can get Olympic qualification will remain to be seen.

 

[RedBirdie]

Barros is indeed deferring until fall 2024.