#NCAAMGym Week 4 Power Rankings
Every week we’ll be releasing a “Power Rankings” that aims to provide a fluid picture of how each team across the NCAA is doing at the moment. The idea is to try not to focus too much on scores and look more at the current state of the team. The (+) or (-) next to each team relates to how far they rose or fell from last week’s Power Rankings.
This year’s Power Rankings are an average based on the individual rankings of five individuals:
Yordan Aleksandrov (former Cal gymnast)
Logan Bradley (former Illinois gymnast)
Ben Cooperman (former Penn State gymnast)
Jess Frankl (photographer/CGA expert)
Alex Wittenberg (former Minnesota gymnast)
Stanford (-)
Stanford reassured fans last Saturday that their No. 1 ranking throughout the season has been no mistake: they beat No. 2 Oklahoma by more than 10 points, securing themselves as the team-to-beat this year. That’ll be difficult for any team to do. Stanford has a huge difficult-score advantage and more room to improve in execution. The Cardinal head to Berkeley for the Pac-12 Invitational this weekend.
Oklahoma (-)
The Sooners suffered their first regular season loss Saturday night at the hands of the Cardinal in an imperfect meet on both sides of the coin. This meet showed that there is a sizable gap between second-ranked OU and the rest of the pack, but another almost as large between them and the top spot. How far are they really from Stanford? Oklahoma was almost 12 points behind them in start value this weekend and have dropped eight points from their average SV from a year ago. This is certainly a different team with a steep challenge ahead, but if there is one thing we have learned over the years, never doubt the Sooners.
Nebraska (-)
Nebraska looks like the best team in the Big Ten. In their win over Iowa at home, the Huskers posted big event totals for the best team score in the conference so far, and they weren’t even at full strength. One clear weakness, though, is in D-score. Nebraska lags behind their Big Ten opponents when it comes to difficulty, and that could become an obstacle to Nebraska’s goal of a Big Ten title. The Huskers travel to Champaign for a huge matchup against Illinois this weekend.
Michigan (-)
Michigan has had a light workload through the first five weeks of the season, competing just once and achieving promising results at Windy City. They will travel to Columbus this weekend to take on Ohio State, bringing the infamous “rest versus rust” conversation into play. A win here would add more credibility to this young team that we have not seen too much of.
Minnesota (-)
Minnesota notched their first Big Ten regular season win this past weekend thanks to an Illini meltdown on parallel bars. A win is a win and the Gophers will be happy with the outcome. Shane Wiskus has outperformed the rest of the NCAA this year and will look to continue his reign of dominance this weekend at Iowa with UIC.
Illinois (-)
The Illini fell to Minnesota in a close meet in Minneapolis last Saturday that they probably should have won. They were more than four points up going into the last event, but a disaster of a parallel bars rotation dashed their hopes of victory. That p-bar performance wasn’t out of the norm. Illinois has had a surprising amount of trouble on the event this season. They take on the rallying Huskers this Saturday at home, and one thing’s clear: To win, they’ll need to be better than 63 on p-bars.
Penn State (-)
After capturing their first Big Ten win of the season this past weekend, Penn State will head West to take on Air Force in Colorado. While they have not been executing to the best of their ability so far, the Nittany Lions are quietly boasting the second-highest start value in the country behind Stanford. This is without Parker Clayton in the lineup and Sam Zakutney competing sparingly, making them a dangerous team to watch out for as the season unfolds.
Ohio State (+1)
Most people knew what kind of impact Riley Loos and Brandon Briones were going to make for Stanford this season; more of a surprise is what Ohio State is getting out of their freshmen. Kazuki Hayashi and Justin Ah Chow have now each earned Big Ten Freshman of the week honors and have formed an impressive duo. They will face off this weekend in a tough matchup at home against Michigan and their standout freshman, Paul Juda.
Navy (-1)
The Midshipmen crossed the 400-mark for the second week in a row on their way to defeating William & Mary. It was another home meet for Navy, so we’ll look to see how well that score holds up when they go on the road. They’re at home again this weekend, facing off against Army.
Iowa (-)
The Hawkeyes made huge strides in Lincoln last Saturday, improving almost 10 points on their Windy City performance. It was a much-needed show of potential for Iowa, whose prospects looked uncertain at their season opener in Chicago. Now, with momentum, they take on the Gophers at home in what should be one of the weekend’s best matchups.
Cal (-)
The Golden Bears had what was easily their best performance of the year this past weekend, improving on their previous high by 15 points. They host the Pac-12 Invitational this weekend where they should be the favorite to come in behind Stanford, but Arizona State and Washington both pose a serious threat.
Arizona State (-)
Arizona State did not compete last weekend. They had a disappointing showing at Ohio State the week before, so the Sun Devils will look to get back above 390 at this weekend’s Pac-12 Invite. They could challenge Cal if they’re in top form.
Army (-)
It was a solid weekend for Army as they scraped out a road win against Springfield. Pommel horse was a struggle for them and they will certainly want to make improvements here to be in the 390 range against Navy this weekend.
William & Mary (+2)
William & Mary fell to Navy but kept improving last weekend, posting their best team score of the season. They did so despite a rough pommel horse rotation where they scored a 59.2. William & Mary is off this weekend, and they can the time off to fix some of those horse issues.
Air Force (-1)
Air Force had the week off after a shaky performance at Cal on January 19th. The good news is that they will be back home against Penn State where they will have the opportunity to right the ship.
Washington (-1)
Washington did not compete last weekend. They head to Berkeley this weekend for the Pac-12 Invite, where with a good performance they could challenge the Sun Devils.
Springfield (-)
The Pride made an impressive improvement over their first two competitions this past weekend, coming within striking distance of Army. They were able to notch their first score of 380 + on the season. They have the week off before heading to Illinois looking to continue in the right direction.