Season Preview Capsules

Last season, Florida edged Utah for the National Title by just 0.05 points, on the last routine of the meet.  The Gators, who were co-champs in 2014, have now won three titles in a row.  Do they have what it takes to make it a four-peat?  Or will it be preseason favorite OU, who struggled a bit on FX in the finals last year with two out-of-bounds deductions and finished third.  The Gators are now led by a new coach, Jenny Rowland, and have graduated star Kytra Hunter.  But they still have Bridget Sloan and a talented class of newcomers to bolster their bid.  OU is missing star Brenna Dowell (training elite) but has a strong stable of returnees, led by Haley Scaman.   

Utah is also back, but they will have to replace several key senior leaders, and are also experiencing a coaching staff change.  Nevertheless, they still garnered 14 first place votes in the new poll.  Bama is also back on the rise, ranking third in the preseason poll.  Another year of experience for their young squad and another solid recruiting class should give them a boost, despite the graduation of Kaitlyn Clark and Kayla Williams.  LSU had a disappointing National finals, and after graduating several key gymnasts like Reaghan Courville and Lloimincia Hall, still managed to nab the fifth spot in the preseason rankings.  They feature an fantastic frosh class, once that could impact the NCAA for seasons to come.

The race for National slots should be intense once again, and the Top 16 or teams look quite even heading into the season.  And, any number of teams outside of the Top 16, including outside of the Top 25, could post a surprise this season.  And, unfortunately, sometimes injuries, illness and other factors come into play, resulting in setbacks to many teams.  With increasing parity and a scoring system that fosters score compression, errors and inconsistency can push a team well down the preseason rankings.    

The code has undergone some much discussed tweaks for 2016, including the devaluation of the ever popular Yurchenko Layout Full from a start value of 10.0 to 9.95.  We've seen some teams beginning to train more 10.0 SV vaults, like the Yurchenko 1 1 1/2 twist (tuck or layout), the pike front 1/2, the Omelianchik (roundoff 1/2 to front pke), pike Ilg (handspring to the board, front handspring front pike off) and the Hristakaeva (Yurchenko 1/2 to front layout).  Will any team be able to field all 10.0 vaults?  Probably not, based on preseason training, as a stuck Yurchenko full should still score better than a high risk vault.  What the change will do is narrow the lead that some teams were able to amass on vault.

Another code change, on UB, places more emphasis on major releases or E skills while the FX changes encourage more D and E skills.  This means on UB we'll be seeing more Jaegers, Tkachevs and Giengers, or more two D release routines.  This will have a greater impact on teams ranked outside of the Top 10, as they risk losing a tenth.  However, with these skills comes a risk of falls or at the very least, execution deductions.  Low releases, form breaks, and catches with arm bends will need to be deducted accurately for this rule change to have it's desired effect.

On FX, the code now asks that a gymnast throw an E skill or two D skills.  For many gymnasts, this means a second D salto or a more difficult dance skill, such as a switch split full or Gogean (tour jete full).  This ciould lead to more execution deductions, skill devaluations or falls, some of which may not be apparent to a casual fan.  Once again, the impact of these changes will depend on consistent and strict judging evalutions.  And, the impact will be felt greatest among the lower ranked teams. 

The tables below are as complete as we know at this point in the season, as we anxiously anticipate the start of competition this January.  Also, check out the Key to the Tables immediately following to interpret the codes we use in the capsules.