Centenary has added Casie Hood for 2012-2013, according to a school release. The L10 from Gymstars has accepted an offer of admission. As a L9 in 2011, she placed 8th AA at the Region VIII Regionals.
Link: Centenary Release
UCLA edged Bama for the top spot in the 2012 Preseason Coaches' Poll, as compiled by Troester GymInfo. Defending champ Bama earned 17 first place votes, but was outpointed overall by six points by UCLA. In third is Florida, with 8 first place votes, the same as UCLA. OU is fourth with a pair of first place votes, followed by Utah, with one first place vote.
NC State has announced the signing of Aubrey Hine, Brittni Watkins and Michaela Woodford, as expected. The commits of all three were covered in prior news items.
LInk: NC State Release
Nebraska has announced the signing of Samuel Chamberlain, Austin Epperson and Ethan Lottman to letters of intent. Chamberlain's commit was covered in a prior news item.
Epperson will join the Huskers after training at Elite Champion in Texas. He competed at the US Qualifier this past season. Link: Family's YouTube.com Channel
Lottman trains at the Cahoy's. The in-state product excels on the PH but is expected to contribute on up to four events. He was fourth AAth at the Region VI Regionals in 2011. Link: Lottman on PH
Link: NU Release
Alexa Cohen, L10 from Aerial East Gymnastics in Virginia, has committed to Brown. Last season she won the Jerrell Steel Invitational and finished 1st on bars. She has started this season with a 3rd place finish at the Richmond Fall Classic.
As expected, Katrina Carpenter and Alyssa Nocella have signed with BGSU, according to a school release. The commits of the pair were covered by the site in prior news items.
Link: BGSU Release
Morgan Frazier, L10 from Olando Metro, has accepted a scholarship offer from Florida. Frazier will graduate early and join the team in January 2013. Frazier placed 2nd AA (1st BB/FX) at her 2011 state meet, 4th AA at regionals and 10th AA at JOs.
Mikaela Gerber has committed to UCLA, according to a site submission. The Canadian National Team member trains at Oakville. Although she missed Nationals, she was a key member of the 2011 World's Team for Canada. She was 2nd AA as a junior at the Canadian Championships. Most recently, at the 2011 Pan Am Games, she won the silver medal on the FX.
Link: FX at World's
Silvia Colussi-Pelaez has committed to Florida for the 2013-2014 season. Colussi-Pelaez recently competed for Spain at the 2011 World Championships, although she trains in Canada at Oakville and has competed in the elite ranks in that country. In fact, this past year she placed 12th AA at the Canadian Championships.
Jaclyn Shelton, a Canadian from the Calgary Gym Centre, has committed to OU, according to CTV Calgary. She will apparently start this season. She has spent the last two years recovering from a hip injury, one that required a hip replacement last January. Before her injury, she placed 2nd AA, 2nd on BB and 4th(t) on UB in the 16+ National Open division of the Canadian Championships.
Link: Article and Video
Morgan Reynolds, L10 at Georgia Elite Gymnastics, has accepted a scholarship offer from Georgia. Last season she finished 1st AA at her state meet and 2nd AA at regionals. She qualified to nationals, but did not compete.
Alaska-Anchorage the signing of M'rcy Matsunami to a Letter of Intent, one of their highest profile signings ever. The Premier-trained athlete from Nebraska finished 12th AA and 5th on UB at the 2011 Level 10 JO Nationals. She also finished 17th AA and 5th on UB at the 2010 JO Nationals.
Link: UAA Release and UB Video
All through the off season, the teams have been training and preparing for their shot at a trip to Georgia for the NCAA Nationals. Here's a quick look at the teams, as we head into the final preperations before the start of the season.
Last season Bama entered the campaign needing to replace 10 routines from some key veteran champion athletes. But, bouyed by one of the top recruiting classes in the country, Bama finished the season on top, winning yet another National Championship. Could they repeat? They certainly have the firepower. They lose just four routines from last year (from star Kayla Hoffman) but have a strong incoming class that features three elites, including one former World Champion Kayla Williams.
However, a host of old and new challengers for the title are back and ready to take on the Tide. Last year's runnerup UCLA is back and potentially stronger, with the return of star Vanessa Zamarripa and a standout frosh class that includes National Team members Mattie Larson and Cassie Whitcomb. NCAA BB champ Samantha Peszek and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs lead a strong and deep veteran core.
Only a select few teams have ever won a National Title: Bama, UCLA, UGA and Utah. Could another team join that club? Florida boasts another strong class of frosh, and will use the added strength while seeking to bolster their consistency. Beam was a problem area last year and they'll look to build a strong lineup on the event. OU's well-coached crew maximizes their potential on each event. The experienced core is looking strong, led by Megan Ferguson, Natasha Kelley and Kayla Nowak, but they may need to boost their dynamics on VT and FX to maximize their chances. This could come from their frosh, especially Erica Brewer and elite Rebecca Clark.
Utah has a large incoming class of L10s and former elites, let by potential standout Georgia Dabritz. The Utes will also get back the services of Kyndal Robarts. These additions should give an "end of the lineup" boost and added difficulty on VT and FX, while providing for a very deep lineup. A number of other teams will be making a run for the Super Six this season, but first, all the teams will have to try to earn one of 12 spots at Nationals.
Overall, the frosh have a huge potential to boost various teams into National meet contention. We'll see teams that finished outside the Top 18 last season being now able to push the returning teams for a spot at Nationals. In all likelihood, at the end of the season we may have at least 20 programs in contention for the 12 spots at the National meet. We'll have our ranking of incoming classes published later this month. The final ranking will be a tough decision, with many excellent and impactful recruiting classse in the mix. A full list of the newcomers is posted here. .
This season is unusual in the number of high level US and foreign elites entering school this season. This bumper crop of talent is usually seen in a post-Olympic year. Other elite standouts (on other squads) include National Team members Ivana Hong and Samantha Shapiro at Stanford, Chelsea Davis at UGA and Jessie DeZiel at Nebraska. The class also includes former VISA Championships senior international elite qualifiers Rheagan Courville at LSU, Annette Miele at Michigan, Jackie McCartin at Washington, and Morgan Steigerwalt at ASU. Foreign elites (like Emma Willis at Iowa), former junior international elites (like Randi Lau at LSU) and top L10s (like '11 Sr D co-champ Allison Flores at Arizona) should also make a big impact. Add to this rising talents in the L10 ranks and improvements among the returning veterans and most teams will feature improved squads this season.
Last season, we saw a number of nail-biting finishes at Regionals. Traditional powers like Florida and Utah saw strong challenges in their Regions, and the Tuscaloosa Regional saw just 0.65 separate 2nd from last. The increasing parity is partially due to a rising pool of talent, a higher level of coaching talent, and a relatively static NCAA code (by which routines are evaluated). This combination creates the potential that at least one of the preseason Top 12, and possibly a traditional top qualifier, will once again not be qualifying to Nationals. Last season, Stanford went from Super Six to the sidelines, and in prior seasons, both UGA and UCLA missed the National meet.
The tables below are as complete as we know at this point in the season. (Click the links to be taken to the full charts). The tables will be updated as the season gets closer and new information becomes available.
UNH announced the signing of Kelsey Aucoin, Lauren Brodie and Elissa Solomon. All three commits were covered in prior news items.
Link: UNH Release
Kent State has announced the signing of Jaymi Baxter, Nicolle Eastman, and Anna Genrich. The commits of all three were highlighted in past news items.
Link: KSU Release
The Gopher men signed Dan DiBenedetto and Paul Montague, Jr. to letters of intent, as expected from our prior news items.
Link: Gopher Release