Friday
#1 UCLA travels to Salt Lake City to take on a young #5 Utah squad. A large crowd is guaranteed to be on hand. Both teams are missing some injured athletes (Vanessa Zamarripa, Sam Peszek, Alyssa Gale, Victoria Shanley), so look for a number of new athletes in the lineup, while veterans should form the core of the lineups. Corrie Lothrop and Olivia Courtney are two of the top frosh in the NCAA and will provide an instant impact. Utah's Kyndal Robarts and Stephanie McCallister will be key vets for the Utes, while UCLA is led by NCAA FX Champ Brittani McCullough and a wide range of veterans.
#14 Penn State, with a new coaching staff, travels to Tuscaloosa to take on the #2 Tide. With some key veterans limited early on with injury, we'll see some major contributions from Bama's frosh, like Sarah DeMeo, Kim Jacob and Diandra Milliner. Penn State has also been hit by a number of injuries (notably to Madison Merriam) and graduation losses, but should be led by veteran Sharaya Musser.
A veteran #10 NU squad travels to Gainesville to take on the #3 Gators. The super frosh class at UF was weakened by the loss of Kytra Hunter, but there are plenty of talented veterans (Ashanee Dickerson, Maranda Smith, Marissa King to name a few) and newcomers (MacKenzie Caquatto, Alaina Johnson) on the squad. NU has a veteran squad with the newcomers not playing as large of a role, so we expect to see an experienced Husker lineup. NU lost Kristin Fyffe during the preseason, who will take a medical hardship and serve as the team manager.
Preseason #4 OU hosts #11 Arkansas in another key early matchup. OU looks very strong in the preseason, with Natasha Kelley and Megan Ferguson leading the way. A number of newcomers should also make their debut; we are especially interested to see how Hope Bruce will contribute, while Taylor Spears looks strong in training. Arkansas is enjoying some its best depth in several seasons, and has strong veteran leaders like Jaime Pisani and Michelle Stout supported by a dynamic frosh class, led by Katherine Grable. Grable should be one of the impact newcomers this season.
#12 LSU travels to #8 Oregon State for another key early matchup. Both squads have some gymnasts that will miss the early meets, including Gloria Johnson and Sidney Sanabria-Robles for LSU and Becky Colvin and Britney Ranzy for Oregon State. LSU's Samantha Engle and Ericka Garcia have been looking strong in the preseason, while frosh Maliah Mathis, Sarie Morrison and Sarah Zoldos look to make an immediate impact. Oregon State will be led mostly by veterans, including Leslie Mak, Makayla Stambaugh and Olivia Vivian.
#15 Auburn heads to #22 Iowa State to take on the Cyclones. AU has a new coaching staff led by Jeff Graba, and they've changed up their training approach this season. We'll get our first look at the squad, which appears to have avoided most major injuries in the preaseason. Iowa State has a large frosh class, while Michelle Browning is the standout among the veterans, that include past standouts Celine Paulus and Jody McKellar.
Michigan State will host #9 Michigan, Iowa and WMU. MSU's Kathyrn Mahoney is set to move out of the Neuro ICU this week, after she suffered a spinal injury in practice and had surgery to stabilize the vertabrae. Michigan will be without Kylee Botterman (illness) and Joanna Sampson (preseason injury). They will rely on Sarah Curtis, Jordan Sexton and Natalie Beilstein.
Down south in Cancun, #13 Missouri meets up with West Virginia. Missouri suffered a number of graduation losses, including AA star Sarah Shire, so Coach Rob Drass warns that the young squad may have a slow start as the frosh gain experience. They should be led by Mary Burke, Alex Gold and Lauren Swankoski.
#20 SUU travels to USU for an in-state showdown. SUU lost Jenna Vogt recently to an Achilles' tear, and will look to Brooke Cerosimo, Alyssa Click and Caitlin Kennedy to lead the way.
In other action, Ball State travels to Pitt while Winona State hosts UW-Eau Claire.
Saturday
#16 Denver hosts #7 Georgia, Air Force and BYU in a mile-high showdown. Denver looks to replace some departed veterans with a strong frosh class, while looking to leaders Brianna Artemev and Simona Castro to lead the way. UGA recently lost Kaylan Earls and has some other key athletes nursing injuries, but seniors Hillary Mauro and Cassidy McComb are looking very strong, as are Noel Couch and Christa Tanella. Mid-year newcomer Lindsey Cheek should help provide an immediate boost.
#17 Illinois travels to Lexington to take on #24 Kentucky and NIU. Illinois will be led by a strong core of Allison Buckley, Melissa Fernandez, Kelsey Joannides and Alina Weinstein. They have been looking strong in preseason training, and a strong frosh class will provide both depth and competition for the returnees. Kentucky will be led by Andrea Mitchell, Storey Morris and Whitney Rose, while Audrey Harrison leads a large group of frosh, based on the early season training.
#23 Minnesota heads to Ohio State on Saturday. Minnesota will be led by Janell Campbell, Kendra Elm, and Kristin Furukawa. Top frosh Justine Cherwink was injured during the preseason, and they'll miss her vaulting ability. But Dusti Russell and and Kayla Slechta look to make immediate contributions.
In other action, TWU travels to Centenary while Ursinus hosts Wilson and Hamline hosts UW-Osh Kosh and UW-Stout.
For the Men, #7 Penn State hosts Army. Penn State is led by senior captain Matt Albrecht and sophomore Felix Aronovich.
Sunday
The Pac-10 assembles in LA for the weekend's largest meet. Six Top 25 teams meet together for an early look at some of the nation's top teams. This meet will be televised starting on Thursday the 13th on various calbe sports channels.
#6 Stanford will make their debut, as will #19 Arizona, #25 ASU, Cal and #21 Washington. UCLA and Oregon State are doubling up on meets during the weekend, and we could see some lineup shifting. Stanford will depend mainly on veterans like Shelley Alexander, Allyse Ishino, Ashley Morgan and Nicole Pechanec. We also hope to get a glipse of top frosh Kristina Vaculik and Shona Morgan, both international stars from Canada and Australia, respectively.
Three lower ranked teams will look to upset their higher ranked teams. Arizona will be led by an experienced core of Deanna Graham, Miranda Russell, Aubrey Cristello, and Molly Quirk. With such an experienced lineup, they will depend less on frosh than some other squads. ASU features Mary Atkinson, one of the Pac-10's top returnerees, while they also look forward to the return of Beate Jones, who missed 2010. Washington is led by three senior captains, Haley Bogart, Kristen Linton and Sam Walior. Frosh Aliza Vaccher won their intrasquad and is one of the top incoming frosh overall. Cal is working through the distractions of their program being proposed to be termined. We wish them ongoing success in their fundraising and encourage everyone to donate now. They should be led by Avery Gee and Mariesah Pierce.
In other action, Bowling Green hosts UIC and Maryland travels to Kent State and UNH hosts Rutgers. Yale travels to Springfield, while UC Davis hosts SJSU and Alaska. CSUF was set to be part of that competition, but withdrew due to a sudden blitz of recent injuries. Back east, Cortland hosts Brockport.
All of the Top 25, except for Boise State, are in action this weekend.