Tuesday, 29 December 2015 19:08

Marsden, Peszek and Sacramone join PAC-12 Network

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Greg Marsden, Samantha Peszek and Alicia Sacramone Quinn join PAC-12 Network broadcast team as analysts.

Announcement

Tuesday, 22 December 2015 18:32

2016 Top 25 Capsule Previews

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The Capsule Previews for the Top 25 Women's Teams, as determined by the Preseason Coaches' Poll, are now available.  In each case, we have summarized the rosters and list of newcomers, and quickly summarized their prospects and challenges.  But who will challenge?  And which 12 teams are in the best position to make Nationals this April?

Tuesday, 15 December 2015 09:25

OU Leads Women's Preseason Poll

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Oklahoma tops the Women's Preseason Coaches' Poll, with Florida 32 points behind in second.  Bama is third, just four points ahead of Utah.  OU amassed 29 first place votes, while Florida has 15.  Utah has 14 first place votes.  The Poll is now administered by RoadToNationals (replacing Troester.com). 

Sunday, 01 November 2015 11:56

World Championships: Event Finals, Day 2

Former UCLA signee Simone Biles won golds on BB and FX, blowing away the field, to win her third and fourth golds of the Championships.  OU commit Maggie Nichols picked up a bronze on BB.  Former OU Sooner Chris Brooks was 6th on HB.  The USA's Donnell Whittenburg won the bronze on VT (Ri Se Gwang of PRK won the Gold) while teammate Danell Leyva won the Silver on HB (Kohei Uchimura won the Gold).  Leyva was also sixth on PB. 

Link:  USA Gymnastics

Link:  USA Videos

UCLA signee Madison Kocian tied for the UB gold at the World Championships.  She tied with Yilin Fan of China and Russia's Viktoria Komova and Daria Spiridonova.  The USA's Gabrielle Douglas was fifth, and LSU commit Ruby Harrold was 7th.  Simone Biles of the USA won the Bronze on VT; Maria Paseka of Russia won the gold.

Former OU Sooner Alex Naddour was seventh on the PH, while former Ohio State standout Brandon Wynn was fifth on the Rings.  The USA's Donnell Whittenburg was 8th on Rings.  Japan's amazing Kenzo Shirai won FX, while the UK went 1-2 on PH with Max Whitlock winning the Gold.  Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias joyfully won his country's first gold on Rings, qualifying to the Olympics in the process.

Link:  USA Gymnastics

Link: USA Videos

King Kohei (Uchimura) of Japan won his sixth straight World AA title.  Cuba's Manrique Larduet was 2nd while China's Shudi Deng was 3rd.  Donnell Whittenburg of the US was 8th while teammate Danell Leyva was 17th.

Link:  USA Gymnastics

Despites a few mistakes, Simone Biles won her third straight Women's AA title at the World Championships.  Biles became the first woman to win three straight title (Svetlana Khorkina won three non consecutive titles).  The final margin of victory was her greatest in her three wins, despite having to grab the beam on her front tuck (near fall) and bouncing out of bounds on her second FX pass.  Olympic Champion Gabrielle Douglas won the silver while Romania's Larisa Iordache won the bronze.   

LSU commit Ruby Harrold (UK) was 22nd AA.

Link: USA Gymnastics

Videos:  Link

 

Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:47

World Championhips: USA Men Finish Fifth

The US men finished fifth in a thrilling final at the World Championships.  Entering the final round in 2nd place, the US men struggled a bit on their weakest event, the pommel horse, enabling the field to pass them by.  Japan pulled out a narrow win, despite a fall from Kohei Uchimura on the final routine of the their final event, PB.  Finishing a surprising and historic 2nd were the men from Great Britain, while China was close behind in third.  Russia was 4th. 

The US team includes former OU Sooners Chris Brooks and Alex Naddour, and former Illini Paul Ruggeri.    They sorely missed former Michigan star and NCAA Champ Sam Mikulak, who suffered an Achilles injury before the Championships.   

Link:  USA Gymnastics Story

Link:  Results

Link:  USA Videos

 

Tuesday, 27 October 2015 22:26

World Championships: USA Women Win Gold

World Champion Simone Biles and OU commit Maggie Nichols led the US Women to the Gold medal at the team finals of the World Championships in Scotland.  Counting no major mistakes, they easily outdistanced the field.  UCLA signee Madison Kocian helped the team to the easy win with a big 15.3 on UB.  Canada, featuring UGA's Brittany Rogers and Ohio State signee Victoria Kayen Woo, finished 6th. 

Link:  Videos

Link:  USA Gymnastics

The US Men secured a spot at the 2016 Rio Olympics by placing fifth in the qualifying round at the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships.  The squad was led by Olympian Danell Leyva, who qualified 4th to the AA and made finals on PB and HB, where he leads the qualifiers. 

Former OU star Chris Brooks, an alternate who was added when Sam Mikulak dropped out with an Achilles injury, also made the HB final.  Former OU star Alex Naddour qualified to the PH final, while Ohio State alum Brandon Wynn qualified to the Ring final.  The USA's Donnell Whittenburg made the Ring final and the Vault final.  Former Illini Paul Ruggeri is the first alternate on vault.     

The Men's Team Preliiminaries are underway at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow.  Japan leads the way, with China in 2nd.  Great Britain is 3rd, just ahead of Russia. 

Link: Results

Despite several mistakes, the US women won the preliminary rounds of the World Championships.  They'll want to eliminate these falls in the next round, as the finals are 3 up and 3 count.  Simone Biles leads the AA, with Gabrielle Douglas in 3rd.  Biles qualified to the VT, BB, and FX finals, while Douglas made the finals on UB, along with UCLA commit Madison Kocian.  OU commit Maggie Nichols made the floor final. 

UGA's Brittany Rogers is the 2nd reserve to the final on VT while LSU commit Ruby Harrold (UK) made the UB and AA finals.   

Russia took the lead after Day 1 of the Women's Qualifying at the World Championships.  Great Britain was 2nd and Italy was 3rd.  The US and China compete tomorrow.  The top eight teams qualify to the Olympics automatically, putting extra pressure on this event.  Teams that finish 9 to 16 must compete for a spot at the Olympics during a test event next spring in Rio.  In a surprise, one of those teams not qualifying automatically is likely to be former super power Romania.  They currently stand in 8th, with the US and China expected to surpass them.  Japan is 4th, Canada 5th, and Oympic host Brazil in 6th.  The teams in particular will be watching the likes of Australia, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and others attempt to surpass them.

Thursday, 08 October 2015 19:44

US Names Women's Squad for World's

USA Gymnastics has named the seven members of the women's World Championships.   They include: Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Brenna Dowell (OU), Madison Kocian (UCLA signee), Maggie Nichols (OU Commit), Aly Raisman, and McKayla Skinner (Utah signee).  Alyssa Bauman (UF commit) and Bailie Key (UF commit) will continue to train at the Ranch as the team prepares.

Link:  USA Gymnastics

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