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NCAA Gymnastics Week 3: LSU and OU reign supreme, but judging dominates the conversation


January 22, 2024, 08:50 am ET

Week 3 of the NCAA gymnastics season is officially complete and WowWhat a memorable week it was.

There were record scores and high programs and many, many perfect 10s across the country.

Perhaps nothing caught more attention than the Tennessee Collegiate Classic. With Ball State, Kent State, Southeast Missouri and Wisconsin-Whitewater, all four schools set new records for the highest team score in their programs' respective histories. Yes, that's right: the four schools.

Ball State, winner of the meet (198.025), also posted the highest event total in school history on bars (49.775), recorded its best total score on floor (49.625) and had three gymnasts earn a perfect score of 10. Sophomore Zoe Middleton won the all-around meet title with a program-record score of 39.750, and fellow Cardinals Megan Teter (39.575) and Victoria Henry (39.450) also surpassed the record previous general of the school.

Second-place Kent State (197.725) broke the team's previous record from 2004, while third-place Southeast Missouri crushed the team's previous record by nearly a point with a final score of 197.050. And Wisconsin-Whitewater not only broke its school record, but its score of 194.450 is the highest in Division III history.

While there was clearly some incredible gymnastics in the event, the number of records broken (and the five perfect 10s awarded during the competition) also led to a lot of skepticism about the scoring. Some on social media pointed out how dramatically the scoring had varied from match to match. For example, Ball State's first two scores of the season were 194.925 and 195.65. With such an average, the Cardinals were ranked 33rd after the first two weeks of competition, but their Week 3 score was the third-highest score of the season so far, behind only Oklahoma, the two-time national champions. defenders, and LSU. , which finished last season in fourth place in the country.

All that said, discussions about scoring and evaluation are nothing new. Will this be a meeting that drives the conversation? For now, it's impossible to say, but what we do know is that this should not take away from what the gymnasts did on Friday, nor should it hold them accountable to the judges.

And there were some truly exceptional performances. Just look at Ball State's Suki Pfister's perfect-score jump:

But the Tennessee Collegiate Classic was far from the only meet of the weekend. Here's everything you need to know about week three of college gymnastics:

More members of the Perfect 10 club

In addition to the five perfect scores Friday at Tennessee, Middleton (Ball State, bars); Teeter (ball state, bars); Karlie Franz (Kent State; floor) and Lindsay Ockler (SEMO; bars) joined Pfister; Three others made the season's exclusive list, for an overall total of 15 so far this year.

Here's who else joined the club this week:

Haleigh Bryant, LSU: The Tigers posted their second-highest score of the season on Friday (198.125) during their matchup against the Kentucky Wildcats, and it was largely thanks to Bryant's heroics. Already the program's all-time 10.0 leader, he added the 11th of his career, and second on bars, during the competition. He also earned the meet's highest scores on vault (9.975) and in the all-around (39.825).

Kiya Johnson, LSU: In 2023, during the team's matchup against Kentucky, Johnson ruptured his Achilles tendon and missed the remainder of the season. On Friday, during LSU's matchup against Kentucky, Johnson showed that he was back, and perhaps better than ever, with a floor routine that showcased his perseverance, his powerful tumbling and his joy. The facial expression on his face when he lands his last double pike really says it all.

Lily Smith, Georgia: During the first week of the season, the freshman surprised with a 9.975 on bars and on Saturday she earned a 10.0 on the event. Smith became the first Georgia freshman to record the score since 2001 and the first on bars since 1993. So, yeah, she was pretty impressive.

The quickest stay at the top

Because LSU and Ball State competed on Friday, they became the first two programs to cross the 198-point benchmark in 2024. But Oklahoma, the No. 1-ranked team after the first two weeks of the season, didn't he wasted a lot. time to join them.

Competing in a quad meet on Sunday against Denver, UCLA and Stanford, the Sooners not only won, but posted their season-high score so far with a 198.325. The score was more than a point higher than second place Denver (197.175). UCLA (196.550) and Stanford (196.100) finished in third and fourth place, respectively.

While scoring is obviously subjective, the team has left little doubt about its talent by scoring the highest total each week of the season so far. As Oklahoma has done in every meet, four gymnasts (Jordan Bowers, Audrey Davis, Katherine LeVasseur and Faith Torrez) competed all-around and led the team, once again, with their collective consistency and stellar results. On Sunday, Bowers scored at least 9.925 in each event, good enough for a new career-high overall score (39.775) and the title. LeVasseur, Torrez and Davis finished in the top five.

Known for their work on beam, the Sooners once again dominated the event with their highest total of the year (49.725). Torrez and Ragan Smith earned 9.975 for their routines.

Aly Raisman has entered the chat!

Six-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman officially made her television debut as a commentator during the Kentucky-LSU matchup on Friday. In an interview with People, published before the match, the 29-year-old called it a “new chapter,” but she admitted that she also had some nerves about it.

“I'm very excited,” Raisman said. “To be honest, I'm also very nervous because I want to do a good job.”

Raisman earned rave reviews from those on social media for her insight and knowledge, and later wrote that she was “touched by all the sweet messages” in an Instagram post.

Already looking to the future, and clearly being a woman of the people, Raisman said she was looking forward to calling a meet in Arkansas this season. Her 2012 Olympic teammate, Jordyn Wieber, is the Razorbacks' head coach and Kyla Ross, another member of the gold medal-winning team, is her assistant.

The best of the rest

Here are some more routines you should check out over the weekend:

Leanne Wong, Florida: Having already earned a 9.95 on bars during the Gators' home meet against Auburn on Friday, Wong closed out the night in the anchor spot on the floor. It was his debut event of the year, and he made a serious statement in the process. Making both his choreography and his tumbling look effortless, Wong earned another 9.95 to win the event title. She earned all honors, as well as bars, in the Gators' victory.

Carly Bauman, Michigan: With a sky-high Jaegar release and a perfectly stuck double front dismount, Bauman not only won the bars title in the Wolverines' meet against Ohio State, but she also tied her career-high score of 9.95 .

Kalyxta Gamiao, Arkansas: The Razorbacks set a new team scoring record (197.525) in their tie against Alabama on Friday – on the road, no less! And this performance of Gamiao's beam is one of the reasons.

Haleigh Bryant (LSU) and Arianna Patterson (Kentucky): Questions about the evaluation weren't limited to this weekend's Tennessee Collegiate Classic. Some on social media wondered about the discrepancy in scoring between Bryant and Patterson's jumps (both front handsprings and half pikes from the same meet) on Friday. So here you have both, side by side, so you can make your own decision.

Key meetings in Week 4:

Friday: LSU at Missouri; 6:30 pm ET on the SEC Network

Friday: Alabama at Florida; 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2

Friday: Georgia at Kentucky; 7 pm Eastern Time

Friday: Denver at Oklahoma; 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+

Friday: Auburn at Arkansas; 8 pm ET on SEC+

Friday: Arizona State at Utah; 8 p.m. ET on the Pac-12 Network

Saturday: Michigan at Nebraska; 4 pm ET on B1G+

Saturday: Oregon State at California; 5 p.m. ET on the Pac-12 Network

Saturday: Washington at UCLA; 9 p.m. ET on the Pac-12 Network



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