2023 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships: Semifinals preview

The entire season has been leading up to this. The 2023 NCAA women’s gymnastics championships are officially upon us. The top two teams from Thursday’s two semifinals will advance to the “Four on the Floor” final on Saturday to vie for the team title. Individual titles will be determined during the semifinals.

You can see the full field of qualifiers here. The seeding assigned to each team follows them through the postseason.

Afternoon Semifinal: #2 Florida, #6 LSU, #7 California, #14 Denver

How to watch

The postseason seeding is a bit deceiving since it is reflective of where these teams were at the end of the regular season. That would seem to indicate that Florida and LSU are the teams with the greatest chance to advance, but that may not actually be the case.

In the regional finals, California looked exponentially better than the other three teams. Despite what many initially thought, Florida’s chances of moving on depend heavily on the health of its fifth-year star Trinity Thomas, who exited the regional semifinal with an apparent lower leg injury. The Gators were dangerously close to getting knocked out in their regional final. For the first time in a couple years, Florida is not essentially a shoo-in to the Four on the Floor, but on a positive note, Thomas was training bars during practice on Wednesday.

Denver is in a similar situation to Florida – that is, their chance to make the final day of competition hinges on the return of an injured gymnast. Rylie Mundell could be the X-factor for the Pioneers to sneak into the Four on the Floor for the second time. Mundell has not competed since the Big 12 Championships three weeks ago. Her 10.0 start value vault and overall competitive experience could be instrumental to the team advancing.

The fact that LSU has gotten to this point is truly incredible. With more injuries to key gymnasts than any other team in all of NCAA gymnastics, it is safe to say that many people did not expect them to be competing for the national title. If LSU is able to stay in its bubble and do their gymnastics, who knows what might happen. Big performances from their three all-arounders – Haleigh Bryant, Aleah Finnegan, and Alyona Shchennikova – will be necessary, but it is really the routines that fill in the gaps that will determine whether or not they will advance.

The key for California is going to be sticking their vault landings. Despite an outstanding 198 performance in the regional finals, vault can be much improved. On the other three events combined, California only counted two sub-9.9 scores during the regional final. On vault, five-out-of-six scores were lower than 9.9. If they can get more 9.9s on vault, they are in a very good spot to advance.

Individuals: Courtney Blackson (Boise State), Elexis Edwards (Ohio State), Delanie Harkness (Michigan State), Payton Harris (Ohio State), Emily Lopez (Boise State), Ava Piedrahita (Penn State), Cassidy Rushlow (Penn State), Alisa Sheremeta (Missouri), Gabrielle Stephen (Michigan State), Chloe Widner (Stanford)

Evening Semifinal: #1 Oklahoma, #4 UCLA, #5 Utah, #9 Kentucky

How to watch

The key storyline to follow here is how Oklahoma will rebound from a shaky regional performance. It seems like there are two probable outcomes: Oklahoma could use regionals as a motivator to have an outstanding performance and run away with this semifinal, or the issues could be a sign that the Sooners peaked too early and they could fail to qualify to the final day of competition.

If the first scenario happens, this meet is essentially going to be a competition between UCLA and Utah for the second Four on the Floor spot. Utah has beaten UCLA on three separate occasions this season. However, Utah is going to have to perform at a very high level because UCLA is capable of scoring big, especially if they catch fire on beam. 

UCLA’s vault rotation has improved greatly as compared to the first two head-to-head meetings between the Pac-12 rivals earlier in the season. On paper, Utah has a slight advantage over UCLA, but it would not be a shocker if UCLA ended up with a higher score. However, it is important to note that Utah appears to have Olympic silver medalist Grace McCallum back from a knee injury and ready to compete on bars and beam. She trained both events at practice on Wednesday.

Of all the teams in this session, Kentucky has the slimmest chance to advance. The Wildcats are the only team here to not have reached a 198 this season. If everything goes as expected, a 198+ is absolutely going to be necessary to give them any sort of chance to advance to the final.

Individuals: Luisa Blanco (Alabama), Sierra Brooks (Michigan), Jade Carey (Oregon State), Norah Flatley (Arkansas), Derrian Gobourne (Auburn), Abby Heiskell (Michigan), Naomi Morrison (Michigan), Hannah Scharf (Arizona State), Lauren Williams (Arkansas), Natalie Wojcik (Michigan)

Individual title contenders

Vault

This title is likely to go to whoever sticks their 10.0 start value vault. With the amount of sticks we saw during regionals, it is going to be very hard for someone with a Yurchenko full to win this title. 

Gymnasts to watch: Courtney Blackson (Boise State), Arianna Patterson (Kentucky), Haleigh Bryant (LSU), Abby Heiskell (Michigan), Naomi Morrison (Michigan), Payton Harris (Ohio State), Jordan Chiles (UCLA), Selena Harris (UCLA), Jaedyn Rucker (Utah)

Bars

With so many talented bar-workers in the NCAA, this is going to come down to who has the cleanest form and sticks their dismount. The individuals who qualified on bars are very strong, but many of the gymnasts from competing teams are also very capable. 

Gymnasts to watch: Luisa Blanco (Alabama), Emily Lopez (Boise State), Andi Li (California), Maddie Williams (California), Kayla DiCello (Florida), Riley McCusker (Florida), Trinity Thomas (Florida), Leanne Wong (Florida), Natalie Wojcik (Michigan), Cassidy Rushlow (Penn State), Chloe Widner (Stanford), Jordan Chiles (UCLA)

Beam

If there was an event in which the individual qualifiers had an advantage over the team competitors, it’s beam. It is much easier to relax and hit a beam routine as an individual instead of feeling the intense pressure to hit for your team. Those in the team competition are likely going to be more tight while the individuals can go big and even add in some more difficult skills with less risk.

Gymnasts to watch: Norah Flatley (Arkansas), Mya Lauzon (California), Gabby Perea (California), Jessica Hutchinson (Denver), Riley McCusker (Florida), Leanne Wong (Florida), Aleah Finnegan (LSU), Gabrielle Stephen (Michigan State), Alisa Sheremeta (Missouri), Ragan Smith (Oklahoma), Jade Carey (Oregon State), Chloe Widner (Stanford), Jordan Chiles (UCLA), Selena Harris (UCLA), Kara Eaker (Utah), Maile O’Keefe (Utah)

Floor

Like the other three events, landings are crucial. While sticking passes cold is not necessary, gymnasts are going to need to have controlled lunges in the direction opposite of the flipping rotation. Also, watch out for leap series. Some of the best tumblers “cheat” their leap series a bit and do not complete the full rotation. On this stage, judges should be especially critical of this.

Gymnasts to watch: Derrian Gobourne (Auburn), Lynnzee Brown (Denver), Leanne Wong (Florida), Haleigh Bryant (LSU), Aleah Finnegan (LSU), Sierra Brooks (Michigan), Chae Campbell (UCLA), Jordan Chiles (UCLA)

All-around gymnasts to watch

With Thomas unlikely to defend her 2022 NCAA all-around title and top-ranked all-arounder Jade Carey having not qualified on all four events, this competition is somewhat wide open. Going off pure NQS alone, Jordan Chiles is the top competitor in the field and seems to be peaking at the right time – although if we’re being honest, she seems to be peaking all the time.

Gymnasts to watch: Lynnzee Brown (Denver), Jessica Hutchinson (Denver), Kayla DiCello (Florida), Leanne Wong (Florida), Raena Worley (Kentucky) Haleigh Bryant (LSU), Aleah Finnegan (LSU), Abby Heiskell (Michigan), Jordan Bowers (Oklahoma), Jordan Chiles (UCLA), Selena Harris (UCLA)