russiangym

Very sorry to hear about Bryce but glad she is still going to be part of the team in a different form.

To be fair that is because of the amazing job that Jay and co have done in recruiting since 2016. Prior to the rest of Harrold's class we got pretty few US elites/former elites. Few international elites did NCAA anyway and the former elites that did seemed to go to Florida/UCLA. This only changed with the Finnegan/Priessman/Kelley class after Jay joined LSU. Over the past couple years we picked up a ton of former elites, like Aleah, Kailin, Amari, Kaliya, Konnor, Zoe, Lexi, Alyona, Livvy, Arenas, Desiderio, Tori...

There's less of a need to pick up internationals since we had a ton of US former elite talent

Wasn't expecting as many 5th/6th years as this! Has everyone who could return chosen to return?

Very nice. Looks like a good beam and floor worker. Most likely lineup I think is floor, especially since we lost a bunch of routines this year. Nice Yfull but we won’t be using that.

Some rumours that Ashlee Sullivan (elite, previously committed to Michigan) may be available. No more mention of Michigan on her IG. She has been doing well in elite this year? To be honest I always thought she had SEC vibes so I was surprised when she went to Michigan.

Also noticed that Alexis's recent post just said year 4, without any big goodbyes. Maybe she is thinking of taking a 5th year, I think she had eligibility from her first year.

Really gutted for Chase, though suspected that was the result.

Agree with Alyona on vault and floor over bars, though don't know what her health status is and whether she is able to compete those events. For vault especially, we don't need anything other than a 1.5.

Chase being out hurts us a bit on vault but not too much, even without her the lineup against OU will probably be our postseason lineup I think: KJ, Finnegan, Lincoln, Drayton, Chio, Bryant. Zeiss probably as reserve. I suppose Konnor may be an option health-permitting but it's getting a bit late in the season to introduce her.

Floor we should be fine. Ballard with the 2 pass routine looks good. Dunne always good for a backup and there should be some others with a serviceable floor eg Coen. Alyona would be good here for depth.

Bars... honestly, I think Tori is pretty far down the line of options. We already have Cowan, Jeffrey, Chio, Finnegan, Konnor, Bryant who are basically guaranteed if healthy. Zeiss is doing pretty well as leadoff so that's a 7th person. Then 8th would be Dunne again I think - she is always ready to go even at the last minute and has a high hit rate. There's also Drayton, whom I think has really nice form. Imo Tori would be after all these other options for me on bars unless something has changed

Not a great meet from the team but I guess good to have one out of the way. Mistakes from underclassmen I don't really mind as they're finding their feet but there were too many errors from the upperclassmen.

I do feel like our depth is really being tested with all the injuries and both Aleah and Kailin are cracking a bit under the pressure of AA every week. Kailin is amazing but still a freshman. Even Haleigh and Sarah Finnegan didn't do AA every week as a freshman. Aleah didn't do AA for most of last season either.

On the positive side I liked seeing the exhibition routines in the Arky meet. Roberts vault needs more work but has potential for the future, nice form. Tatum very laboured unfortunately and short on every handstand. Leah Miller actually not a bad floor backup routine, not the most difficult of passes but 3 pass routine and not much by way of built in deductions. Had it been in lineup for the meet it would've counted. And Lexi on beam, not a good angle for form, but she shows good composure.

Personally I am happy with Ballard on floor too. I just think Dunne's ring jumps are going to be a problem when we have so many eyes on the routines postseason. But she is a good depth option to have to rest some others during regular season.

Just watched the conference with Jay and super happy to hear that about Lincoln possibly being in floor. Our lineups for floor now are good, but they could be even better

I think Kaliya can get it together with the vault with some time and reps. Too much power is a better problem to have than too little.

Beard removed from official roster on the website now. Sad that college gym didn't really happen for some reason, but glad that she can say she was on the Natty winning team. Hope she is happy.

Yeah, I think the problem with Lincoln is that from the things I have seen/heard, it sounds like her issue is an Achilles problem. Not sure that is going to get that much better with redshirting/rest.