NCAA women’s gymnastics: Week 1 Power Rankings & meets to watch

Hannah Johnson

Intern, NCAA Women

1. Oklahoma

Oklahoma came out of the gates strong and deserved its near 198. No one matched their execution in the first week.

2. Florida

Florida had a good meet as well, but their vault was not nearly as strong as Oklahoma’s, with only two scores of 9.9 or better.

3. Michigan

I put Michigan at No. 3 because it was still able to achieve a 197.4 despite a sub-49 beam rotation. The Wolverines look extremely good on the other three events, and I imagine starting on beam in the first meet of the season contributed to their low beam score. California is not far behind, however, Michigan seems like it is more balanced across all four events.

4. California

That being said, California does have some star freshmen that are healthy but have yet to compete. There is a lot of untapped potential with that team, and they’re already going over 197.

5. Auburn

Auburn is next followed closely by Utah and UCLA. While the latter two teams achieved the same team score during opening weekend, UCLA did not prove that it could put together a beam rotation that was on par with its other events.

6. Utah

7. UCLA

8. LSU

LSU finished five-tenths behind Utah in their dual meet, but I believe LSU was underscored as compared to Utah. Overall, LSU will want to bring up its bars and beam scores to be more well rounded.

9. Denver

I chose to put Denver over Alabama because I believe Denver was underscored at home compared to how Alabama was scored in the SEC. Denver seems to be the better of the two teams and would likely prove so on a neutral site.

10. Alabama 

Patricia Duffy

Founder, Gymnastics Now

1. California

Hot takes right out the gate. In my opinion, California had the best performance of any time during Week 1, recording the best overall score in a season-opening meet in program history. The talent is there, the star power is there, and I’m picking California as the dark horse (is it a dark horse if they’re this good?) to make the Four on the Floor.

2. Oklahoma

Pretty self explanatory. The defending champions picked up right where they left off and seem poised to make another championship run this season.

3. Florida

Easily the most star-studded roster in the NCAA, if there was a season I’d pick the Gators to win their first title since 2015, it’d be this season.

4. Auburn

The Tigers went 49+ across the board and seem to be in mid-season form already. With Suni Lee’s days in the NCAA numbered, Auburn should be more motivated than ever to produce a special season.

5. UCLA

UCLA and Michigan both struggled on beam, which happens, especially in the first meet of the season, but this UCLA team already feels special. The Bruins have their mojo back under first-year head coach Janelle McDonald.

6. Michigan

Abby Heiskell and Natalie Wojcik returning for a victory lap is going to prove critical for this team as the season progresses. Beam woes aside, they’re strong contenders.

7. Utah

Utah and LSU were more evenly matched than even the 0.500 score difference reflected, but Utah gets the edge this week for seeming just a bit more polished.

8. LSU

9. Alabama

Similar to UCLA, Alabama gets the edge over Denver because of the renewed energy of the program under first-year head coach Ashley Johnston.

10. Denver