UNC Gymnastics 2025-2026
- Thread starter CosmicHeel
- Start date
I had the impression that the initial plan was to conduct this meet under the new-ish "double duel" format (which would have allowed more routines to be shown) and then somewhere around rotation 2 the organizers were like "eff it."
ACC rankings and averages for Week 2:
11. UNC (196.675 - STOP THE COUNT)
13. Stanford (196.475)
14. Clemson (196.350 - two meets)
19. Cal (196.175 - two meets)
21. NCSU (196.075)
29. Pitt (195.325)
Next week's home opener is going to be a goooooooood one. Get your tickets if you haven't already!
11. UNC (196.675 - STOP THE COUNT)
13. Stanford (196.475)
14. Clemson (196.350 - two meets)
19. Cal (196.175 - two meets)
21. NCSU (196.075)
29. Pitt (195.325)
Next week's home opener is going to be a goooooooood one. Get your tickets if you haven't already!
It appears we are using the same lineups again this week, minus the exhibitions. 4 pm, ACC network!
That was a good meet today. Stanford is very good. We hung with them and fought with them. They did not blow us out or beat is too bad. Our program is on the rise. You can see it. Go Heels!
Been an excellent start to the season! Program on the rise.
Also one of the sports that really benefited from adding the SF Bay Area schools.
Also one of the sports that really benefited from adding the SF Bay Area schools.
This was a very good meet but it was overscored (for both teams) and the scoring masked some issues that I hope are points of emphasis in practice this week:
- Jessica Naranjo is lovely on beam but her routine construction is very risky (I harped about this last season too). Because she's so reliant on connections, it's important that she move quickly and smoothly through her skills and not leave any doubt as to whether those connections should be credited. She didn't get credit in week 1 and IMO she was very lucky to get it in week 2. This is something that gets better over the course of a season, but we don't have the luxury of a slow start anymore.
- Likewise, in the front half of the floor lineup there were a lot of questionable leaps. The commentators called out Gwen Fink's wolf full, that is a leap that is VERY hard to do with the technical precision the code requires. One of those first three is almost definitely losing her lineup spot to Valahovic if/when she returns to the lineup, so that will mitigate things somewhat, but it's important to clean that stuff up. It's also likely to have a ripple effect that will raise Forbes' and Seabrooks' scores.
Week 3 ACC Rankings and Averages
8. Stanford (196.85)
13. UNC (196.538)
16. Clemson (196.208)
18. NCSU (196.1)
20. Cal (195.967)
30. Pitt (195.150)
It's only week 3 and Cal already has one undroppable score. The new rules are going to make things very interesting!
8. Stanford (196.85)
13. UNC (196.538)
16. Clemson (196.208)
18. NCSU (196.1)
20. Cal (195.967)
30. Pitt (195.150)
It's only week 3 and Cal already has one undroppable score. The new rules are going to make things very interesting!
Seabrooks is an immediate star. So much fun to watch.
Lineups!
Vault: Elly King, Fink, Prejean, Seabrooks, Valahovic, Forbes (Neve King exhibition)
Bars: Neve King, Seabrooks, Stippich, Stanley, Forbes, Fink (Prejean exhibition)
Beam: Seabrooks, Neve King, Stippich, Naranjo, Valahovic, Fink (Rueda exhibition)
Floor: Elly King, Fink, Aoki, Naranjo, Forbes, Seabrooks (Rueda exhibition)
Changing things up a bit this week. Seabrooks is in on bars and Prejean is out, Stippich is in on beam and Aoki is out. Some shuffling of the order on vault and bars.
Vault: Elly King, Fink, Prejean, Seabrooks, Valahovic, Forbes (Neve King exhibition)
Bars: Neve King, Seabrooks, Stippich, Stanley, Forbes, Fink (Prejean exhibition)
Beam: Seabrooks, Neve King, Stippich, Naranjo, Valahovic, Fink (Rueda exhibition)
Floor: Elly King, Fink, Aoki, Naranjo, Forbes, Seabrooks (Rueda exhibition)
Changing things up a bit this week. Seabrooks is in on bars and Prejean is out, Stippich is in on beam and Aoki is out. Some shuffling of the order on vault and bars.
Another big score, 196.525! What a team this is turning into.
Also left some points on the table by benching Fink last minute on the Vault for Neve.
Also left some points on the table by benching Fink last minute on the Vault for Neve.
That was certainly a choice. Fink’s warmup must have been bad bad.
Manifesting Valahovic on floor for next week.
She participated in the exhibition and nailed her vault, would have been the top score. doubt they would have ran her for a Meaningless try if she was injured.
But as others have said her warmups probably were off, only explanation that makes sense.
On the stream they said that in this meet Danna’s plan was to tinker based on who had a good warmup. She also swapped out Forbes for Prejean on bars. Makes sense that this was the meet she’d do it in, since this was our only meet of the season against an easily beatable opponent.
We actually grabbed 12th after a disaster meet for Utah. ACC rankings and averages for week 4:
9. Stanford (196.925)
12. UNC (196.533)
16. Clemson (196.231)
20. Cal (195.988)
21. NCSU (195.925)
29. Pitt (195.217)
Our meet at Clemson should be interesting. Clemson’s already short week may be made shorter if travel back to SC is impacted. As great as our season has been, there are teams ranked behind us who are starting to hit 197 so we need to keep turning up the dial.
Lineups for tonight are the same as last week except that Fink is back in on vault and Forbes is replacing Neve King on bars.
Gymnastics Falls To Clemson - University of North Carolina Athletics
No. 13 University of North Carolina women's gymnastics fell, 197.025-196.375, against no. 16 Clemson at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C., Friday night.
Not the right system...but we can officially start dropping our high/low and taking an average for the new system. Doing this quickly for all the ACC teams for context:
Stanford 197.0250
UNC 196.4625
Clemson 196.3333
Cal 196.1333
State 196.0750 (only has 3 matches so far, their 4th is Sunday. This is their current undroppable score)
Pittsburgh 195.1500
Stanford 197.0250
UNC 196.4625
Clemson 196.3333
Cal 196.1333
State 196.0750 (only has 3 matches so far, their 4th is Sunday. This is their current undroppable score)
Pittsburgh 195.1500
Clemson will actually have to drop two highs and a low because they compete at home six times. Conventional wisdom says that the dropped home score will be the senior meet, but in theory last nights score may not be countable.
UNC has managed to avoid counting any falls in any meet this season so far, so we have really consistent meet results. Our lowest current score is a 196.375 on the road. That puts us in a better place than some in avoiding having an outlier that counts.
Clemson already has a 195.920 on the books (plus a 196.150 at home. Another bad meet hurst them more than a bad meet would hurt us. So we have some insurance from moving down.
On the down side, we have the lowest high score of anyone in the top 15 with a 196.675. So in theory we likely need to notch two more high scoring matches to move up on our own (without help from others failing). Everyone else has at least one meet above 197.
Of course all of this is a bit premature. We are only 4 meets in to an 11 meet season. A lot will change.
Clemson already has a 195.920 on the books (plus a 196.150 at home. Another bad meet hurst them more than a bad meet would hurt us. So we have some insurance from moving down.
On the down side, we have the lowest high score of anyone in the top 15 with a 196.675. So in theory we likely need to notch two more high scoring matches to move up on our own (without help from others failing). Everyone else has at least one meet above 197.
Of course all of this is a bit premature. We are only 4 meets in to an 11 meet season. A lot will change.
There are six teams ranked behind us who have matched or exceeded our season high score. So while our consistency is more of a benefit this year than it would have been previously, we're realistically not going to keep a seeded position unless we start scoring 197s.
And although I'm getting ahead of myself here, it's worth pointing out that a seeded spot at regionals will be more important if we hope to make a regional final (and I feel like that should be our goal this year). The way things are going, three out of the four regional hosts are going to be unseeded, and that's a very dangerous potential upset scenario because regional hosts tend to overperform (and get overscored) at regionals.
And although I'm getting ahead of myself here, it's worth pointing out that a seeded spot at regionals will be more important if we hope to make a regional final (and I feel like that should be our goal this year). The way things are going, three out of the four regional hosts are going to be unseeded, and that's a very dangerous potential upset scenario because regional hosts tend to overperform (and get overscored) at regionals.
ACC Rankings and Averages, Week 5:
9. Stanford (196.938)
T12. UNC (196.494, we are tied with Auburn)
16. Clemson (196.390)
20. Cal (196.155)
22. NCSU (195.913)
33. Pitt (195.190)
In addition, here is how the ACC stacks up when you drop the high and low (I am not enough of a masochist to do this for all 86 teams):
1. Stanford (197.025)
2. UNC (196.463)
3. Clemson (196.333, this drops to 196.225 if you drop their highest home score as well)
4. Cal (196.133)
5. NCSU (195.975)
6. Pitt (195.217)
Next up are three consecutive meets against State...beat them in all three and we should hopefully start to feel safe about clinching the evening session of ACCs. I see no universe in which Pitt makes the evening session so it's a question of who is joining them for the undercard.
There are now nine teams ranked equal to or below us that have matched or exceeded our season high (Auburn, Penn State, Utah, Clemson, Minnesota, Cal, Iowa, Maryland, and Arizona)
9. Stanford (196.938)
T12. UNC (196.494, we are tied with Auburn)
16. Clemson (196.390)
20. Cal (196.155)
22. NCSU (195.913)
33. Pitt (195.190)
In addition, here is how the ACC stacks up when you drop the high and low (I am not enough of a masochist to do this for all 86 teams):
1. Stanford (197.025)
2. UNC (196.463)
3. Clemson (196.333, this drops to 196.225 if you drop their highest home score as well)
4. Cal (196.133)
5. NCSU (195.975)
6. Pitt (195.217)
Next up are three consecutive meets against State...beat them in all three and we should hopefully start to feel safe about clinching the evening session of ACCs. I see no universe in which Pitt makes the evening session so it's a question of who is joining them for the undercard.
There are now nine teams ranked equal to or below us that have matched or exceeded our season high (Auburn, Penn State, Utah, Clemson, Minnesota, Cal, Iowa, Maryland, and Arizona)
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Something very ominous is going on with the Iowa State gymnastics program. A few hours ago, they announced that tomorrow's meet against WVU was canceled due to not having enough gymnasts available to compete. That on its own isn't necessary sinister...we just saw that Olympic hockey game get rescheduled due to the Finnish team having norovirus. But illness wasn't cited. And just tonight multiple athletes on the Iowa State team have started posting on their old college recruiting social media accounts again.
As a point of comparison, I don't think we canceled a single meet during the 2016 season and we were down to like seven non-injured athletes by midseason. Of course, maybe we *should* have canceled some meets that season, but only those in the program would know.
Our freshman Jillian Fisher was signed to Iowa State before getting released and flipping to UNC at the last minute. Looks like she dodged a bullet.
As a point of comparison, I don't think we canceled a single meet during the 2016 season and we were down to like seven non-injured athletes by midseason. Of course, maybe we *should* have canceled some meets that season, but only those in the program would know.
Our freshman Jillian Fisher was signed to Iowa State before getting released and flipping to UNC at the last minute. Looks like she dodged a bullet.
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We are well past the 30% cutoff for medical redshirt so none of these women can likely sit to preserve another year. So whatever is going on (besides injuries) is suspensions and/or full locker room mutiny.
Looks like their top gymnast (Frédérique) had a bad fall on bars and is out for medical (probably concussion protocol) and Hardin (10 sv vaulter, will be coveted) plus Adams have unofficially opened their transfer recruitment.
This is going to be a very interesting test case of the current “are there rules?” environment. It sounds like close to half the team has signaled that they’ve already left the program or intend to transfer. And college coaches are swarming the recruiting accounts already. In a sport with only 60ish D1 programs, there’s bound to be a ripple effect.
I watched that bars rotation and it gave me 2018-2020 UNC flashbacks in the worst possible way.
Last night we got leapfrogged in the rankings by Utah and Auburn dropped a bit, so we're in sole possession of 13th place right now.
Lineups!
Bars: Seabrooks, Neve King, Stippich, Stanley, Rueda, Fink
Vault: Elly King, Fink, Neve King, Seabrooks, Valahovic, Forbes
Floor: Aoki, Fink, Rueda, Naranjo, Forbes, Seabrooks
Beam: Seabrooks, Neve King, Stippich, Fink, Naranjo, Valahovic
And in more WTF news, Iowa State has canceled the remainder of its season. Guess everyone quit?
Bars: Seabrooks, Neve King, Stippich, Stanley, Rueda, Fink
Vault: Elly King, Fink, Neve King, Seabrooks, Valahovic, Forbes
Floor: Aoki, Fink, Rueda, Naranjo, Forbes, Seabrooks
Beam: Seabrooks, Neve King, Stippich, Fink, Naranjo, Valahovic
And in more WTF news, Iowa State has canceled the remainder of its season. Guess everyone quit?
Yup, an improvement in our averages, and tied for our 2nd best score of the year, but some missed opportunities especially in the last rotation + a little sucky seeing the other team hit a 197. Wonder if Prejean is hurt considering they didn't compete in either of her normal events.
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I thought I saw them in the background on vault but not sure (Paige’s pronouns are they/them fyi
). No sign of a boot or anything like that. Between the lack of Prejean and Rueda in three lineups, it definitely felt like Plan A wasn’t in place today.The number of teams ranked behind us that have scored 197s continues to grow. I fear our ranking will drop like a stone soon if we stay stuck in the mid-196s.