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Elizabeth Grimsley | College Gym News | April 4, 2022

NCAA gymnastics power rankings: What's next in the season's final month

Olympic gymnast Jade Carey returns to campus with a gold medal

College gymnastics is in the heart of national qualifying score rankings, where the goal of every routine and every meet is replacing lower scores with better ones to improve a gymnast’s or team’s standing. NQS is determined by taking the top six scores, three of which must be away, dropping the highest and averaging the remaining five.

🏆: 2022 championships dates, locations, more info

But as we know, rankings don’t tell the whole story, which is where these power rankings come in. They’ll take a look at how things stand now based not necessarily on the scores themselves but on how the actual routines look in comparison to each other at this point in the season.

They may not be the top competitors overall or the ones expected to win national titles come April, but they are standouts from the previous week’s competitions. Let’s get to it.

All-Around

  1. Jade Carey, Oregon State
  2. Trinity Thomas, Florida
  3. Lexy Ramler, Minnesota
  4. Raena Worley, Kentucky
  5. Hannah Scharf, Arizona State
  6. Sunisa Lee, Auburn

While the gymnasts in the top six of the all-around rankings remain mostly the same, the order has shifted a bit.

Carey’s consistency in 2022 has been unmatched, as the Beaver has posted high score after high score week after week. Thomas posted the highest total in the country so far this season in Florida’s big matchup against Oklahoma on Friday, marking her reappearance in the power rankings at No. 2.

Ramler shifts down despite a strong performance in Minnesota’s program record 198 meet, simply due to those above her doing even better. Worley also returns to the rankings thanks to her own consistency. She sits at No. 1 in the country in the NQS standings.

Scharf and Lee round out the top six with the former contributing to Arizona State’s upset of conference regular season champ California and the latter’s stellar meet in her team’s program record-breaking competition.

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Vault

  1. Haleigh Bryant, LSU
  2. Ona Loper, Minnesota
  3. Katherine LeVasseur, Oklahoma
  4. Gabby Wilson, Michigan
  5. Trinity Thomas, Florida
  6. Sierra Brooks, Michigan

The top five gymnasts on the vault power rankings have a bit of a stronghold on the list, remaining in their exact positions for a second-consecutive week. The reason is thanks to consistently strong performances that have produced consistently strong scores.

Brooks is the only new addition, replacing her teammate after scoring a perfect 10 over the weekend. It was perhaps the “most perfect” perfect 10 on the event in 2022.

VAULT: The secret behind Michigan's success

Bars

  1. Jade Carey, Oregon State
  2. Audrey Davis, Oklahoma
  3. Sunisa Lee, Auburn
  4. Luisa Blanco, Alabama
  5. Lexy Ramler, Minnesota
  6. Natalie Wojcik, Michigan

The big news on bars over the last week surrounds Olympic bars bronze medalist Lee, who became the first gymnast in NCAA history to successfully perform a Nabieva—a toe-on laid-out Tkatchev—in competition. The feat earned her a near-perfect 9.975.

Meanwhile, Carey and Davis remain in the first and second positions of the power rankings, followed by the addition of Blanco at No. 4. The Alabama gymnast hasn’t scored below 9.900 since the first meet of the season and has tallied six of seven scores above 9.925.

Bars stalwarts Ramler and Wojcik round out the top six.

WATCH: Olympian Suni Lee's Nabieva leads Auburn gymnastics to a record score

Beam

  1. Ragan Smith, Oklahoma
  2. Maile O’Keefe, Utah
  3. Sunisa Lee, Auburn
  4. Luisa Blanco, Alabama
  5. Lexy Ramler, Minnesota
  6. Elease Rollins, BYU

Top teams struggled on beam this week, which led to a number of upsets. Utah was one of those that faltered. However, O’Keefe was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing rotation for the Utes, tallying a near-perfect 9.975 to close out the meet on a high.

Smith, Lee, Blanco and Ramler all continue to perform well on the precarious event as well, with Lee notching her first career perfect 10 on the event. In somewhat of a surprise addition, BYU’s Rollins joins the top beamers in the country in this week’s power rankings after multiple weeks of solid performances, scoring two 9.950s and a 9.975 in her last three performances.

👀 : Here are the four most-breakable records in women's college gymnastics

Floor

  1. Jade Carey, Oregon State
  2. Trinity Thomas, Florida
  3. Mya Hooten, Minnesota
  4. Nya Reed, Florida
  5. Gabby Wilson, Michigan
  6. Sydney Soloski, Utah

Carey, Thomas and Hooten all reached perfection over the weekend on floor, making them pretty easy choices for the top three spots in this week’s power rankings. Reed follows the trio up after extending her streak of 9.9-plus performances. Wilson took a break from competition, but her consistency this season keeps her in the mix.

Finally, Soloski claims the final spot this week not because of a stand out performance in Utah’s meet at Arizona, but because of her quest for perfection in her fifth year. In 2022, she’s scored over 9.900 six times, including two 9.975s, and many believe a 10 is only a matter of time. Her consistent excellence has produced a strong NQS and gives her a deserved place in the top six of this week’s power rankings.

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