Even though the 2023 NCAA season is hardly over, it’s never too early to get excited for next year’s round of newcomers. For this article, I judged one event from 11 committed high school seniors (plus a bonus routine from junior Avery Neff) that competed at the 2023 Nastia Cup.
For the most part, I tried to be “college nice” and judge how NCAA judges generally judge, but note that I do tend to be a bit more strict than most NCAA judges, and so these routines may score even higher than where I would put them.
For the most part, these level 10 routines are at a higher level of difficulty than NCAA since the requirements are slightly different between level 10 and NCAA gymnastics. In some of the routines, I offer commentary on which skills we may not see in their college routines, either because they aren’t needed or because the athlete could easily downgrade to something easier (and cleaner) without any penalties in their start value or composition.
Vault
Madison Ulrich, Denver
Deductions: large hop on the landing, leg separation, excessive arch, head alignment, shoulder angle on the table
NCAA Score: 9.750 to 9.800
Lily Smith, Georgia
Read more…
