Week 1 lived up to expectations in all of the right — and wrong — ways: jaw-dropping gymnastics, history-making performances and an abundance of questionable scores both high and low. Ties were plentiful, and thus the first regular season power rankings are here to break down which teams and gymnasts truly got their seasons off to the best starts.
Hard data is scarce so early in the season (and scores rarely tell the whole story, anyway) so we’re taking other variables — like skill difficulty and competitive stakes — into consideration when honing our picks.
College women’s gymnastics team rankings
1. Oklahoma
2. Florida
3. California
4. Michigan
5. Auburn
6. UCLA
Oklahoma came out swinging with a huge 197.925 — the second-best opening meet score in NCAA history, just a shade back from its 198.050 performance at Arkansas in 2019. Head coach KJ Kindler tested her team’s depth, and the gamble paid off: Its lowest counting score of the meet was 9.825, leaving no doubt that it’s the team to beat in 2023.
Meanwhile, Florida kicked off its season with a cool 197.750, the highest season-opening score in program history. Taking nothing away from the Gators’ genuinely impressive performance, this was a fairly low-stakes home meet against a trio of…
