And this year certainly didn't disappoint. Literally no one who will be in the hunt for the senior national title did AA, Gabby Perea won junior bars with a flyaway dismount, Deanne Soza decided to go ahead and do her floor routine even though she couldn't do her DLO and just do a layout pass instead, the junior champion outscored the senior champion, Riley McCusker invented a Stalder-entry tucked Tkatchev on the fly, and Ashton did one event and it wasn't bars. The meets that have literally no bearing on anything else are always my favorite and make me feel full of life.
(Also, there will be basically nothing from the junior session here. There was way too much of that for me to keep track of anything.)
The Good
So let's start with new superstar Jade Carey who literally no one had heard of 3 months ago. New favorite for the World vault title. Also, her floor is not shabby at all and we really need to give more attention to her fab double double. If she doesn't become this quad's Kayla Williams I will be so disappointed.
MORGAN HURD!! Her ending choreography on floor is all the artistry I need this year (though there was tons of great ending choreo). Yes, she did put her hand down on her beam, but it was more solid than we've seen her do all year. So I am going to delude myself that she's going to bust out with the steady beam routine until she has another big issue at P&Gs.
NO AL!!!!!!
Luisa Blanco. Girl is a gorgeous gymnast, bare minimum difficulty or no.
Also, Adeline Kenlin's beam was glorious. It was smooth and solid and difficult and not the same as every other beam routine in the world!
In general, I felt the beam choreography was an improvement this year. If felt less staccato and less like it had been done in a half-asleep daze. Routines moved better and were more interesting between skills.
Some great skills busted out-- more standing fulls than we got from the top dogs last year, arabians, some Onodis (including in floor choreo!), nice combos from the new front tumbling rules (HALLELUJAH), Deanne's Ezhova, and lots of same-bar releases other than straddled Jaegers!!
Laney Madsen might have struggled HARD here, but she did at least bust out the cool skills. If you're going to be sloppy, at least be sloppy doing cool stuff.
Coaches who didn't have their taped-together gymnasts compete unnecessarily. Well done Everest, First State, Brandy Johnson, and Texas Dreams; Maggie Haney, take notes.
Ragan Smith. She is not playing around. Of course, as always we have to appreciate her beam routine of effortless difficulty
As always, the Texas Dreams floor routines. At least, those we saw here. We haven't seen Ragan's yet so we don't know if the dark days of finger monocles and finger walking will carry on to haunt us this year, but everyone else's was fab. All of their routines (with the exception of the Addams Family... thing) are just so creative and polished. All of them were enjoyable, but I especially loved Emma Malabuyo's hand-walking and Deanne Soza's routine. (Side note: it was so weird seeing Deanne Soza not in blue and yellow.) (Second side note: I'm still salty we never got to see Bailie Key on floor after 2015 when-- if I recall correctly-- she got a new routine.)
And, once again, the weirdness that lived up to the Classics reputation.
The Bad
Once again, Maggie, why did you make Riley compete for no good reason?
Jordan Chiles not busting out of the gates like everyone was hoping for two years ago.
Even though I am glad she's at least going to do cool things if she's going to be so messy, Laney Madsen did have quite the rough meet.
The Ugly
Triple wolf+double wolf combinations. Just gouge my eyes out, why don't you, it would be kinder. (I don't even hate wolf turns as much as most of the gymternet! I really like a well-executed wolf turn, but even Simone couldn't make this palatable.)
Side-stand split 1/2 jumps. The vast majority of the side-stand half-twisting jumps would fit this category, but even the well-executed ones in cross split were awkward-looking.
Of course, we are all now turning our sights toward naming the Worlds team. While I love the team competition, there's a certain kind of fun about an individual Worlds selection. Of course, Classics isn't really a big indicator, but it did tell us that Jade Carey is definitely a thing and Ragan Smith is bringing it.
Basically for the AA you've got Ragan Smith pretty much confirmed and Riley McCusker and Morgan Hurd (and not really but still should probably be talked about Alyona Shchennikova) for the second spot. Jade Carey is looking fairly unchallenged at this point for a VT/FX (and possibly BB?) spot. That leaves a UB (and possibly BB) spot, Ashton being the obvious pick for that. All of the ones in for the second AA spot would be in the hunt for the UB(/BB) spot if they don't get the AA spot, especially if Ashton doesn't upgrade.
I want Morgan Hurd for the second AA just because she's the one I want for it. She doesn't have a good hit record this year, but no one really does, so... we'll see what happens at Nationals. For the bars spot, I don't really mind, though Alyona does have my favorite composition.
