Passion Blog #6 – Review of B1G Championships and Preview of NCAA’s

My first experience competing in the B1G championships last week was absolutely amazing. I can without question say that I have never been to a competition that was more exciting and contained more energy! While the final result may not have been exactly what we wanted, we just got edged out by Michigan for a 2nd place finish, our performance was undoubtedly the best it has been this whole year. With only one fall and our team’s highest score  in multiple years, we could not have expected much more. Almost every other team at this year’s championship had a near perfect meet as well, making it by far one of the most highest scoring championships in recent years. For example, Ohio State’s 5th place finish this year with a score of 405 would have comfortably given them a 2nd place finish in last year’s championship. That being said, here were the top 5 team scores for last Friday’s meet from Columbus:

#1 – Michigan (Score: 412.400)

#2 – Penn State (Score: 410.700)

#3 – Nebraska (Score: 410.500)

#4 – Illinois (Score: 409.400)

#5 – Ohio State (Score: 405.500)

By incredible coincidence, these are almost exactly the final standings that I predicted in my passion blog last week except for Michigan and Penn State switched at #1 and #2. However, Michigan fully earned their win last week with an incredible team performance that was led by their freshman Fred Richard. Fred won the individual all-around and high bar gold medal at the championships in addition to being named the B1G Freshman of the year. His all-around score of 85.950 not only makes him a frontrunner to win at the NCAA championships next week, but easily makes him competitive on the world stage to win a medal at the World Championships in 2023 or in an Olympic final in Paris 2024. Michigan excelled at this meet on High Bar, Floor, and Vault where they had either the highest or second highest team score. Nebraska, Illinois, and Ohio State all had very solid performances as well, with little to no major errors, but their difficulty scores were simply not high enough to compete with Michigan.

With the B1G championships over, there is now only one competition left in the season: the NCAA championships. The NCAA championships will be hosted at Penn State and begin exactly 8 days from today in Rec Hall. The format will be a two-day competition with twelve pre-qualified teams competing within two different sessions on Friday, and then the top three teams from each session advancing to the team finals on Saturday. Just as I did for last week’s blog, I will make my prediction as to who I believe will advance from each session to the final day and what the final standings will be. Here are my predictions for the first session of competition on Friday which will feature Stanford, Nebraska, Illinois, Navy, Army, and Air Force:

1. Stanford (advancing) – Stanford winning this session is any easy pick given their team average is well over 10 points higher than any other team and they are the clear favorite to win the championship. Even though they may be resting some guys on the first day, I still expect them to comfortably win this session.

2. Nebraska (advancing) – With a very solid B1G championship that showed they are right with the best, its hard not to see Nebraska advancing.

3. Illinois (advancing) – While they may not have the most difficulty, Illinois has been incredibly consistent all year and are a clear favorite over the other teams in the session without something going horribly wrong.

4. Navy (not advancing) – While Navy has been very close to making the final in past years, I just don’t see it happening this year. They have struggled a bit this season from losing their senior class and I think the gap between them and Illinois is too big.

5. Air Force (not advancing) – Air Force has actually had a relatively good year this year but they are just too inconsistent to beat other top teams.

6. Army (not advancing) – Army has also had a relatively strong year but is too far behind in terms of difficulty to really have a chance.

With the first session out of the way in the afternoon, the evening session will feature Oklahoma, Michigan, Penn State, Cal Berkeley, Springfield, and Ohio State. Here are my predictions:

1. Oklahoma (advancing) – With a weak conference championship, expect Oklahoma to be hungry for redemption at NCAA. I see them coming out of the gate with a strong performance on night one.

2. Michigan (advancing) – Michigan looks very good heading into these championships but I think they will rest some guys one night one to put up a strong performance on finals night.

3. Penn State (advancing) – While I think we have the potential to beat both Oklahoma and Michigan, we will also rest some people on day one so we can have our better performance on final’s night.

4. Ohio State (not advancing) – Though they could advance with some mistakes from other teams, Ohio has had a pretty rough year and they certainly aren’t a favorite in this very competitive session.

5. California Berkley (not advancing) – Cal has also looked solid this year, but they unfortunately lack the talent to compete with the top teams.

6. Springfield (not advancing) – As a division III school it is amazing that Springfield qualified to the championships in itself! However, it is hard to see them moving onto finals night.

Given that my predictions are correct, the final day of competition on Saturday would be between Stanford, Oklahoma, Michigan, Penn State, Illinois, and Nebraska. It will certainly be an amazing night of competition that accentuates the hard work and preparation that each team has put into the season for peak for that night. Here are my predicted final standings for the team final:

#1 Stanford 

#2 Michigan 

#3 Penn State

#4 Oklahoma

#5 Nebraska

#6 Illinois

If you are able to make it out to Rec Hall next Saturday, I promise that you won’t be disappointed. It will also should be televised somewhere although I am not exactly sure of the coverage yet.