Tigers set for Mizzou to the Lou: Part 2

One part SEC matchup, one part quad meet, this competition is going to have everything

Welcome, friends! Some of you StL-based folks might be taking in your first Mizzou Gymnastics meet (or first podium meet!) in person tonight, and I’m really so excited for you. This team always has the most fun, and meets are highly entertaining. There’s a lot to get to, and since the weather looks like it will actually behave this year, let’s just get started, shall we?

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Meet Info

When: Friday, February 14, 2025

Where: Family Arena | St. Charles, MO

Time: 6:30 p.m. CST

TV: SEC Network+

LIVE STATS: Virtius— https://virti.us/session?s=JYDxWK-R2R

History:

• In the all-time series against Alabama, the Tigers have just one win, in 2023 at home where they won 197.075 to 196.750. Last year, the Tigers visited Tuscaloosa and fell 196.475 to 197.225 despite getting event wins from Jocelyn Moore (vault, 9.925) and Sienna Schreiber (9.95, beam), and earning a 49.375 on vault, which was the program’s fifth best. Per MU Tigers, Mizzou garnered FIVE scores 9.90 or higher in this meet. ***manifesting that for this meet***
• In the all-time series against Iowa, Mizzou leads 19-3, though they have not faced each other since March 2018, when the Tigers won 196.050 to 195.600.
• In the all-time series against Illinois, the Tigers lead 22-9 and just faced off last weekend (more on that below). They met twice last year, in the final meet of the year in a quad where the Tigers scored their season high, 197.600, (also there, Arizona and SEMO), and at the Zou to the Lou meet — hey, that’s this meet! — where Missouri scored 197.475 to Illinois’ 196.55 (also featuring Florida, who won, and Lindenwood— RIP). My harrowing journey to the meet 59 miles towards the meet last year was one of my favorite things I wrote last year, so please check out the recap. Here’s a snippet.

This is a story of how three CoMo-based gymthusiasts, two writers — me and The Maneater’s Nate Salsman — and an Olympic sports savant and KCOU PBP extraordinaire, Abigail Klapatauskas, took to the road on Friday afternoon for a harrowing journey to St. Charles, Mo. to cheer objectively report on the Zou to the Lou quad meet. It did not go as planned.

For there would be no trip to St. Charles. No in-person observation of a podium meet. No attempt to keep your inner cheers at bay when that [spoiler alert] perfect 10 flashed on the screen. There would be no post-game with Shannon and selected gymnasts. None of it.

Because, you see, we NEVER MADE IT THERE. At around 8:45pm, some 5 hours and 40 minutes after leaving CoMo, while stranded on some side road in Jonesburg (side note: good thing we decided to get off I-70 or else we’d have been there even longer), we finally decided to throw caution to the wind and execute a three-point (probably more like six-points if we’re being honest) turn to head back some 59 miles back home (yeah, we’d only made it 59 miles, you guys), dejected, hungry, in need of a restroom, and without a cell signal to know how the meet ended—dammit.

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Last Time On The Mats

When we last saw our Tigers, they spent Super Bowl Sunday in Champaign, facing off against Illinois in a dual. You can read the recap here! No Champaign Problems* for this team! **it’s a Taylor Swift song

First rotation (MIZ bars, U of I vault): The Tigers were fantastic on bars, earning a season high 49.475 score with season high scores from Joci (9.875, tied), Amari (9.925, tied career high) Mara (9.925, tied) and Abby (9.85 exh, tied career high). Illinois had a great first rotation of its own on vault, earning a season high 49.200 on the strength of Arielle Ward (9.95, won event). After 1: Mizzou leads U of I by 0.275, 49.475 to 49.200.

Second rotation (MIZ vault, U of I bars): A week after a better vault rotation, the Sunday Scaries, Vault Edition, definitely hit this Tigers squad, as they had some t-r-o-u-b-l-e, scoring just a 48.975 (same was week 1-2). Abby, who was filling in for Kaia, was close to her season high, but everyone else was a good bit off, I feel like, and the Tigers’ highest score was Amari’s 9.80. Yikes. As for Illinois, they struggled a bit as well on bars, led by a 9.85 from Makayla Green and a 9.80 by Ward. After 2: Mizzou extended its lead to 0.425, 98.45 to 98.025.

Third rotation (MIZ floor, U of I beam): That’s more like it! Mizzou earned its highest score of the season with a 49.475 and a bunch of Tigers either tied or earned season high scores, including Elise (9.875 tie), Rayna (9.85 tie), Amari (9.925 tie), and a massive season-high 9.95 from Joci. Oh, and don’t forget Jessa’s career high 9.85 in exhibition! Ilinois followed on beam and earned another season high score, a 49.275. Megan Sapp (9.775) tied her season best and Amelia Knight tied her season best (9.90). After 3: Mizzou increased its lead to 0.625, 147.925 to 147.300.

Final rotation (MIZ beam, U of I floor): Mizzou had another good week on beam, earning their third highest rotation score of the season, a 49.275. which was led by leadoff Amy Wier’s masterful career high 9.90. Amari went 9.85 (tied season high), and Jessa, in an exhibition role, earned a career-high 9.80, Illinois closed out the meet on floor, earning a season-high tying 49.375, led by Cho’s season high 9.95. After 4: Mizzou hung on, tying its best team score of the season, 197.200 to 196.675 (also a team-high for Illinois)

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What To Expect at the Venue/About the Event

I honestly don’t know what to expect here since I didn’t make it last year, but they posted a seating chart online, and it appears that the capacity is 6,036. If you’re still looking for tickets, they look to cost between $10-55 dollars, and there’s a parking charge as well (cash if you don’t purchase ahead of time).

What’s a Podium Meet?

What’s a podium meet? Well, I’m glad you asked, because Shannon & Joci just explained it to us last year before the meet (they didn’t have media this week)! It is more like the style of SEC Championships, NCAAs, Olympics, etc… in that the competition area is RAISED. So you’re performing on a podium almost. (Until last year, I thought it just meant like you got awards on podiums, haha).

“So it’s like the equipment is raised. So it’s kind of on a stage,” Joci had said. “So you have to walk upstairs to compete on the equipment versus like in a home venue. Everything’s flat on the surface, like the core surface.”

Shannon added, “So yeah, like, you go to a graduation and then they got the raised stage for whoever’s presenting from up there… The purpose of it is to just kind of elevate the competitive apparatus and it just is a nicer viewing for our fans. We typically adjust for a little bit because sometimes it’s got a little bit of a different balance to it. As you can imagine, there’s a hollow surface or hollow space underneath.”

Last year, they arrived on Thursday, and then went into the facility and got an opportunity to get a little bit of practice on the equipment and kind of get warmed up. From the looks of social media on Thursday night, it appears this happened once again.

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Quick Comparisons

I love data.

Karen Steger Designs / RoadtoNationals data

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Who to Watch

Gonna do this one a bit differently here, as there’s a lot of teams. First off, here’s my running stat sheet below. Consider me a Mizzou gym mad scientist, if you will, and yes I do print out copies for the meets so I have it with me to mark on. If a gymnast has only competed once, I didn’t include an average score, and they have to have six scores to have an NQS (which drops the highest and averages the others).

Mizzou

Based on last week’s performances, I think the sixth vault slot goes to Abby, assuming Kaia is back in the rotation (she missed last week with a small injury, she told me). If she’s not back, first off, DAMN, but then I think we’re likely to see Kyra— she had a tough score last week but is normally pretty reliable. On bars, I’m sticking with Rayna in the lineup as she’s done a great job, but also could see Olivia getting back in there (she’s only done bars once). The beam lineup is a dream, and I’d put Abby and Jessa as alternates there behind Amari. Finally, on floor, I’m not sure what they do with the sixth spot. Rayna has been in the past few weeks, but Railey has scored higher and then Jessa had an awesome exhibition performance. And that doesn’t even count Kiley’s super fun routine! There’s so much depth on this team; I just wish the depth extended to consistently good vault scores from the Tigers…

Alabama:

Alabama is not off to a very good start this year, despite coming into the season on people’s radars to make it back to the national championship— The All Things Gymnastics podcast notably thought they were going to be top 4-5. The Crimson Tide cleared the 197 mark in week one at home vs. Carolina (a 197.025) which was a great start, but then they experienced some issues at Kentucky, earning just a 196.100 and then only did a little bit better, earning a 196.300, at home vs. Oklahoma. EHHHHH. Away at Georgia was slightly better, earning a 196.575, before keeping it close with national champ LSU last weekend, just eclipsing the 197 mark again (197.075). If they could get it together, you could see them get in the mid-to-upper 197s, but they just don’t seem to be there at the halfway point of the season, which presents an excellent opportunity for the Tigers, who ARE competing well.

While as a whole the Tide have yet to post a sub-49 vault score, their highest score, a 49.35, was almost a month ago in week 2, and have since been hitting more in the 49.00-49.175 range. On vault, the Tide have three rotation members — Corinne Bunagan, Lilly Hudson and Gabby Gladieux, who have earned 9.925 scores, followed by a 9.875 by Jordyn Paradise and a 9.85 by Karis German. Shania Adams rounds out the higher scoring vaults with a 9.800.

Bars started strong for Alabama with a 49.30 in week 1, but then had three straight weeks of 49.1 scores, before getting a 49.275 last week. Tide performers to watch out for are specialist Ryan Fuller (9.925) and a trio of 9.90ers in Hudson, Chloe LaCoursiere and Paityn Walker. Paradise and Gladieux have both earned 9.85 scores this season, so pay attention to them as well.

Beam has been the most consistent of the four apparatuses for Bama, and more often than not they’ve gotten in the 49.2 range, and their high scores mirror that (they’re all very similar). Hudson and Gladieux both have gotten 9.90 scores, followed by 9.875 scores by Adams, LaCoursiere and Gabby Ladanyi, a 9.85 by Bunagan, and 9.80 by Rachel Rybicki.

Floor remains Bama’s strongest rotation, scoring a season-high 49.500 last week, and a 49.425 in the first meet, which sets up for an epic FX battle between MU & Bama. Gladieux is tops here, having earned a near-perfect 9.975 score, and then they have three more with 9.90-9.925 scores in Adams, Hudson & Rybicki. Want more info on their top scores? Click here.

Illinois:

The Illinois Fighting Illini are coming off a good week at home against Missouri, which was marked by a season-high team score, multiple season high rotation scores and a bunch of season-best individual scores as well. They are led by freshmen Chloe Cho (9.875 V/UB, 9.925 BB, 9.95 FX) and Eden King (9.825 V, 9.825 BB, 9.875 FX), Arielle Ward (9.95 V, 9.875 FX, 9.80 UB), Mareli Muller (9.875 FX, 9.85 V), Makayla Green (9.925 UB) and Olivia Coppola (9.80 V, 9.875 BB). If you’d like more info about them and each apparatus, you can read my preview and look at the recap above from last week!

Iowa:

The Hawkeyes, 3-3 (2-2 in Big 10) this season, are led by all-arounders Aurelie Tran (9.875 V/BB, 9.90 UB/FX; 39.475 AA) and Karina Munoz (9.925 V, 9.90 FX, 9.875 BB, 9.825 UB; 39.35 AA), Hanna Castillo (9.85 V, 9.875 FX), Avery Chambers (9.875 V), Gianna Masella (9.80 V/FX, 9.875 UB) and Sydney Turner (9.925 UB, 9.775 V). The other black & gold (more yellow) team hit their highest vault score, a 49.25 in mid-January, but seem to hover more in the low 49 to high 48 range. Most recently, they scored a 48.80 last weekend. As for bars, they also hit their high score, a 49.125, at that same mid-January meet, and aside from that have gone sub-49. Beam appears to be looking up for Iowa, who have had their highest scores this month— a 49.30 & 49.10 the last two weeks. As for floor, they also have been on the upswing, getting a little better each meet, with a 49.05, 49.00 and 49.10 in the last three meets. Want more info on their top scores? Click here.

Since Mizzou just faced Illinois last week, my main focus here is obviously on the SEC competition, Alabama. Just as last year at this meet, it was on Florida.

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Records To Watch

Because it came out that the judges will be receiving no feedback in the new SCORE board system this year, I wonder if the scores start to go back up?!

• Overall Score: 197.850, set at Arkansas on 2/24/23 (197.600 at IL Quad on 3/17/24)
• Away Meet Score: (see above!)
• Balance Beam: 49.550, scored at no. 17 Arkansas on 2/24/23 (49.40 on 1/20/24)
• Uneven Bars: 49.600, scored at Mizzou Quad on 3/10/24
• Vault: 49.500 set at Illinois Quad on 3/17/24
• Floor Exercise: 49.700, set at Illinois Quad on 3/17/24

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How Missouri Can Win / What I want for Valentine’s Day

FOUR GOOD ROTATIONS with season highs in two of the four apparatuses

Higher than a 197.200, which is their team score. This meet also counts as a away meet, which is good for NQS.

Good vault landings! This will be where they start, so ATTACK from the beginning.

Minimize the wobbles on beam and stick the landings. The Tigers mostly did this last week, so keep it up.

A 49.500+ on floor (they had a 49.475 last week), of which they can do for sure. Controlled landings, excellent leaps that go the full amount, and minimal leg separation.

By being themselves. This is a fun as hell group who really enjoys each other and performing. They can take the win. In my heart of hearts, I KNOW this.

I’m so excited. LFG.