Fantasy Gymnastics Recap Week 6: Welcome to the Club!

Thanks to Collin Harris for the image!

Heyo, welcome to the 198 club! It's an elusive group, but this season it includes Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, and my fantasy team. That's right, for the first time, I have broken 198 for the week, which is always the goal, and I've done it in a pretty spectacular manner with a 198.312. The bad news is that it's going to be tough to repeat, and that the highest score gets dropped. However, the good news is that last weeks 197.931 will count toward my FQS average, and my team is a fully functioning machine. So let's break it down:

Not Quite Perfect, but Darn Close

I didn't get to count any 10's this week, which is a bit of a let down, but it does show that my team is incredibly well-rounded with a lot of depth. Of my twenty routines that counted toward this week's total all of them were 9.9 or above! For a team missing girls from any of the top 3 schools (Oklahoma, LSU, Florida), this is pretty impressive.

My superstars this week included Mary Jane Horth (Illinois) with a 9.975 on Bars and 9.9 on Beam, Cami Drouin-Allaire (GWU) with a 9.925 on Vault, and my two-meeter Ciera Perkins with averages of 9.9125 on Vault and 9.25 on Bars. My usual star, Georgia Dabritz had a rough Beam showing, with a fall for only a 9.3. It's okay though, because the rest of my team covered for her.




The More Things Change

I haven't put the exact same line-up in two weeks in a row yet this season, and not just because of bye weeks. My trading has been working incredibly well. Each time I trade a gymnast, she immediately makes the line-up, and often contributes. This week, I dropped Jordan Hardison (Kent State) and picked up a Bars and Beam specialist from Bowling Green, Laura Mitchell. Immediately she was in the Beam line-up. She probably won't contribute on Bars barring an injury to another athlete, because that rotation is headlined by superstars, and I got a 49.675 for the week.

An addition from a couple weeks ago, Chantelle Leohner (EMU) contributed one of my 9.9's on Floor this week, contributing to the rotation's 49.5. One of my favorite parts of Fantasy Gym is seeing these big scores from girls I may not otherwise follow because they aren't from popular schools. Some of my team's best athletes are from lower ranking schools like CMU, Illinois, and Pittsburgh.

The Rest of the Division

My fantasy team currently sits at 3rd in my division and 35th overall, but I've been building up my average slowly. Hopefully a few more weeks will let me move up the ranks. My competition has some pretty fantastic girls, however. The first place team features freshman standouts Alex McMurtry (Florida) and Vivi Babalis (Georgia). Second place lucked out with veterans Caitlin Atkinson (Auburn) and Ashleigh Gnat (LSU). It'll be a tough run, but I'm working my way up!