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146: Taylor Rice and The 2015 NCAA Championships

Taylor Rice (Stanford) makin' it rain during event finals at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
Taylor Rice (Stanford) makin’ it rain during event finals at the 2015 NCAA Championships. Photo by Christy Linder.

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This Week's Interview
Stanford junior, Taylor Rice, joins us to discuss the 2015 NCAA Championships. Taylor is known for having a different hair color at every meet, being more trouble than Tasha Schwikert for her coach/mother Cassie Rice during her youth at GymCasts and having been the first woman in NCAA history to compete a man wipe. We discuss:

  • Where did the inspiration for her back-dat-twerk-tastic floor choreography come from? That’s So Raven.
  • How early is too early to commit to a college?
  • What did Stanford do to change their results so drastically from the last few years.
  • Why didn’t she ever go the elite route and what she learned from Tasha Schwikert
  • Will Stanford be able to work a tree pose into their floor routines next year?
  • The changes would she like to see to the NCAA.

In the News
In the news, Uncle Tim, Evan Heiter, Spencer, Spanny Tampson, and Jessica chat about everything that happened at the NCAA Championships in Ft. Worth, Texas:

  • The heartbreak:
    • What does UCLA need to do differently in order to gain their former team glory?
    • The Beam-tastrophy that was the LSU prelim session and how many times are hearts broke.
    • Was Lindsay “Precision” Mabel Khorkina’d after starting on vault and getting a lowely 9.85.
  • Gym-Myth Busters: It was true that the fiberglass was falling off of the bars?!
  • We revel in the joy of two fantastic all-around champions, Kytra Hunter and Sam Peszek; fair and well deserved!
  • The haters,  the disadvantage of being the defending champions.
  • Are judges afraid to be the first to give a 10?
  • The floor curse. Beam isn’t the difficult event to start on anymore–floor took Oklahoma out of the Super Six finals.
  • The exciting finish between Utah and Floirda coming down to the very last routine and half a tenth.
  • Our favorite moments from Championships:
    • Ivana Hong getting her gymnastics on and scoring well!
    • Gymnasts who have improved in college.
    • Auburn qualifying for Super Six for the first time in 22 years.
    • Taylor Rice’s all-comedy floor routine.
    • Sam Peszek’s standing full on beam!
  • Rules changes we need for 2016:
    • Allow judges to take the quarter tenth deduction.
    • Make the regular season matter more.
    • Top 5 finishers receive All-American honors. It’s not enough to just qualify.
    • Required single bar release.
    • Teams must perform at least one vault from each of the  three vault entries: tsukahara/kazamatsu, front handspring and yurchenko.
    • Make the post-season matter: you should have to win something before Super Six.
    • Four on the floor final, get rid of the Super Six.
  • Event Finals:
    • No upgrades in vault finals that we hadn’t seen during season.
    • We overwhelmingly agree on the floor finals.
    • NINA McGEE!

Related Links
Read the official blog of Taylor Rice here or follow her on the twitters.

Related Episodes

Related Photos

stanford taylor rice
Taylor Rice (Stanford) makes it rain on beam.
UCLA gymnastics team does Taylor Rice's making it rain choreography as they watch from the stands during floor finals at the 2015 NCAA championships Danusia Francis
UCLA gymnastics team does Taylor Rice’s making it rain choreography as they watch from the stands during floor finals at the 2015 NCAA championships
Nina McGee killing it on floor at the 2015 ncaa championships
Nina McGee won the crowd during event finals when she tied, Brenna Dowell.

 

ivana hong handstand during beam finals at the 2015 ncaa championships
Ivana Hong of Stanford shows gorgeous form and even more gorgeous dinosaur hawk.
2015 NCAA championships Taylor Rice dances during floor finals
Taylor Rice going for comedy gold at NCAAs.

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Maria
8 years ago

I don’t think that Lindsay Mable was Khorkina’d. She wasn’t as clean as she has been. Maybe she was tired, or the pressure of qualifying without a team was getting to her. She had a break on beam, however small, and she overarched a handstand on bars and I’m sorry, she didn’t quite stick her landing on vault. Sam and Kytra were better than her that day and I agreed with that ranking.

Jack Matheson
Jack Matheson
8 years ago

Utah gave a championship performance in my eyes. The Red Rocks were lights out. Go Utes!!!

abbeyviolet
8 years ago

I am, of course, very sad. Putting that to the side, I thought the conversation about “gifts” to certain athletes or teams was particularly relevant. I brought a friend to the meet who has never seen or followed gymnastics save an occasional Olympics. She came all three days. We tried very hard not to let our “issues” with scoring (particularly on bars) show, but by the end of the bar/vault finals she was so confused and sad. Probably not the way to win over new fans. We tried to explain, but even she could see the contrast and inconsistency some based on order of performance, but some based on, ummm, the color of the leo the person was wearing? Any way, it is frustrating and we tried to explain that is the way it is and that you really just have to be so amazingly better than everyone that not getting those little gifts doesn’t cost you the victory. I do agree in that “being so much better approach”, but it is hard sometimes to stomach. My favorite moment of the meet was OU’s beam rotation in super six. Such redemption from the first day and the beam team we know and love even when they knew they couldn’t win and with Florida screaming in the back of the last routine. I’m really glad I got to attend in person and appreciate your coverage.

abbeyviolet
8 years ago

Oh, and Love Nina McGee. She is now an honorary sooner after rotating with OU the first day not to mention just being totally amazing. Also, Taylor Rice is awesome, but you knew that!

Jack Matheson
Jack Matheson
8 years ago

“Georgia’s hands are all effed up now, but I have to sit here and wait” LOL Love T-Rice!

Lauren H
Lauren H
8 years ago

I finally watched the finals yesterday, and am glad I’m not the only one confused about Stanford’s bars scores. Sam Shapiro and Ivana Hong should have gotten 10s. The look on Sam’s face after she landed was pretty much my reaction to that routine (and I’m sure Jessica’s), and that along deserved a 10! How Alex McMurtry scored higher than Sam with a shuffle on her landing (much less getting a score over 9.9) is a mystery to me, and frustrating, but not surprising since judging is normally a mystery to me. I was happy to hear that Ivana is sticking around one more year because I don’t want to see her leave yet! Hopefully Ivana’s “seal is broken” next season, and she’ll start receiving that 10s she deserves!

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