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This Friday night the top ranked women’s teams continue their quest to the NCAA Championships.

Follow live updates of these Friday night meets on Facebook and Twitter:

Utah vs Stanford 7PM MT/8PM CT

Oregon State vs UCLA 7PM PT/9PM CT

Washington vs Oklahoma 7PM PT/9PM CT

The complete list of meets can be found here.

My predictions: Oklahoma will beat Washington, Oregon State will likely beat UCLA (based on the Bruins’ poor past performances) and it could go either way for Utah and Stanford.

Photo of Oregon State’s Mykala Stambaugh: Phelan M. Ebenhack

The Oklahoma Sooners are in the Lone Star State to compete against the Texas Woman’s Pioneers today, Sunday January 23 at 4pm CT. The Sooners narrowly defeated Oregon State at the quad meet in Norman Friday night.

Free live streaming video of today’s competition is available from the TWU Athletics website.

Good luck to both teams!

Photo: Amy Frost/The Daily

Several US national team members—including Sacramone, Sloan and Larson—have tweeted about heading to the National Team Training Camp in Houston. The team meets several times a year for verification—a series of mini competitions and assessments.

In the year before the Olympics, many gymnasts are rededicating themselves to the sport in hopes of being a 2012 Olympic team member. Shawn Johnson attended her first camp since 2008 late last year and is continuing to train heading into 2012.

2008 Olympic team member Chellsie Memmel is also back to serious training. She competed beam at the Circle of Stars Invitational this weekend. Gymnastike has an extensive interview with Chellsie and video of her routine.

We’ve also seen this video and this one showing Nastia beginning to train but no official word from her yet about competing or attending any training camps.

Photo: USA Gymnastics

There are several great college meets this weekend. Visit us on Facebook and Twitter for live updates of the Oklahoma and Penn State games.

The Oklahoma quad meet starts at 7PM CT Friday, January 21. Oklahoma hosts Oregon State, Centenary and Denver.

On Saturday January 22, we’re reporting the University of New Hampshire at Penn State meet at 7pm ET/6PM CT.

Last week I discovered Penn State athlete Sharaya Musser. She has amazing artistry and beautifully executes difficult skills. It’s no surprise she has several Junior Olympic titles. I look forward to watching her compete against Michigan.

Photo of Sharaya Musser: Phil Sandlin/AP Photo

This year’s Nadia Comaneci International Invitational is February 11-13 in Oklahoma City in the Cox Arena. The featured event—the international competition February 12—will include gymnasts from Romania, Ukraine, Canada and Australia. Last year’s winner Canadian Kristina Vaculik now competes for Stanford.

The Invitational is part of the Bart and Nadia Sports and Health Festival. The Health Festival includes health screenings, sporting activities and competitions.

It’s great to see Nadia and Bart promoting health and wellness in the state of Oklahoma.

I will be attending the Nadia Comaneci International Invitational and providing live updates of the event. Check back here for more information in February. 

The 2011 AT&T American Cup will feature World All Around Champions Aliya Mustafina and Kohei Uchimura. The star-studded field also includes World medalists Jon Horton, Alexandra Raisman, Lauren Mitchell and Phillip Boy.

The level of gymnastics at this competition will be exceptionally high. If Mustafina continues her gold medal winning streak, she will become the first international competitor to win the American Cup since 2001.

An interesting change: Usually there are two American women in the lineup. This year, there is only one. Does anyone know if the rules have changed recently?

Gymnasts registered for the event:

Men

• USA: Jonathan Horton, Houston
• China: Lu Bo
• Germany: Philipp Boy
• Great Britain: Daniel Purvis
• Japan: Kohei Uchimura
• Japan: Koji Uematsu
• Russia: Sergey Khorokhordin
• Ukraine: Mykola Kuksenkov

Women

• USA: Alexandra Raisman, Needham, Mass.
• Australia: Lauren Mitchell
• China: Huang Quishuang
• China: Jiang Yuyuan
• Germany: Elisabeth Seitz
• Russia: Aliya Mustafina
• Switzerland: Ariella Kaeslin
• Venezuela: Jessica Lopez

This weekend, I’m watching the live webcasts of these meets and will provide updates on Twitter and Facebook:

Friday, January 14

Oklahoma @ North Carolina State 7PM ET/6PM CT
http://www.gopack.com/allaccess/

Saturday, January 15

Utah @ Georgia 4PM ET/3PM CT
http://www.georgiadogs.com/allaccess/

As I discussed in this post, you can purchase a monthly subscription through CBS Sports ULive for $14.95 and watch several sports from several different universities. http://www.cstv.com/allaccess/

Coverage is provided by the home team. Not all schools with gymnastics programs provide coverage of gymnastics.  You can purchase a package for a particular school for $9.95 a month or you can purchase the ULive package for all schools.

Gymnastike is also covering several games around the country.

Enjoy the gymnastics this weekend!

Photo of Vanessa Zamarippa and Nina Kim: Phelan M. Ebenhack, AP

Last year was the inaugural competition of the Supergirl Cup, a unique event featuring US athletes from the Junior Olympic program.

The Junior Olympic  (J.O.) program is where children in the US begin competitive gymnastics. The Elite program is for gymnasts who compete to make the national team and represent the US at World Championships and Olympic Games.

Last year, I watched the live webcast of the 2010 Supergirl Cup on www.universalsports.com.

The Supergirl Cup is one of my favorite competitions to watch because of its diversity of athletes, ability to fast-track talented athletes to the elite program and experience for the athletes.

The gymnasts range in age, gyms, skill level and aspirations. Some dream of being an Olympian and intend to try out for the elite level. Some continue to compete in the J.O. program and aim to compete in collegiate gymnastics.

Two up and coming elite stars gained attention during last year’s event: Gabrielle Douglas and the winner Lexie Priessman. Both qualified for the elite program last year and made the Junior National Team. Only exceptional athletes could have made such a leap in the US system. Both have difficult skills, good execution and are incredibly powerful. They still need to learn to perform their artistry and overcome competition nerves. But they are well on their way.

Many of the other Supergirl Cup participants received college scholarships for gymnastics. More about last year’s participants can be found here.

I’m looking forward to seeing the new athletes who aspire to make the national team. The Nastia Liukin Supergirl is a great event for US gymnastics because it enables gymnasts to compete against high level athletes, to compete on a podium and to experience the pressure of performing during a broadcast event. Both those who have elite and collegiate aspirations can gain valuable experience from this competition.

And of course, they get to meet—and compete in an event named for—the 2008 Olympic All Around Champion Nastia Liukin.

Learn more about the Supergirl Cup and watch the webcast of the 2010 event here.

Photo of Nastia Liukin and Lexie Priessman: Warner Brothers Supergirl

Today’s Progressive Skating and Gymnastics Spectacular is at 4pm EST/3pm CT on NBC.

Apologizes for the typo!

Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images