Alabama Gymnastics Prepares for 'Brutal Session' in NCAA Championship Semifinals

Four of the most storied programs in collegiate gymnastics will compete for two spots in the national championship meet.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—  One session of the 2024 NCAA gymnastics championship semifinals features four teams that are all ranked inside the top-eight and have combined for 25 national titles in their programs' history. The other session has zero combined national titles and two teams outside of the top-10.

When you're one of the last eight teams remaining in the country, nothing should be easy. But if Alabama gymnastics wants to still be competing on the floor in the final night , it will be a challenging path as one of the competitors in that loaded evening session with No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Florida and No. 5 Utah.

"We're really in a brutal session," Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said. "It's a huge testament to how great all of these teams are, how great the landscape of college gymnastics is. But we've got to be on our game, and we've been preparing for that all week."

Johnston and the Alabama gymnasts feel like all the moments the team has gone through this season, and most recently with regionals, have prepared Alabama for this moment on the biggest stage. The team opened the season with a neutral site quad meet in Las Vegas, and won the meet. The Crimson Tide competed in a midseason quad meet in Texas, finished in second place at SECs in New Orleans in front of. heavy LSU crowd and went on the road to advance to nationals against host team Michigan last time out.

Alabama also has a wealth of gymnasts with NCAA championship experience like Luisa Blanco, Ella Burgess, Cam Machado and Lilly Hudson to name a few.

"It’s just a blessing in itself to make the Elite Eight when the competition has grown every year with gymnastics," Hudson said. "It’s not easy to make it to the Elite Eight. We’re just really proud of all the work we’ve put in inside the gym— numbers and basics and developing our craft. Also the work we’ve put in outside the gym developing our connection and bond. Making sure we’re all on the same page is something that’s carried us through the year, and something we rely on. I’m just really proud of us and excited for the week."

Two teams out of each of Thursday's semifinals will advance to the championship meet on Saturday night. Since the format switched from six teams to four teams in the finals in 2019, Alabama has not made the finals. To do so this year, the No. 8 Crimson Tide will have to finish ahead of two teams that have scored higher than them all season.

No. 1 Oklahoma has been far and away the best team in college gymnastics this season, averaging a 198.360 and scoring a season high of 198.950. The Sooners are back-to-back defending national champions and have one three of the last four overall. Oklahoma is so good that it could have to count a fall on an event and still finish in the 198 range. Anything can happen on any given night, but it is pretty fair to assume that the Sooners will take one of the two spots in the evening session.

That means Alabama will have to beat out both Florida and Utah. The Tide has already beaten the Gators twice this season–– on the road in the regular season meet at Florida and in the SEC Championship meet. Despite being a few seed lines apart, Alabama Florida and Utah had an NQS (national qualifying score) within one tenth of each other.

Alabama has struggled with consistency at times this season, but has also proven that it can put up big scores and perform well in quad-meet settings. The Crimson Tide has scored a 198 or better three times this season, including in a dual meet at Oklahoma to end the regular season. Freshman Chloe LaCourseire knows what this team is capable of.

"It’s just relying on our training and not letting the external factors get in our heads and just focus on us and staying in our circle," LaCoursiere said.

At the NCAA Championships in Fort Worth, there will be more eyes on each gymnast literally and figuratively. With the meet being aired on ESPN2, it brings in a national audience, but there will also be more judges' eyes on the teams. Each event will have six judges, compared to two in the regular season and four in earlier rounds of postseason.

This evens the playing field a little bit with more opportunities for people to see mistakes while also cutting down on the risk of over-inflated scoes since the highest and lowest score of the six are dropped with the middle four scores averaged.

"To prepare for that, we’ve been in the gym, judging at different angles," Johnston said. "Sometimes when you’re sitting in a different place, on uneven bars for example, it can look a little different. You can see some of the form and execution different from that angle. We’ve technically been preparing for that, but ultimately I think it’s a really positive thing to have six judges on each event. It usually provides a really consistent result across the board and drop high/low and really look at the middle ground.”

Alabama is planning on going "all in" for on Thursday night at 8 for its seven seniors that will be potentially competing for the last time. However, in a sport that strives for perfection and that perfect 10 moment, that's not Johnston or the team's goal.

"We’re not going for perfection, but we’re going to try to put together as many of the pieces of the puzzle as we can," Johnston said. "I think this team is capable and talented enough to come out in a really good spot if we just focus on owning our process and making it progress, not perfection.”