Alabama Gymnastics Falls Flat in Home Loss to No. 1 Oklahoma

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Going up against the No. 1 team doesn't leave a lot of room for error, and from the first rotation to the last, Alabama's night was riddled with mistakes.

The No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners displayed some uncharacteristic mistakes through the first three rotations, but Alabama wasn't able to execute on its own events in order to capitalize and cut into the deficit. And then Oklahoma proved why its the best team in the country with its last rotation on beam with five gymnasts scoring a 9.9 or better on the way to a 197.550-196.300 win over No. 10 Alabama on Friday night in Coleman Coliseum.

By comparison, Alabama didn't have a single routine earn a score of 9.9 or higher until the final routine of the night when junior Gabby Gladieux scored a 9.95 on the floor exercise.

Gladieux was able to tie with Oklahoma's Jordan Bowers and Faith Torez for the invidiual floor title. The Sooners swept all the other event titles, and Bowers won the all-around with a 39.600.

Multiple Crimson Tide gymnasts dealt with illness and the flu this week and weren't able to get a full week of practice in leading up to the meet, including Chloe LaCoursiere, who competed on three events. Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said she wasn't sure when she came to work today if Alabama was going to be able to field lineups based on some of the things her team had gone through this week.

"I was out with the flu this week," LaCoursiere said. "But that just changed my training. I wasn't able to get as many reps in, but I've also been doing the sport for 15 years, so I just relied on my training, relied on my team, and went out there and did my job."

Alabama had its lowest scores of the season on three of the four events (vault, uneven bars and floor.) There were very few major mistakes by the Crimson Tide besides Lilly Hudson's fall on floor, but instead just a lot of little mistakes along the way like under-rotating on the vault, overextending on handstands on the bars, balance checks on the balance beam and steps out of bound on floors.

The crowd and team tried to bring the energy heading into the final rotation on floor, but the first three gymnasts all had issues with landings that caused scores 9.75 or lower. With Hudson's fall in the five spot, any chances of winning or scoring a 197 on the night evaporated.

"When I think about our week of training that was plagued with sickness and most people out of the gym for a lot of the days, I think it makes sense that floor was the event that took the biggest toll from an energy [perspective], kind of dead legs," Johnston said. "Obviously, we want to be able to do better than that. We want to be able to handle those challenges better... I was proud that they were able to step up despite not having great training this week and still give it their best shot at some of these routines."

Alabama had two new faces in the floor lineup with Jamison Sears (9.75) making her season debut after an injury kept her out of the first two meets, and LaCoursiere (9.75) competed on floor for the first time this season after previously competing on bars and beam. The only lineup that has stayed the exact same in all three meets in the uneven bars.

Oklahoma had the lead after the first rotation and never relinquished it as it slowly grew from rotation to rotation. Alabama was able to slightly improve on its overall score from a week ago (196.100), but this meet will give Johnston a lot to work with moving forward as her teams get back to full health.

"A lot of moments that we need to learn from and get better at," Johnston said. "I've said from the beginning, this team has to get better every single week. Whether that's a mental approach or actual physical results... This young team is learning tools to help them thrive in tough, hard moments, and we'll continue to face those week after week."

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