No. 3 Alabama Gymnastics Scores Season High in Home-Opener Win over No. 7 Missouri

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The Coleman Coliseum crowd had been waiting all night to explode, and the final routine of the meet provided the loudest cheer of the night. Senior Gabby Gladieux's Bama-themed floor routine brought the house down, earning a 9.975.

Gladieux's score helped No. 3 Alabama secure its highest score of the season and a 197.500-197.225 win over No. 7 Missouri in the home opener.

Not only was Gladieux's routine good for crowd enthusiam, but it was also needed. Alabama had a comfortable lead heading into the final rotation, but Mizzou's final two beam competitors both scored 9.95s.

Floor exercise had been Alabama's second-best event so far in the early season, but the Crimson Tide wasn't at its best through the first four routines of the floor rotation with some uncharacteristic mistakes. Gladieux and junior Jamison Sears (9.925) closed out the rotation with back-to-back 9.9+ scores. Sears as scored at least a 9.9 on floor in each of Alabama's first three meets.

"Going down to the end, being neck-and-neck with Mizzou, we want to be great in hard moments," Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said after the meet. "I think that's really something that we want to own as a program is that we play fierce in hard moments, we handle hard moments better. Looking to Jamison and Gabby in those last two spots when it really mattered. We had to be pretty great in those moments.

"I think those are the types of experiences that prepare you to be a championship team. That clutch mentality when you know it's on the line, and you're aware of that, and then you can step in and crush it. When I look at the two ends of the night, starting strong and then finishing clutch, those are two of the critical parts of how we become a championship team."

Gladieux also won the all-around for the first time this season with a 39.575.

"For me, I like to keep it simple," Gladieux said. "I just do my average. Everything I do in the gym, just rinse and repeat. Knowing that my teammates have my back, it makes my job pretty easy."

Alabama continued its strong work on the uneven bars with a 49.450, the highest total of any rotation. Junior Chloe LaCoursiere scored a 9.975 on bars, tying her career high for the second meet in a row.

"I am just grateful to keep being put out there with this team and having an amazing vault lineup, bar lineup that builds to that point that allows me to score what I'm scoring," LaCoursiere said. "I just go our there, stay my tempo, my rhythm and give it all I got."

The Crimson Tide also had its highest vault score of the season with a 49.375 highlighted by a 9.925 from freshman Jasmine Cawley in the leadoff spot with a stuck landing on her Yurchenko 1.5

"It was really exciting to see Jazzy step up and start with a career high 9.925 as a true freshman in her first time competing in Coleman Coliseum, that was a huge deal," Johnston said. "That was a real highlight moment for me, for our team."

Gladieux and LaCoursiere highlighted the beam rotation with 9.9s each on the way to a team total of 49.300.

Next up for the Crimson Tide is another home meet against Oregon State on Jan. 30

"I think there's still a lot of tenths out on the table that are very feasible for us to tweak and fix within a matter of hours, moments, minutes" Johnston said. "I think we just the result for what it is, and take away the win or the loss. It's just the result, it's feedback. It's, how do we grow? How do we continue to progress? And how do put that into competition next week?"

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