Azaraya Ra-Akbar Earns Alabama's First Perfect Score in Win over Illinois

She has been so close so many times, and Alabama freshman gymnast Azaraya Ra-Akbar finally broke through with her first perfect 10 of the season with her performance on the uneven bars against Illinois on Sunday.

Four different times this season, Ra-Akbar has scored a 9.975 on bars or vault, meaning at least one judge gave her a 10 and the other a 9.95. It was unanimous on Sunday in Champaign, Illinois for another stunning bars routine from the freshman leading No. 3 Alabama to a 197.125-196.175 win over the Illini.

No notes. 💅🏽

PERFECT. pic.twitter.com/wAuUFI7zAw
— Alabama Gymnastics (@BamaGymnastics) March 8, 2026

It was an incredible performance from top to bottom in the Alabama uneven bars lineup, setting a program record on the event with a 49.700. While Ra-Akbar anchored the routine with her 10, junior LaCoursiere was nearly just as good with a 9.975 in the fifth spot. Natalia Pawlak scored a career high 9.95, and Alabama also got a 9.9 from Gabby Gladieux.

Despite the program record on the first even, Alabama finished with its worst overall score of the year after its second worst balance beam rotation of the season. Prior to Friday night's meet against Kentucky, the Crimson Tide had not scored below a 49 on any event this season. For the second meet in a row, Alabama did so on the beam with a 49.775 on Sunday afternoon.

Alabama did not have to count a fall in this meet, but it did have to count two beam scores in the 9.6 range. This was the Tide's fourth meet in the last 10 days with back-to-back two-meet weekends. Facing this type of adverstiy will be great postseason preparation for Ashley Johnston's squad.

The Crimson Tide also had a strong performance on floor exercise with 9.9s from McKenzie Matters and Gabby Gladieux and a 9.925 from Jamison Sears. Gladieux won the all-around with a 39.550. She had one of her most complete performances of the season.

Back-to-back meets in the low 197s will slightly drop Alabama's National Qualifying Score, but the Crimson Tide will have two more chances to raise it before NCAA seeding. Alabama closes out the regular season on Friday at home against Georgia followed by the SEC Championship meet in Tulsa the following weekend.

"I’m incredibly proud of how this team started the competition," Johnston said in a press release. "[Factoring in] back-to-back competitions and a travel day yesterday, we came in with really activated energy. We were sharp and crisp with how we handled bars – coming out with a program-record high score which was unbelievable. I think they continued to carry pretty good momentum throughout the meet. On the final event, though, kind of fell out of the moment, which is something we’re going to put a huge emphasis on this week – figuring out how to help this team compete out of passion and love, and not out of fear, when they go over to beam.

“We learn from every single competition we’re in and I think we gained a lot from this weekend and a lot of experience. We got a lot of people in lineups, and we’re going to keep working towards finding every little way to be relentless in getting better.”