Lilly Hudson's Perfect 10 Leads to Alabama Gymnastics' Best Road Score of Season

In her routine that pays homage to "Sweet Home Alabama," Alabama gymnastics senior Lilly Hudson got the sweetest floor score of her collegiate career. Hudson's perfect routine on the floor exercise highlighted the Crimson Tide's best rotation of the season on the way to a season-high road score of 196.675 at the Zou to the Lou quad meet in St. Charles, Missouri.

PERFECTION. 👑

Lilly Hudson secures her first-career 10.000 score on the floor exercise and the third Perfect Score of her career!#RollTide pic.twitter.com/CXfwg9VmJS
— Alabama Gymnastics (@BamaGymnastics) February 15, 2025

"Lilly literally trains like that every single floor routine that she does," Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said. "She sticks that last pass almost every single time. That first pass is always on point, and so it was great to be able to see her respond to a tough position on beam and really just give it her all and do what she does every single day. To see that pay off was a great moment, a great momentum builder. And I think the team celebrating around her just goes to show what an amazing example she sets and how the team sees her being resilient and gritty in that moment.”

Alabama finished the meet in second place behind Missouri (197.150) but ahead of Illinois (196.225) and Iowa (195.000)

The Crimson Tide was in dead last after the second rotation because of having to count a fall on the balance beam. Both Hudson and Gabby Gladieux, Alabama's two all-around performers, fell on the beam. But both bounced back the next rotation on the floor exercise.

""Ultimately I want our team to be able to score a 197 even if we do have to count a fall," Johnston said. "Mistakes happen. And while we do everything we can to prevent those things, I want the team to not lose hope in those moments. To know they can still come out with a win. They can still come out with a great score. I think we touched on that tonight. We gave it everything we had on floor and vault, and I think there are still a few little tenths here and there that we left out there. The team was how they responded, yet at the same time could see that a few more tenths and we could’ve come away with a win, even while counting a fall.”

Hudson scored her 10 in the fifth spot, and Gladieux anchored the rotation with a 9.95, her sixth straight score of 9.9 or better on floor. Hudson has now scored a perfect 10 on vault, beam and floor. She would need to score a 10 on the uneven bars to complete the "gym slam."

Gladieux and Hudson were two of the four Alabama gymnasts to score at least a 9.9 on floor joining Jamison Sears and Rachel Rybicki. The Tide posted a 49.575 on the floor exercise, its highest single rotation score of any event this entire season.

Alabama ended the night with its second best vault total of the year with a 49.325 led by 9.9s from Hudson and Corinne Bunagan. If the Tide didn't have to count a fall on beam, it likely would've been Alabama's highest overall score of the season as the team showed improvement in several areas on Friday night.

"There were a lot of breakthroughs tonight and then a couple too many moments that didn’t quite go the way we wanted them to go," Johnston said. "I think every opportunity is a learning lesson, and as we circled up in the locker room after the meet, we talked about the fight and the grit that they showed in having to count a fall on beam. I think that was a tremendous takeaway that this team invested in finishing strong and giving it everything that they had on floor and vault, and that’s an important lesson to have to learn.

“The other thing we talked about was what Coach Murphy told his team last year as softball was going through kind of a rough patch in their season, and I love that Murph said every team has a different length of a runway before they take off. And I think that’s the storyline of this team this year is that we’ve needed a little bit longer runway to take off and really fly. I think we’ve shown a lot of signs of that, and we’ve got to keep going, keep our head down, keep pushing, keep working to really see this team take off. And I believe they have all the puzzle pieces to be absolutely great and one of the best in the country. We’re going to continue to work our absolute hardest to continue to be able to perform that way on a Friday night.”

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