No. 5 Alabama Gymnastics Advances to NCAA Regional Final

Despite tying its lowest score of the season on its highest-scoring event, No. 5 Alabama gymnastics did enough to survive and advance in the NCAA Corvallis Regional on Friday afternoon to advance to Sunday's regional final.

The Crimson Tide finished in second place with a 197.225 behind Utah (197.500) and ahead of host Oregon State (196.375) and Denver (195.950.) It was Alabama's third-lowest overall score of the season.

"I’m incredibly proud of our team tonight," Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said after the meet. "This postseason format is very stressful and pressure-filled, and I thought our team did a really great job of approaching it with their fierce joy mentality and just being present, being in the moment and just chipping away at every quarter tenth. They were really aggressive and confident in how they went through each event, and I felt like they fought for every single thing along the way."

The top-two teams from each regional semifinal advance, and Alabama held a comfortable lead of more than four tenths over third-place Oregon State heading into the final rotation. However, things got a little dicey for the Crimson Tide when senior Rachel Rybicki suffered a fall on her second tumbling pass in the two spot. It was the first time all year she had fallen on floor.

True freshman McKenzie Matters followed Rybicki's fall and came through with a 9.875. Senior Gabby Gladieux closed out the rotation with her 12th floor score of 9.9 or better on the season with a 9.9. Alabama was able to drop Rybicki's score, and earned a 49.350 on the event, which tied a season low.

"I saw from the floor lineup what I see from all of our event lineups day in and ay out in the gym, which is to be unfazed," Johnston said. "That’s really been a theme for this team is to be relentless in how we work and unfazed in whatever the result is. Whether it was great or whether it was hard, to just take it as, this is the next play. I’m gonna go take on this moment to the best of my ability, and that’s all I can control.”

Alabama's best event of the day came in the second rotation on the uneven bars where the Tide scored a 49.525. Azaraya Ra-Akbar and Paityn Walker's 9.925 were the team's only scores above 9.9 all meet. Ryan Fuller and Chloe LaCoursiere also scored 9.9s on the apparatus.

Paityn Walker knows she’s that girl 😏#NCAAGYM x 🎥 @BamaGymnastics pic.twitter.com/rVHT6eE75z
— NCAA Women’s Gymnastics (@NCAA_Gymnastics) April 3, 2026

The strong bars performance followed a shaky start on the vault, where Alabama did not stick any of its six vaults. Jamison Sears had the best vault with a 9.875 on her Yurchenko 1.5. The Tide scored a 49.175 on the event, marking the fifth straight meet with a vault score below 49.300.

The Crimson Tide didn't have any major mistakes on balance beam in the third rotation, but there were no standout routines either as the team finished with a 49.175.

Alabama will be one of the last 16 teams standing in college gymnastics. The Crimson Tide will compete on Sunday at 7 p.m. against No. 12 Utah and the two highest-scoring teams from Friday's second session between No. 4 UCLA, No. 13 Minnesota, Iowa and Washington. The top-two teams from Sunday's regional championship will advance to the NCAA championships.

"Overall, we’re really excited and proud to be in this top-two that is advancing to Sunday, and I think there’s still a ton of room to improve on top of it," Johnston said. "This team is best when we have a challenge on our hands, and we look at about four to five tenths that are pretty feasible for us to get back to be able to up that team score. We’re going to do what we always do which is put our head down, keep finding ways to improve, fight, work at the little things and come out strong on Sunday.”

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