No. 5 Alabama Gymnastics Misses Out on Nationals for First Time since 2023

Alabama gymnastics was one of the top-five teams in the nation all season, but it will not be one of the last eight teams competing for a chance at a national title.

The No. 5 Crimson Tide finished in last place at the Corvallis Regional Final with a score of 197.175, its second-lowest of the season. No. 4 UCLA (197.725) and No. 13 Minnesota (197.625) will be advancing to nationals in Fort Worth while No. 12 Utah's (197.500) season ended Sunday night alongside Alabama's.

"I’m really proud of our team tonight," Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said after the meet. "This was pretty much the toughest regional in the country to be at. This team has been No. 3 and 4 in the country pretty much all season long, one of the most consistent teams, 197+ in every competition this year. I think every single person that has watched this group sees the culture, sees the camaraderie, the connection of what we have built to be one of the most consistent teams, and so it was a great competition tonight. I think all four teams could be national champions. There’s just so much talent, so much competitiveness on the floor, and unfortunately it wasn’t our night to move on tonight. These moments are really hard, but at the same time, it’s really important to bring the team together and say, what can we do, and what will we do? The sun is gonna come up tomorrow. There will be lessons learned. There will be fires ignited to find our next step."

This is the first time Alabama's season has ended in the regional round since 2023. The Crimson Tide has not made it to the final night of NCAA competition since 2017.

In what has been a theme for the Crimson Tide the last five meets, there were no major mistakes that caused the team to completely fall apart, but all the little mistakes added up to too many deductions with things like hops on landings, bad form on leaps or balance checks.

Alabama was in last place heading into the final rotation, trailing the second-place spot by three tenths. The top-two teams advance to nationals. It was a sizable deficit, but the Crimson Tide was heading to its best event on the uneven bars. Alabama was putting together a strong bars rotation, but unfortunately for the Crimson Tide, the teams ahead of it in the standings were putting up good scores as well.

The Tide needed near perfection from Chloe LaCoursiere and Azaraya Ra-Akbar, who are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively on the event. LaCoursiere had not scored below a 9.875 on the bars all season but stumbled forward on her dismount, effectively ending any hopes Alabama had for a comeback.

"We wanted to end on one of our highest-scoring potential events, which was bars," Johnston said. "I think starting on beam, starting fierce and aggressive, was the right move for our team. I think they were really excited coming off that event. I think finishing on bars, they finished really strong, too. There was a lot of stuck landings, a lot of hit handstands. It was hard to push over that 9.9 threshold for whatever reason, but I thought from a performance standpoint, they really gave it everything and put on some great performances.”

Alabama opened up the meet with a 49.325 on the balance beam, which was a big improvement from the opening round of regionals on Friday and seemed to have some positive momentum heading into floor exercise.

The Crimson Tide needed a big score on floor exercise to have some cushion heading into the back half of the meet, probbaly in the 49.500+ range. Alabama was ranked No. 2 in the nation on floor and had the capability of putting up a high score. Instead, there were some tiny mistakes throughout on leaps and landings that led to a team score of 49.350, tying the lowest score of the season on the apparatus.

Alabama was in third place heading into the third rotation on vault, but it was only trailing second place by .075. Vault has been the Tide's toughest rotation all season, but it was an opportunity on Sunday to gain some ground. Freshman Jasmine Cawley started the rotation out with a bang and stuck landing on her Yurchenko 1.5. But Jamison Sears fell in the second spot, and other gymnasts had some big hops. Kylee Kvamme was a last-minute insert and stuck her Yurchenko 1.5, earning a 9.925, which was Alabama's only score above a 9.9 all meet.

A once promising season ends in disappointment for the Crimson Tide. Alabama was so consistent and steady all year long, but its scores slowly declined the last few weeks of the season in Year 4 under Johnston. The Crimson Tide's season reached its peak in mid-February with back-to-back 197.950s, and Alabama never came close to that score again.

No one from Alabama qualified as an individual to compete at nationals for an individual title. This marks the end of the collegiate careers of outstanding four-year contributor and individual SEC champion Gabby Gladieux along with Corinne Bunagan, Karis German, Jordyn Paradise, Natalia Pawlak and Rachel Rybicki.

"I’m just so proud of our seniors," Johnston said. "They will go down in history as leaders of a culture transformation, of building what Bama Gymnastics 3.0 is all about… I think every single one of them should hold their chin up and be proud of what they accomplished all year long. We’ll keep fighting as Bama always does.”

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