Alabama Athletics
Alabama Gymnastics Opens Season with Shaky Performance at Oklahoma
In the season opener on the road in Oklahoma, Alabama sandwiched the meet with its two best rotations. The middle two rotations were where things got a little messy for the Crimson Tide in the 197.400-195.875 loss to the Sooners Sunday afternoon.
Coming after two shaky rotations and with the meet well out of reach, the highlight of the day for Alabama came on the balance beam where the Crimson Tide earned a 49.100.
Ella Burgess opened the rotation with a career high 9.85. It was her first time competing on any event since her freshman season in 2020 after suffering an Achilles injury prior to the 2021 season. She was immediately hugged by her teammates after sticking the dismount.
Alabama's best performance of the meet on any event came from junior Mati Waligora on the beam. She tied career high with a 9.925 in the five spot. Waligora competed in the all-around for the first time in her Crimson Tide career, and she finished in second place with a 39.175 behind Oklahoma's Audrey Davis.
Even with two perfect 10s on vault for Oklahoma on the first rotation, Alabama only trailed the Sooners by .05 after a solid start on the uneven bars behind 9.85s or better from Luisa Blanco, Shania Adams, Makarri Doggette and Cam Machado. Bars was Alabama's highest-scoring rotation with a 49.250.
Then things started to get a little rocky as Alabama headed to the vault and floor exercise. The Crimson Tide did not stick any landings on vault and only had one score of 9.85 or better. Freshman Jordyn Paradise did make her Alabama debut with a Yurchenko full that scored a 9.775.
Alabama finished on the floor with three good routines from Waligora, Blanco and Graber, but had major mistakes on the first three routines with a step out of bounds, fall and missed leap series that resulted in a 48.575 on floor for the Crimson Tide.
Overall, the 195.875 is not an ideal score for where Alabama likes to be, even this early in the season. The Crimson Tide scored below a 196 one time last season in week two against Missouri. As the season goes on, Alabama will add more difficult skills and routines throughout the lineups that will raise the scores. The bars and beam rotations especially give head coach Dana Duckworth a sturdy foundation to build the season upon, while the vault and floor provide areas for growth as the season just begins.
"We came into this meet with a lot of confidence and fire," Duckworth said in a press release. "I asked the ladies to be very aggressive, and they were, so that wasn’t an issue for us. This is a great team with a ton of promise, but we have to overcome the mental errors we had today. We had to shuffle the lineups all week, which was somewhat chaotic, but we have to be ready for the unexpected as this season goes on. There are lot of lessons to be learned as we move forward and despite the final outcome there were several positive moments that we can take into this week.”
