Alabama's Season Ends in Semifinals for Second Straight Year
Going against teams like Oklahoma and Utah leaves little margin for error, and unfortunately for Alabama gymnastics, the errors added up to be too much on Thursday afternoon. Alabama got off to slow start and could never climb out of the hole it created in the first rotation.
For the second straight year, the Crimson Tide's season comes to a close in the NCAA Championship Semifinals inside Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
No. 5 Alabama finished in last place with a 197.100 behind No. 1 Oklahoma (198.1125), No. 4 Utah (197.7125) and No. 8 Minnesota (197.1125) with the Sooners and Red Rocks advancing to Saturday's championship finals. It was Alabama's lowest team total since week two at Florida.
The Crimson Tide had the opportunity to get off to hot start by opening the meet on its best event, the uneven bars. However, few of the Alabama gymnasts were able to stick their landings, and the bars squad posted its second lowest score of the season with a 49.200.
Alabama was able to post some higher individual scores when it headed to beam with strong performances from Luisa Blanco, Lexi Graber Ella Burgess and Shania Adams, but uncharacteristic mistakes from Lilly Hudson and Shallon Olsen forced the Crimson Tide to count a score in the 9.7 range.
After the afternoon session, Blanco is tied for first place with Lexy Ramler from Minnesota with a 9.9375 on beam. The results from the evening session will determine whether or not Blanco is able to capture her second straight individual title on the apparatus.
The best team performance of the night came on the floor exercise where every gymnast scored a 9.85 or better, including a 9.9125 from Hudson and a 9.925 from the reigning NCAA individual floor champion Graber. The fifth year will not defend her title, but finished her floor career with an exclamation point of a stuck landing and strong routine.
Sitting in third place behind Oklahoma and Utah through the first two rotations, Alabama was able to cut the deficit to just .1375 heading into the final rotation after the 49.450 on floor. However, any hope was quickly extinguished when the Crimson Tide struggled on vault.
Olsen and Blanco were able to stick their landings, but Alabama had three scores in the 9.7 range and finished with just a 49.125 on the event which caused them to place last in the meet.
Alabama has not advanced past the semifinals since the format changed from six teams to four in 2019 and has not made the finals overall since 2017 when it finished sixth. The highest finish at NCAAs in the Dana Duckworth era is third in 2016.
"As a team, these women have built resilience, faith and confidence in who they are together and apart, and that's been so, so wonderful to watch," Duckworth said in a press release. "We have enjoyed an extraordinary season, putting up some of the best performances and scores in school history. And while this isn't the way we wanted to close out 2022, I am super proud of what these women came together to accomplish and who they have become during the journey."
