Alabama Gymnastics Picks Up First Road, SEC Win Over Arkansas

For the second time this week, an Alabama team went into Fayetteville, Arkansas and beat the Razorbacks.

This time, it was Alabama gymnastics going into Barnhill Arena and beating Arkansas 196.525-195.525 Friday night.

"I’m really proud of the way our team showed resilience tonight," Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said in her postgame interview on SEC Network. "We had a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes, and I thought our team did an amazing job of rallying together, not letting that get the best of them and just continuing to put one foot in front of the other, and I’m really proud of that resilience.”

Alabama's best rotation of the night was it's first: the uneven bars. The Crimson Tide came out strong with a 49.300 on bars led by a 9.9 from Luisa Blanco. However, that apparatus turned out to be the undoing of the Razorbacks.

Luisa Blanco closes out our opening rotation with a 9⃣.9⃣0⃣0⃣!

📺: https://t.co/BrEbG6hAWn #RollTide | #MTM pic.twitter.com/uXTpNRk3Xz
— Alabama Gymnastics (@BamaGymnastics) January 14, 2023

Arkansas had to count two falls on bars which created a deficit too large to overcome against the Crimson Tide despite Alabama having some miscues of its own on the final three rotations. Alabama struggled to find stuck landings on the balance beam and had a gymnast fall on both floor exercise and beam after not having any falls in Week 1.

Johnston has touted the depth of her team, but once again used a small rotation of gymnasts spread across the four events. However, Ella Burgess did make her season debut as the leadoff on beam— a spot where she was in the lineup for every meet last season. Freshman Lillian Lewis made her Crimson Tide debut on the balance beam in place of Makarri Doggette and scored a 9.775.

Alabama did score at least a 49.000 on all four events, but has lots of room for improvement heading into next Friday's home meet against Florida.

How it happened...

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Final score: Alabama 196.525, Arkansas 195.525

Rotation 4: Alabama beam (49.175), Arkansas floor (49.350)

Alabama beam lineup:

1. Ella Burgess- solid leadoff routine with a slight hop on the landing- 9.85

2. Lillian Lewis- Really impressive debut routine for the freshman. She was solid as a rock on the beam and only had a slight step forward on the landing- 9.775

3. Mati Waligora- another hit routine for Alabama on beam, but Crimson Tide still can't find a stuck landing- 9.85

4. Gabby Gladieux- had a balance check on her connections series, but capped her routine with a stuck landing that Alabama has been looking for- 9.875

5. Lilly Hudson- another solid routine, and without a fall, this confirms that Alabama will win this meet- 9.875

6. Luisa Blanco- She had an unusual fall, but Alabama will be able to drop the score regardless. Lots of things to clean up and room for improvement for the Crimson Tide from this meet- 8.625

Alabama beam total: 49.175

Ella Burgess, last year's leadoff, is back in her usual position after not appearing last week.
Alabama has a sizeable lead heading into the final rotation, but still will need to finish strong. The Crimson Tide cannot count a fall or the win might be in danger.

Arkansas floor lineup:

1. Maddie Jones- 9.85

2. Madison Hickey- 9.85

3. Bailey Lovett- 9.875

4. Lauren Williams- 9.9

5. Norah Flatley- 9.875

6. Frankie Price- 9.725

Arkansas floor total: 49.350

Score after Rotation 3: Alabama 147.300, Arkansas 146.225

Rotation 3: Alabama floor (49.000), Arkansas beam (49.325)

Alabama floor lineup:

1. Mati Waligora- solid start to the floor lineup-9.825

2. Shallon Olsen- improved floor routine for Olsen from last week- 9.85

3. Makarri Doggette- got her feet tangled up on her leap combinations, so will see a deduction on that. Alabama will want to drop this score- 9.575

4. Gabby Gladieux- probably Alabama's best floor routine so far on the night- 9.875

5. Luisa Blanco- bounced a little on the landing of her second tumbling pass, but an overall solid routine- 9.875

6. Lilly Hudson- She fell on her first tumbling pass, and Alabama will have to drop this score- 9.075

Alabama floor score: 49.000

Exact same floor lineup as last week

Arkansas beam lineup:

1. Kalyxta Gamiao- 9.85

2. Bailey Lovett- 9.825

3. Cally Swaney- 9.875

4. Kennedy Hambrick- 9.725

5. Cami Weaver- 9.875

6. Norah Flatley- 9.9

Arkansas beam score: 49.325

Really strong beam rotation from Arkansas.

Score after Rotation 2: Alabama 98.300, Arkansas 96.950

Rotation 2: Alabama vault (49.000), Arkansas bars (47.800)

Alabama vault lineup:

1. Shallon Olsen- 9.775

2. Makarri Doggette- a little short on her Yurchenko 1.5- 9.775

3. Lilly Hudson- had to take a side step on the landing- 9.8

4. Luisa Blanco- a big Yurchenko 1.5 for Blanco, but she had a pretty big hop forward- 9.825

5. Jordyn Paradise- another 10.0-start value vault for Alabama, but also another hop on the landing- 9.825

6. Gabby Gladieux- she got good distance, but had to take a step back on the landing- 9.725

Alabama vault score: 49.000

Exact same vault lineup from the Michigan State meet.
However, a much lower score on vault than Week 1. Alabama really struggled finding the landings on vault tonight.

Arkansas bars lineup:

1. Cally Swaney- 8.925

2. Reese Drotar- 9.025

3. Jensen Scalzo- 9.9

4. Jaime Pratt- 9.825

5. Kennedy Hambrick- 9.150

6. Norah Flatley- 9.9

Arkansas bars total: 47.800

Arkansas has major mishaps on its first two bars routines and will have to count at least one bad score. The Razorbacks had a fall on the fifth routine as well, so they will have to count two falls.

Score after Rotation 1: Alabama 49.300, Arkansas 49.150

Rotation 1: Alabama bars (49.300), Arkansas vault (49.150)

Alabama bars lineup:

1. Lilly Hudson- no major mess ups, but a few errors throughout. 9.775

2. Jordyn Paradise- much better routine for the Crimson Tide, capped by a stuck landing. 9.875

3. Mati Waligora- solid routine, but slight step forward on the dismount. 9.825

4. Cam Machado- another solid routine with a slight hop on the landing. 9.85

5. Makarri Doggette- beautiful routine throughout, but can't find the stuck landing. 9.85

6. Luisa Blanco- a little short on one of her handstands, but other than that a beautiful routine capped by a stuck landing. 9.9

Alabama bars total: 49.300

It's the same six in the bars lineup for Alabama from a week ago. The only difference is Hudson and Paradise switching spots.
Alabama's bars score slight improves from last week's 49.275

Arkansas vault lineup:

1. Emma Kelley- 9.75

2. Cami Weaver- 9.825

3. Norah Flatley- 9.9

4. Frankie Price- 9.775

5. Makenzie Sedlacek- 9.825

6. Lauren Williams- 9.825

Arkansas vault total: 49.150