Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports
Season Ends in Sweet 16 for Alabama Gymnastics
The 2023 season has come to a close for Alabama gymnastics in Ashley Johnston's first year as head coach.
The Crimson Tide finished in fourth place behind No. 1 Oklahoma (198.050), No. 9 Kentucky (197.850) and No. 16 Ohio State (197.750) at the Norman Regional finals Saturday evening. Oklahoma and Kentucky will advance to the NCAA Championships.
Alabama improved its overall team score from its opening round meet Thursday with a 197.650, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Sooners and Wildcats.
"It was overall a really great competition with four super competitive teams, and tonight did not go the way we wanted it to go," Johnston said after the meet. "We left too many tenths out there."
Alabama competed in the traditional home meet rotation order of vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. But Alabama missed too many landings on vault and scored a 49.200 on the event, putting it in a hole from the start. Alabama was in last place after each rotation.
The Alabama head coach said the team performed really well on vault during warmups, but may have been a little too amped by the time the meet started, which caused them to hold back in order to try and find those stuck landings.
"I think that's what got us a little bit is holding back to try to be as perfect as we possibly can instead of just trusting ourselves," Johnston said.
The good news for the Crimson Tide was that the team improved on each event as the meet went on. But the bad news was that Oklahoma, Kentucky and Ohio State weren't slowing down.
Alabama had a fall on the uneven bars, but did not have to count the score. Other than that, there were no major mistakes, but the Crimson Tide left a lot of tenths out on the mat with landings on all four events and balance checks on the beam. Meanwhile, Kentucky was having one of its best meets of the season. Ohio State did have its best meet of the season, and Oklahoma proved why they are the No. 1 team in the country and have won five national championships since 2014.
This was for sure the final meet for fifth-years Shallon Olsen and Sania Mitchell. Alabama's seniors Luisa Blanco, Makarrri Doggette, Mati Waligora and Ella Burgess all have one year of eligibility remaining with the COVID waiver if they choose to take it. Johnston said that conversation will be had now that the season has come to a close.
However for Blanco, she will still get to compete on an individual level one final time. With the 9.975 she scored on bars in Thursday's round, she qualified for nationals in Fort Worth as an individual on the uneven bars.
Based on the emotional reaction of Blanco after her final routine of the night Saturday, it looked like it was likely the last routine of her Crimson Tide team career. And if so, she went out with a beautiful routine, scoring a 9.95 on floor. She finished with a 39.625 in the all-around.
It has now been more than a decade since Alabama gymnastics won a national championship.
This story will be updated.
