Gymbacks Cleared to Return to Floor as Alabama of Gymnastics Awaits
It appears the Arkansas Gymbacks will have their entire team together for the first time this season, just in time to travel to Gainesville to take on preseason national championship favorite Florida at 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.
For those who are new to following college gymnastics, this trip to Florida is the equivalent to a Saturday afternoon at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The Gators have won six of the last 10 SEC championships while claiming three national championships, and eight national semifinal appearances. However, Arkansas has proven to be a more than capable foe despite struggling through COVID since the season began.
The Gymbacks are currently ranked No. 13 based on average scores, but have a season high of 197.200 from their last meet against Auburn that outpaces five teams ranked above them, including an LSU team that currently comes in at No. 6.
Gunnar Rathbun / Arkansas Communications
Arkansas was slated to travel to Baton Rouge last week, but a steady stream of Omnicron exposure finally caught up with the team. It was something head coach Jordyn Wieber expected since team doctors warned her that the highly contagious nature of the variant would make it difficult to avoid.
While the team has managed to test COVID-free, there is a natural fallout time built-in afterward that makes it difficult for Wieber to get a full team together for Friday night meets.
“Any athlete who is out with COVID, if they do have symptoms, it’s taking them a little bit longer to get back to full strength,” Wieber said. “It’s affected their endurance, their energy levels, their appetite. It’s been individual to each person whether or not they had symptoms.”
But getting over the illness is only part of the equation. There’s additional lag while the women try to get back into good enough shape to safely compete in what is naturally a highly dangerous sport.
“Gymnastics is one of those sports where you take five or six days off, whether that be because you are close contact or COVID positive, and it takes another week to get back to normal, and you really can’t safely jump back into full routines right away,” Wieber said. “This extra week and having a few extra days over the weekend to get in a healthier place to allow our athletes to catch up again has been really good and I’m feeling confident in our line-ups and where we are health-wise.”
Wieber said she has relied on the team’s leaders to get points involving COVID protocols across to younger team members since voicing their experience from the past two seasons appears to have more of an impact.
“The majority of our team that was with us last year, all of this feels very familiar as far as how tight we need to keep our bubble, and reduce contacts and just how smart they need to be,” Wieber said. “It’s been a lot of conversations like ‘OK, this is what helped us be successful last year. This is what kept us in the game. This is what kept us able to compete every week.’
“It’s a lot of teaching the younger ones just about the sacrifice and how worth it it is to give up those things that maybe you could do in a normal year, but not in a pandemic.”
Potentially lost in all the disruption is that Florida has now become the Gymbacks’ first official road game. Fortunately for Arkansas, getting to move into Bud Walton for the Auburn meet to accommodate a record-breaking crowd of over 10,000 that came to see Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee square off against the Gymbacks turned out to be even more of a blessing than originally thought.
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“It’s going to be a really good experience for some of our young ones to get into a different environment,” Wieber said. “Going from Barnhill over to Bud Walton was almost like a good practice of what a road meet feels like – it’s a different arena, a different environment. The only difference is the fans won’t be cheering for us this time, but I’m excited to see how the team responds to getting on a new set of equipment, being in another SEC arena where the energy is always really good.
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Gunnar Rathbun / Arkansas Communications
Senior Kennedy Hambrick and freshman Leah Smith will handle all-around duties Friday night as team members continue to heal. By season’s end, Sarah Shaffer, a graduate who has most recently competed in a brace, is expected to take a shot at all-arounds, but coaches and trainers are in no hurry to rush her back to competing in all four events.
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Senior Maggie O’Hara, who wasn’t able to compete on beam against Auburn will have to sit out of the event for at least another week or two as she continues building back from an injury that has limited her to bars, where she tied Lee for the individual win.
Kalyxta Gamiao, a 4-10 freshman from Hawaii whom Wieber described as a “stud” on beam, is also working her way back. Her pairing with O’Hara later this year should give the Gymbacks wiggle room to improve the team’s average score on beam and move up in the rankings.
Gamiao might also eventually compete on vault and floor, but for now Wieber said she is grateful to have her team back doing anything in the gym.
“You never know when a meet can be pulled out from under your feet, whether it’s because of our team or because of another team,” Wieber said. “It’s re-instilled this mindset of we just have to be grateful for what we can do today in every practice – being able to be in there with our team and do what we love and gratitude for that and those small things instead of just waiting every week to get to the Friday night meet.
“That's such a healthy thing for our team, and honestly, it’s a great life lesson for any human being to just be in the moment and appreciate what you have today. That’s how we felt almost every day last year and that’s what the first three weeks have felt like.
“It just makes us that much more grateful to be able to travel this weekend and compete against Florida.”