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OU Gymnastics: Oklahoma Shines in Semifinal, Moves on to Saturday's Championship

The Sooners led wire-to-wire in Thursday's NCAA gymnastics semifinal thanks to big scores from Jordan Bowers, Faith Torrez, Lily Pederson and others.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma gymnast Jordan Bowers and coach KJ Kindler (right) celebrate
Oklahoma gymnast Jordan Bowers and coach KJ Kindler (right) celebrate | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma is back in the championships.

Again.

The No. 2-ranked Sooners displayed their usual excellence Thursday afternoon in the first semifinal of the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, and pushed through the Saturday’s finals.

The crowd at Dickey’s Arena in Fort Worth was electric throughout as Oklahoma led wire-to-wire in a four-team meet against No. 7 Missouri, No. 3 Florida and No. 11 Alabama. 

The Tigers pulled off the shocker to pass the Gators on the third rotation and just barely stayed ahead, with the margin coming down to the final gymnast for each school. For Mizzou, it's their first trip to the national finals in program history.

In the second semifinal on Thursday night, No. 1 LSU is pursuing a repeat of last year’s national championship. They’ll face No. 4 Utah, No. 5 UCLA and No. 8 Michigan State.

OU's Jordan Bowers won Thursday's All-Around title with a 39.7125 on the four events, while teammate Faith Torrez was second 39.6375. Bowers won gold on both the floor exercise and the uneven bars and finished second on the vault and fourth on the balance beam.

The Sooners finished with a 197.5500, well ahead of Missouri (197.3000), who beat Florida (197.2000) by a tenth of a point. Alabama (196.8250) finished fourth.

With 15 straight regional titles and 24 consecutive trips to the championship round, OU now seeks its seventh national championship.

After one rotation, OU jumped to a quick lead with a strong performance on bars.

Danielle Sievers started off with a 9.825, and Lily Pederson finished with a 9.9125. Addison Fatta’s 9.8375 was followed by a 9.8875 from Torrez. Audrey Davis’ 9.8250 was thrown out, and Bowers delivered with a 9.9375 to give the Sooners a 49.400 — one-tenth ahead of No. 3 Florida.

OU then moved to beam, where the Sooners have been so good for so long under coach K.J. Kindler.

Davis carded a 9.8250 to start the rotation and Fatta posted a 9.8625. Pederson’s 9.2750 was tossed, but then Bowers came up huge again with a 9.9375. That was followed by Keria Wells’ 9.7750, and Torrez came up clutch with a spectacular 9.9500, giving OU 49.350 for the rotation — tying Florida for top score in the rotation and keeping the Sooners ahead of the Gators by a tenth of a point.

The Sooners’ trip to the floor exercise was also productive as 

Davis started off the floor with a 9.8625, and Seivers scored a 9.8875. Elle Mueller posted a 9.8625, and Fatta hit a 9.8750. Bowers again came through big-time 9.9500, a score that was replicated by Torrez to wrap up the rotation with a 49.5250 — still in first place with a 148.2750 aggregate score, this time ahead of Missouri with a three-rotation score of 147.8000. 

On the final rotation, the Sooners moved to vault — the quickest of the four disciplines — and then had to wait to see who would advance with them to Saturday’s championship round.

Pederson opened with a 9.8500, and Torrez followed with the same score. Wells’ extra step on the landing scored her a 9.8250, but that was discarded as OU finished strong with a 9.8375 from Fatta, a 9.8500 from Mueller and a finishing 9.8875, giving OU a 49.2750 for the vault — plenty to send the Sooners into Saturday’s finale.

The championship round begins at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast by ABC. 

Published | Modified
John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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