Oklahoma Gymnasts Earn First Perfect Scores of 2022 Season

The Sooners posted back-to-back 10.0 scores on vault, the first perfect scores of the NCAA gymnastics season.

The Oklahoma women’s gymnastics team threw down the gauntlet in its first meet of the season by posting two perfect 10.0 scores back-to-back on vault.

Katherine LeVasseur got the party started with a stuck Yurchenko 1.5, and Allie Stern followed with an identical vault for a matching perfect score. It was Stern’s first 10.0 of her collegiate career. No other NCAA gymnast has earned a perfect score in 2022.

The Sooners opened their season with a home meet against Alabama, and LeVasseur and Stern’s scores were the highlights of a vault rotation that hinted at early-season jitters. Of the six Sooners who competed in the event, only LeVasseur and Stern scored over 9.775. Oklahoma, which was ranked third in the preseason, typically averages scores in the upper 9.8–9.9 range.

BACK-TO-BACK PERFECT 10s FOR @OU_WGymnastics 🔥🔥 @espnW pic.twitter.com/X1QL0Z4sUe

— ESPN (@espn) January 9, 2022

Even though Alabama didn’t record any perfect marks, the Crimson Tide was able to keep pace in their first rotation by posting five scores over 9.800 on the uneven bars. Cam Machado led the way with a 9.875, and Alabama trailed Oklahoma by only .005.

The Sooners pulled away with strong performances on bars and secured their first victory of the year with an excellent final rotation that featured four floor scores of 9.900 or higher. Their team total of 197.400 was over a point higher than Alabama's final score of 195.875. 

Oklahoma finished second behind Michigan at the 2021 NCAA championships and collected multiple individual event titles. Alabama, which was ranked sixth ahead of the ’22 season, narrowly missed making the team finals last season at nationals but knocked off higher-ranked teams to win the ’21 SEC Championship