Oklahoma Women's Gymnastics Host Denver Friday night at 6:45 PM

[OUBeliever56A]

The #1 Oklahoma Sooner Women's Gymnastics Team will host their first dual of the season at Lloyd Noble Center @ 6:45 PM. Their opponent is the Denver Women's Team who is the #12 ranked team was defeated by the Sooners last weekend in by over a full point in a quad meet with UCLA and Stanford.

The Dual meet is on ESPN+ with Chad McKee and former Sooner All-American Natalie Walker (Brown) on the call.

PROMOS & GIVEAWAYS
2023 National Championship Celebration: Prior to the meet, OU will honor the 2023 national championship team and reveal the 2023 championship banner. The first 500 fans will receive a mini replica national championship banner.

Be there early to salute the team and the coaching staff led by Coach KJ Kindler.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the first home meet.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/25 ... ome-opener

Good luck to the Sooners on Friday night.

Boomer Sooner!

[TN Sooner]

Our ladies didn’t have their A game last night, at least on Vault. Their score (from memory) was sub 49.200 I think. Bars was very good, beam was solid, but not great and floor was pretty good.

The Sooners led by only .025 heading into the last rotation and then opened up a half point lead to close things out.

DU was very good on bars, vault and floor, scoring above their season averages. They didn’t have a good beam, allowing the Sooners to ultimately cruise to victory.

Home win. Streak intact. But lots to work on.

[OUBeliever56A]

As others have posted, the Sooners started slowly on the Vault last night. The Sooners had to count a 9.775 on the vault which I believe, is the first time the Sooners have had to use a score below 9.800 this season. What was more telling is that the Sooners only had one score of 9.900 (LeVasseur) to count. So their 49.175 team score on the vault had the Sooners trailing after the first rotation as Denver posted a 49.325 on Bars.

On Bars, the Sooners got things in first gear with a 49.600 team score as they did not post a counting score lower than 9.900. How LeVasseur's routine added up to only a 9.775 was a mystery to this novice. I did see one handstand that was not 90 degrees but, wow, where were the deductions. After two rotations the Sooners regained the lead with their 98.775 compared to Denver's 98.750. Denver posted a 49.425 on the Vault. Bowers received a single 10.0 from one judge, but the other judge found something to only give Bowers a 9.950 for her combine 9.975 mark.

On Beam, both Wells and Torrez had slight bobbels mid-way in their routines that caused the Sooners to use a 9.800 on the team score, Reagan Smith's got the second 10.0 of the night from one judge, but like Bowers the other judge found a toe out of place and called it a 9.950 for Smith's 9.975. I also thought Audrey Davis' looked very good to just get a 9.825. I will say that I liked the beam music from last year much better than this years music picks. You can not go wrong with "Humble and Kind" by Tim McGraw as you do flips on a four-inch wide beam about 4 feet off the floor. The music seemed a bit calm this year in my opinion. But I must say Coach KJ Kindler does a great job with the music.

After three rotations the score was 148.200 for the Sooners to the 148.175 for the Pioneers. Denver posted a 49.425 also on the Floor as the Sooners did on the Beam. As 'oufanforever' noted above, the 49.425 for the Sooners was their season low. That is very good for a season low as you dance on a 4-inch wide elevated beam.

The final rotation was the Sooners on the Floor and with Denver on the Beam. After three Sooners performed their Floor routines, the Sooners did not have a 9.900 score. It seemed the judges were not warming up to the Sooners very quickly. Then LeVasseur, Bowers and Torrez posted scores of 9.900 and two 9.950's and the Sooner posted a 49.575 for the Floor. That gave the Sooners a 197.775. Meanwhile, Denver not at their best on the beam as there were little balance breaks or non-stuck landings in their first four of five routines. Denver finished with a 9.950 but their team score of 48.975 left Denver with a 197.150 and behind the Sooners for the night. I agree with what was said above, the competition was much closer than the 0.625 difference.

In the All-Around, the Sooners actually finished 2nd 4th, 5th and 6th. Bowers (39.725)in 2nd was hurt by the Vault, LeVasseur (39.550) in 4th was hurt by the Bars, Davis (39.450) in 5th only had one 9.9+ score and Torrez (39.325) was of a bit on Vault and Beam. Hutchison for Denver won the All-Around with a 39.725 for a bit of an upset.Ulrich finished in 3rd with a 39.550.

It was a win for the Sooners but it was their lowest score of the year with their 197.775. But their seasonal average is still 198.000 if my calculations are correct.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooners win over Denver.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/26 ... -in-norman

Very good job by the Sooners after the Vault last night with a good sized crowd in LNC. Denver pushed OU which always makes a opponent better.

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

I'm with you about Audrey Davis on the beam. I caught one balance check, but everything else looked good. I thought she should have had a better bars score also. She consistently does the hardest bars routine at meets, but doesn't get rewarded for it.

Denver needs to do something about their beam rotation. That's 2 consecutive meets that they've crapped the bed on beam.

It looks like Soraya Hawthorne is getting more comfortable competing with us. Loved her floor routine. She's only going to get better.

We couldn't stick a landing on the vault. That was the only event that we lost to Denver.