www.soonertimes.com

Here is an article written by the Sooners staff writers article about the upcoming NCAA Championships that start tomorrow night. The article provides a good deal of information about the year the Sooners have had and what they are competing for.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/4/16 ... ampionship

In addition, here is an artcile about Meilin Sullivan of the Women's Gymnastics Team he has won the Elite 90 Award for the second consecutive year.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/4/16 ... ard-winner

Coagulations to Ms. Sullivan for he award as a result of what is no doubt, a great deal of academic work while competing for the Women's Gymnastics Team.

Boomer Sooner!

I am feeling good about the individual competition tomorrow night. I think OU could end up with several top 3 finishes. This squad is so deep their are a half dozen people who might answer the call.

I will say that Jordon Bowers is one of the best gymnasts that OU has ever had so I would not be surprised at all if she is top 3 in the all around

Competitions today. Both are on espn2 - this broadcast will be the new ESPN format - 2 boxes showing competition and the score bug in the right side - they claim they will show each competitor on each event. This format is not bad, but I find it hard to distinguish the scoring sometimes. On ESPN+ it looks like they are showing vault and beam on one channel and bars and floor on the other - I’m not sure what this format will look like.

First semifinal is at 3:30 and includes:

Arkansas (10 seed, 197.445 NQS)
LSU (2 seed, 198.215 NQS)
California (3 seed, 198.180 NQS)
Stanford (unseeded, 197.600 NQS)

LSU scored 198.250 and California 198.275 in the regional finals and are the clear favorites to emerge from this side of the bracket.

Our semifinal is at 8:00 and includes:

Oklahoma (1 seed, 198.500 NQS)
Alabama (8 seed, 197. 805 NQS)
Utah (5 seed, 197.895 NQS)
Florida (4 seed, 197.905 NQS)

Our bracket is pure chalk, so it actually winds up being deeper than the earlier bracket. Also, Florida scored the second highest regional final score. So our bracket is deeper and stronger at the top.

Regional final scores:

Oklahoma 198.400
Alabama 197.575
Utah 197.575
Florida 198.325

Florida has been surging late. I remember early in the season, KJ was talking about Florida and commented they were very young but had a lot of talent. She expected them to be very strong by the end of the year and that seems to be true.

Faith Torre sits down in vault 9.325
wells- 9.9
Bowers falls back - 9.45 .
Levasseur falls back. 9.375
Scheible - 9.875
Davis big step- 9.725

48.325


OU probably won't make the finals. It is possible that they can survive but it will take a miracle

Bama comes off the beam 3 times. 47.25

I think OU needs to try to catch Utah

Based on the scoring, I think Alabama fell 4 times. 9.90, 9.025, 9.050, 9.875, 9.2875, and 9.1375.

We're comfortably ahead of Alabama, but we need Florida or Utah to have a bad rotation. We will struggle to get a 197.400

Ava comes off the beam. Hopefully the rest of the team does not make any big errors

Kat falls off the beam. OU is done.

Hopefully Ragan can get a nice individual score on the beam

Two falls on the beam. We're toast. Florida or Utah will have to implode on the last rotation for us to place.

Ragan got a 9.95 on beam

No confidence tonight

Wonder what happened to have led the nation all year.and not even make the finals.

It couldn't have been any uglier. :(

We may need a new team psychologist.

Not their night. Look forward to KJ’s review. I think this just shows how difficult this sport is. I’m disappointed, but this was a great season and the women really gave us many great moments. The ones returning get another shot.

Just a reminder. The men had a similar disaster a few years ago when Muldaur fell. Men’s basketball lost the national championship to Kansas after beating them 3 times during the year. And Barry’s Sooner squad lost a championship in 1988 when Sims fumbled against Nebraska. It happens. I wouldn’t trade our squad for anyone’s.

After 12 straight scores of 198+ and a historically great regular season, the Sooners found out that at the NCAA Finals, none of that mattered. Uncharacteristically, the Sooners took the floor on Thursday night and the Vault rotation put the Sooners in a 1-point deficit and then the Beam rotation added another half-point to the deficit that they simple could not make up and finished in a disappointing 3rd place in the evening Semi-Final with a 196.6625. Utah placed first with a 197.9375, followed by Florida with a 197.8750. Alabama finished in fourth with a 195.4125.

In the first rotation on the Vault, three stalwarts of the Sooner season made surprising errors. The Sooners posted a season-low 48.325 on the Vault as Torrez, Bowers and LeVasseur all was short on their rotation and either took steps backwards or fell backwards to post scores under 9.450. Kiera Wells posted the Sooners best score on the Vault with a 9.900. After the 1st rotation, the Sooners were 1.1250 points behind third place Florida.

The Sooners recovered well on the Bars rotation with a 49.6625 for the evenings highest rotation score of all four teams. The Sooners posted 5 scores above 9.9000 with Audrey Davis scoring a 9.9625 to win the crown on the Bars event. But the Sooners still trailed 3rd Place Florida by 1.0625 points.

In the Beam and the 3rd rotation, the Sooners suffered two more falls, but still managed to post a 49.100 on the event. Faith Torrez and Davis posted 9.9625's to share the Beam crown on the night. LeVasseur and Siegfeldt had the two falls with Siegfeldt's 9.2875 counting for OU.

Trailing 2nd Place Florida by over a full point, the Sooners posted a 49.5750 score on the Floor rotation for a total of on the night of 196.6625. Torrez and Bowers led the Sooners on the Floor with a 9.9500 on the Floor.

This performance last night will likley be one that the Sooners try to forget. It is a bitter way to end the season that was one of near-perfection from the beginning meet through the Regionals two weekends ago. It is a shame that the way the season ended that this season might not be remembered well. But the regular season was one of great accomplishment and great performances that should be remembered. One night's performance should not tarnish a full season of excellence in my mind. Just remember that as disappointed and perhaps even shocked as we the fans are, the team, coaches and families are going through so much more than any fan even dreams. We, the fans, should have them in our thoughts as they come back to school and try to regroup as the school year winds down.

Head coach K.J. Kindler said, "It wasn't as we scripted it but we take great pride in winning and we're going to take great pride in losing, They (the Sooners) fought back hard and it was emotional and I give them all the credit for gutting it out through the end."

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Semi-Final performance.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/4/18 ... semifinals

The Gymnastics Women are still the greatest!

Boomer Sooner!

It was a great season, and I just love our girls. However, the truth is people only remember who wins unless they are fans of the losing team. In 10 years no one other than OU fans will remember how great this team was. They'll just see who the national champions were. There won't be an asterisk there to say oklahoma was the best team. I know the team must be reeling because they truly are the best team, but had a terrible night. Uncharacteristic of them as mentioned above but that's how it goes sometimes.

They made it look so easy all year, and gymnastics is definitely not an easy sport. Hats off to them. I wish they had been the last ones standing!