No. 1 OU Tops 198 in Huge Win Over No. 4 Michigan

Friday, February 26

Lloyd Noble Center

6:45 PM

University of Oklahoma

198.075

197.275

Michigan

No. 1 OU Tops 198 in Huge Win Over No. 4 Michigan

February 26, 2016 | Women's Gymnastics

By: Chelsey Kraft

197.275

198.075

Results

Highlights

Photo Gallery

Team Scores
	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor
OU	49.425	49.575	49.375	49.700
UM	49.350	49.300	49.125	49.500

Event Winners
Event	Gymnast	Score
Vault	AJ Jackson (OU)	9.975
Bars	Nicole Lehrmann (OU) and Chayse Capps (OU)	9.950
Beam	Chayse Capps (OU) and Lauren Marinez (Mich)	9.925
Floor	Haley Scaman (OU)	9.975
AA	Chayse Capps (OU)	39.675

OU Team Highs
Event	Gymnast	Score
Vault	AJ Jackson	9.975
Bars	Nicole Lehrmann and Chayse Capps	9.950
Beam	Chayse Capps	9.925
Floor	Haley Scaman	9.975
AA	Chayse Capps	39.675

NORMAN — Facing its highest ranked opponent of the season, the No. 1 Oklahoma women's gymnastics team rose to the challenge, downing No. 4 Michigan 198.075-197.275 on Friday night inside Lloyd Noble Center.

The team score was a season best for the Sooners (18-1 overall) and marked the first time the squad has topped the 198 mark this year. The Sooners notched all four team event titles in the victory over the Wolverines (9-3 overall), including a season-high 49.700 on floor that matches the best mark in the country this season.

"They're [Michigan] a great team, and they pushed us all along the way. It was two-tenths all the way going into that last event, so that was pretty exciting," OU head coach K.J. Kindler said. "We still have lots of work that we can put into this stuff, and we can still make some corrections here and there, but I like the energy. I like that they were pushed the entire meet and that they didn't back down. I'm just excited overall. It was a great night. To top 198, obviously, is a huge milestone for this group."

OU also earned all four individual titles in Friday's win. With an enormous 9.975 on vault, sophomore AJ Jackson grabbed the vault crown, and junior Chayse Capps used a career-high 9.950 on bars to share the event title with teammate Nicole Lehrmann. Capps tied with Michigan's Lauren Marinez on balance beam with identical scores of 9.925, and Haley Scaman grabbed the floor title with a season-high 9.975. Capps secured her fifth all-around title of the season behind a 39.675, her second best score of the season.

After the first rotation, the Sooners used a vault score of 49.425, their third-best mark of the season, to jump ahead of the Wolverines, who posted a 49.300 on bars.

In the anchor spot, Jackson stuck her Yurchenko 1.5 vault and earned a career-best 9.975 to put an exclamation point on the opening rotation for the Sooners. OU opened the meet with three straight 9.85s from junior Charity Jones, freshman Alex Marks and senior Keeley Kmieciak. Capps and Scaman added marks of 9.875 in the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, respectively.

"On vault, AJ [had her] highest score of the season and first stuck vault of the season. Only stuck vault in our group, unfortunately. We still need to up that number," Kindler shared. "We've talked about that, but you know, when it comes down to the moment, the adrenaline's there. You're not seeing hops or steps forward from our group, you're seeing steps back, which means they've got a little juice and we need to still control that just a little bit better."

Behind a pair of 9.95s from Lehrmann and Capps, the Sooners put together a massive bars rotation of 49.575, their second-highest mark of the season. OU rolled in the rotation, posting five marks of at least 9.875.

Scaman set her season high with a 9.925 in the No. 5 spot to continue OU's streak of big scores. Jackson carried her momentum from vault onto bars, opening with a career-high-matching 9.875, and Kmieciak also tallied a 9.875 in the No. 5 spot. Junior McKenzie Wofford anchored with a 9.85.

On vault, Michigan tallied a 49.350, and the Sooners took a 99.000 to 98.650 advantage into the third rotation.

"On bars, I thought the first four people absolutely knocked it out of the park. Four sticks in a row," Kindler said.

In the anchor spot on beam, Capps recorded a 9.925, her eighth straight meet scoring at least a 9.9 on the event. Sophomore Natalie Brown tallied a 9.9 in the No. 4 spot, while sophomore Stefani Catour and Jones added identical marks of 9.85. Lehrmann scored a 9.825, and Kmieciak added a 9.8 in the leadoff spot.

For the rotation, the Sooners finished with a solid total of 49.375. The Wolverines used a floor score of 49.500 to close the OU lead to .225, 148.375 to 148.150, with one rotation remaining.

"Going to beam, [we had] seven stuck routines in a row, including that exhibition from AJ. That's phenomenal," Kindler stated. "So beam, really happy with that.

“A lot of times, beam is the great equalizer," Kindler continued. "Every little wobble or any mistake really comes out in the score. I honestly think it's the easiest event for the audience to understand because they can see what goes wrong on the beam for the most part. That event, I think, just kept us on track, and that's very important in a meet, especially when you're at home, just stay on track and be able to kind of take the rest of your aggression out on floor.”

The Sooners saved their best rotation of the night for last, rolling to a 49.700 on floor, a season high and the second-highest total in program history. They created distance from the Wolverines, who recorded a 49.125 on beam.

All six Sooners posted at least a 9.875 on the apparatus, paced by a season-best 9.975 from Scaman in the anchor spot. Jackson contributed a season-high and career-high-matching 9.95, while the trio of Brown, Capps and Jones all recorded big 9.925s. Kmieciak started off the rotation strong with a 9.875.

The Sooners will be back in Norman next Friday, March 4, to face No. 25 Arizona. The meet, which will begin at 6:45 p.m. CT, will be Senior Night for Maile'ana Kanewa, Kmieciak, Hunter Price, Scaman and Nicole Turner. Tickets are available for purchase online or by calling the OU Athletics Tickets Office at (405) 325-2424 or toll-free at (800) 456-GoOU.