OU Headed to Salt Lake City for Top-Five Meet

Friday, January 14

Salt Lake City, UT

8:30 PM

University of Oklahoma

Utah

Photo by: Matthew Smith

OU Headed to Salt Lake City for Top-Five Meet

January 13, 2022 | Women's Gymnastics

By: Lindsey Morrison

³Oklahoma

⁴ Utah

Friday, Jan. 14 / 8:30 p.m. CT / Salt Lake City, Utah / Huntsman Center

ESPN / Live Stats / Meet Notes

NORMAN – The No. 3 Oklahoma women's gymnastics team returns to action Friday to take on No. 4 Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two teams will take to the floor at 8:30 p.m. CT inside the Huntsman Center on ESPN2. This is the second half of a home-and-home series between the two teams. In 2021, Utah made the trip to Norman with the Sooners earning the victory.

NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR MEET TWO

PUT IT IN THE WIN COLUMN
In the first meet of the season the Sooners won the clash of crimson, defeating Alabama 197.400-195.875 inside the Lloyd Noble Center. A pair of Sooners earned the first perfect 10s of the NCAA season as Katherine LeVasseur and Allie Stern went back-to-back with perfect scores on vault. The Sooners swept the event titles with Audrey Davis taking home bars and the all-around, Carly Woodard taking home beam and Jordan Bowers earning her first career event title on floor. Thirteen different Sooners competed in the meet with four making their collegiate debuts in Bowers, Sheridan Ramsey, Danielle Sievers and Meilin Sullivan. The vault lineup was made up of five underclassmen, with Stern being the only senior in the lineup.

POWERHOUSE BATTLE
In December 2019, Oklahoma and Utah announced a home-and-home series beginning with the 2021 season. OU hosted the Red Rocks in 2021 and will make the return trip this week. This will be the first regular season trip OU will make to the Huntsman Center since Feb. 17, 1992. The two teams have combined for 14 national championships and are two of just seven teams to ever claim a national title.

Oklahoma and Utah have met 43 times in program history with OU winning the most recent meeting at the 2021 NCAA Championships. OU has won the last eight meetings, with seven coming in postseason competition. The teams have met just nine times in the regular season with the last meeting coming in 2021. Utah is 7-2 against the Sooners in regular season competition.

OU has won four of the last seven National Championships and finished in the top three in each of the last eight years. The Sooners have claimed 17 conference titles and 12 regional championships, while making 20 NCAA Championship appearances. OU also boasts 17 national champions and 178 All-Americans. A member of the Pac-12 Conference, Utah boasts one of the strongest gymnastics traditions with 10 national championships, 12 conference championships, 22 NCAA Finals appearances, 29 individual national champions and 379 All-Americans.

THEY'RE GOING BACK-TO-BACK
Katherine LeVasseur and Allie Stern went back-to-back with perfect 10s on vault on Jan. 9. The duo joined an exclusive club with their back-to-back perfection as just the fourth pair to achieve the feat. In 2021, Anastasia Webb and Evy Schoepfer went back-to-back with perfect scores on vault. In 2018, Webb earned a perfect 10 on balance beam and was followed by a perfect score from Maggie Nichols. McKenzie Wofford and Nicole Lehrmann went back-to-back on uneven bars in 2017.

This is the first time since the 2019 season that a Sooner earned a perfect score in the first meet of the season. In 2019, Maggie Nichols earned a perfect 10 on vault at Arkansas to open the season.

BOWERS, WOODARD HONORED BY BIG 12
Senior Carly Woodard and freshman Jordan Bowers were honored by the Big 12 for their performances in week one. Woodard was named the Big 12 Event Specialist of the Week for the fifth time in her career, while Bowers was named the Newcomer of the Week for the first time in her career.

Woodard set two career-highs on Sunday to help the Sooners beat No. 6 Alabama. On beam, her career-best 9.95 won her the event title and secured her the No. 1 beam score in the nation during the first weekend. On floor, the senior earned a career-best 9.9 in just her second time competing in the event. Her score was the second-highest of the meet and she ranks 12th in the country in the event after the first weekend.

Bowers had a strong introduction, earning her first career event title while adding two scores of 9.9 or better. The freshman's 9.9 on bars was the second-highest score of the meet in the event. She earned a 9.875 on beam and capped off her night with a 9.925 on floor to secure the event title in her first collegiate meet. Bowers posted a 39.050 in the all-around and is the first OU freshman since Ragan Smith in 2020 to compete all-around in their first meet of the season.

HOLDING STEADY
The Sooners remained steady as the No. 3 team in the country after posting the third highest mark of the weekend with a 197.400 and being one of just five teams to reach the 197-mark on opening weekend. Michigan held the No. 1 spot with a 197.750 followed by Florida with a 197.675. The Sooners' next opponent, Utah, held steady at No. 4 with a 197.100. Denver rounded out the top five with a 197.000. On the events, OU holds the No. 2 spot on bars (49.475), No. 3 spot on floor (49.450), No. 5 on vault (49.300) and No. 7 on beam (49.175).

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Nine Sooners earned 16 individual rankings with at least one gymnast ranked in the top five on vault, bars and beam. Sophomore Audrey Davis is ranked on three events, including holding the top spot on bars with a 9.95. Davis is No. 11 in the all-around (39.325) and No. 20 on beam (9.875). Freshman Jordan Bowers is ranked on four events coming in at No. 6 on floor (9.925), No. 8 on bars (9.9), No. 20 on beam (9.875) and No. 24 in the all-around (39.050).

Senior Allie Stern and sophomore Katherine LeVasseur share the top spot on vault after scoring back-to-back perfect 10s in Sunday's meet. Senior Karrie Thomas and junior Ragan Smith are both ranked on bars with Smith coming in at No. 8 (9.9) and Thomas at No. 15 (9.875). Smith is also ranked 12th on floor (9.9). Senior Carly Woodard holds the No. 1 spot on beam with a 9.95 and comes in at No. 12 on floor (9.9). Junior Jenna Dunn is tied for 20th on beam (9.875) and sophomore Bell Johnson wraps up the rankings tied for 12th on floor (9.9).

KINDLER VS. THE PAC 12
In 16 seasons, Kindler is 65-22 against the Pac-12, including a 30-1 advantage over the last five seasons. Over the past three years, the Sooners are 15-0 against Pac-12 schools. The Sooners will face five Pac-12 schools during the 2022 season including Utah, Arizona (Jan. 22), Stanford (Jan. 22 & Feb. 19), Washington (Feb. 19) and Arizona State (March 11). In 2021, the Sooners were 4-0 against the Pac-12 and 3-0 against Utah.

QUICK HITS

OU was ranked No. 3 in the WCGA preseason coaches poll, the seventh-straight season the Sooners have been ranked in the top three to begin the year.
10 of OU's regular season opponents are ranked in the poll, including three squads in the top 5 and five in the top 10 and seven in the top 25.
Oklahoma's roster this season features 14 returning gymnasts from the 2021 squad including four who combined for nine All-America honors in seniors Olivia Trautman and Allie Stern, junior Ragan Smith and sophomore Audrey Davis.
The Sooners will be featured on ESPN networks five times during the regular season: vs. Alabama (Jan. 9), at Utah (Jan. 14), vs. Denver (Jan. 30), vs. Michgan (March 4), at Big 12 Championship (March 19).