Sooners Set for Top-Three Battle at Florida

²Oklahoma

³Florida

Friday, Feb. 25 / 5:45 p.m. CT / Gainesville, Fla. / O'Connell Center

NORMAN – The No. 2 Oklahoma women's gymnastics team is set for one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the season when it travels to No. 3 Florida Friday night. The Sooners and Gators will face off at 5:45 p.m. CT inside the O'Connell Center on SEC Network+.

NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR MEET EIGHT

METROPLEX WINNERS
The Sooners earned a statement road win at the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, with a 198.175. The Sooners defeated Washington (196.825), Stanford (195.450) and Denver (195.050) in the quad-meet.

The Sooners swept the event titles with Ragan Smith taking home a pair. Smith earned two nearly-perfect 9.975s on beam and floor to earn the event crowns. On vault, Jordan Bowers and Katherine LeVasseur shared the crown with stuck, nearly-perfect Yurchenko 1.5s. A trio of Sooners shared bars with Bowers, LeVasseur and Audrey Davis all earning a 9.925. Denver's Jessica Hutchison won the all-around title with a 39.600. OU posted at least a 49.450 on all four events, with a season-best 49.550 on vault in the opening rotation.

KINDLER VS. THE SEC
Head coach K.J. Kindler has proven the Sooners are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to battling their foes in the SEC. Soon, these teams will be yearly competition as Oklahoma is set to join the SEC for the 2025-26 competition seasons. OU will face just two SEC teams in the regular season in Alabama (Jan. 9) and Florida (Feb. 25). In 16 seasons, Kindler is 57-8 against the SEC and has not lost to an SEC foe since 2018 when the Sooners visited Florida. In the season opener, the Sooners downed Alabama 197.400-195.875.

REWIND IT BACK
The last time these two programs met in the regular season was an epic showdown between the No. 1 Sooners and the No. 2 Gators with OU taking home the victory, 198.325-198.025, on Feb. 1, 2019. Olivia Trautman had a career night as she set or tied her career high on every event. Making her debut on bars, Trautman took home the all-around title with a 39.725. Nicole Lehrmann earned the only perfect score of the night, notching her second career perfect 10 in the meet.

The No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown did not disappoint as the Sooners broke a pair of program records in the meet. OU tied its record on bars with a 49.725. On floor, the Sooners shattered their previous record of 49.725 with a 49.825 in the final event of the night. Jade Degouveia, Brenna Dowell and Olivia Trautman each tallied a 9.975 on the event, while Jordan Draper and Anastasia Webb added 9.95s.

IN THE POLLS
The Oklahoma women's gymnastics team is ranked No. 2 in the nation after the seventh week of the season. This week marks the first time this season rankings have been determined by national qualifying scores (NQS). The Sooners boast an NQS of 197.640.

NQS is based on a team's six best regular season scores, three of which must be away. The overall high score is eliminated, and the five remaining scores are averaged. NQS scores are used to determine seeding for NCAA regional competition in April. On the events, the Sooners hold the No. 1 spot on bars (49.550), No. 4 spot on vault (49.340) and floor (49.455) and No. 5 spot on beam (49.330).

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Individually, a trio of Sooners rank No. 1 in the nation on their respective events. Katherine LeVasseur is No. 1 on vault with a 9.930 NQS. Audrey Davis is No. 1 on bars with a 9.935 NQS and Ragan Smith is No. 1 on beam with a 9.975 NQS.

Davis is also ranked on beam at No. 13 with an NQS of 9.890. Smith is ranked 17th on bars (9.875) and 15th on floor (9.895). Jordan Bowers is ranked on a pair of events, coming in at No. 5 on bars (9.905) and No. 9 on floor (9.915). Jenna Dunn is No. 16 on beam (9.880) and Bell Johnson is No. 21 on floor (9.880).

TO 198 AND BEYOND
Since 2016, OU has totaled 39 scores of 198 or better and has 46 such scores in program history. Of those 46, only 17 have been earned at home with the other 29 all coming at road or neutral sites. Thirteen of those scores have come in regional or national competition, including a 198.475 mark at the 2019 NCAA Athens Regional which is the second-highest road score in NCAA history. In 2018, OU set the NCAA record with 10 scores of 198 or better in a single season. OU has more scores of 198 in the last eight years than any other program has in their entire history.

CLOUD 9.9
Through seven weeks of the season, the Sooners have posted 83 scores of 9.9 or higher. With 168 routines competed, that means 49 percent of the routines have scored a 9.9 or higher this season. OU has put up double-digit marks of 9.9 or higher in six of seven meets this season, including a season-best 15 against George Washington on Feb. 11.

TOP TOTALS
Of the nation's top totals this season, the Sooners hold two of the top four scores and three of the top 10 marks. OU is one of just three teams to hit the 198 mark twice, holding the No. 3 spot (198.200), No. 4 spot (198.175) and No. 6 spot (198.050). Five schools appear in the top 10 totals with Michigan, Florida, LSU and Utah all hitting the 198 mark this season.

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.
Four Sooners have earned at least one perfect 10 this season. Katherine LeVasseur and Allie Stern both posted a perfect score on vault and Carly Woodard and Ragan Smith have both accomplished the feat on beam.
Of the 168 routines competed so far by the Sooners, 109 have been performed by underclassmen. That means 65 percent of routines competed are being done by freshmen and sophomores.
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. Michigan (March 4), at Big 12 Championship (March 19).

UP NEXT

The Sooners will return to Oklahoma for the final home meet of the regular season. OU will host No. 1 and defending champions Michigan in Lloyd Noble Center on Friday, March 4. The meet will air on ESPN2 at 7:45 p.m. CT.