No. 1 Sooners Set for Big 12 Championship

Saturday, March 19

Denver, CO

6:00 PM

University of Oklahoma

Denver

Tickets

Photo by: Matthew Smith

No. 1 Sooners Set for Big 12 Championship

March 18, 2022 | Women's Gymnastics

ESPNU Live Stats Tickets Notes

¹ Oklahoma

Denver

Iowa State

West Virginia

Saturday, March 19 / 6 p.m. CT / Denver, Colo. / Magness Arena

Tickets / ESPNU / Live Stats / Meet Notes

NORMAN – On Saturday, the No. 1 Oklahoma women's gymnastics team will compete at the Big 12 Championship, scheduled for a 6 p.m. CT start in Denver, Colo. The meet, which will pit the Sooners against Denver, Iowa State and West Virginia will air live on ESPNU. John Roethlisberger and Alicia Sacramone Quinn will be on the call.

NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR MEET TWELVE

BRING IT BACK HOME
This weekend, the Sooners will look to bring the Big 12 Championship back home to Norman, Okla. Prior to the 2021 season, the Sooners had won an unprecedented eight consecutive Big 12 titles, becoming the first team in program history to win eight in a row. The Sooners hold 17 conference titles (five Big Eight, 12 Big 12) in its program history and 11 Big 12 titles under 16th-year head coach K.J. Kindler. The Sooners were the favorites to win the title in 2021, but were upended by Denver, who won its first Big 12 Championship.

WHERE THEY BELONG
For the second week in a row, the Sooners are the No. 1 team in the nation. The Sooners hold a 198.080 national qualifying score (NQS) and will have one more opportunity to improve that score before regionals competition begins. 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 are No. 1 on bars (49.545), No. 2 on beam (49.580), No. 4 on vault (49.425) and No. 5 on floor (49.550). Florida remained at No. 2 with an NQS of 198.050, followed by Michigan at No. 3 with a 197.960 NQS. Utah sits in fourth (197.870) and LSU rounds out the top five (197.735).

CONFERENCE ACCOLADES
Six members of the top-ranked Oklahoma women's gymnastics team combined to capture a conference-leading 11 spots on the All-Big 12 Gymnastics team. This season marks the 14th straight year that the Sooners have led the conference in All-Big 12 selections and the 13th consecutive season that the Sooners have earned at least eight spots on the All-Big 12 team.

The All-Big 12 squad consists of the conference gymnasts with the top three highest national qualifying scores (NQS) on each event in addition to the top two all-around gymnasts. The Sooners swept the bars and beam spots, while occupying the top two scores on vault and floor.

Freshman Jordan Bowers led all honorees with three selections. Bowers was recognized on vault as the top-ranked athlete in the nation, while also adding accolades on bars and floor. Sophomores Audrey Davis and Katherine LeVasseur and junior Ragan Smith were all honored on a pair of events. Davis, the top-ranked bars worker in the nation, earned her second consecutive accolade on bars and her first in the all-around. LeVasseur picked up her second and third career honors with nods on vault and beam. Smith is now up to five career honors with a nod on beam as the No. 1 ranked gymnast and floor. Smith now has two honors on both beam and floor.

Super seniors Karrie Thomas and Carly Woodard each picked up honors as well. Thomas earned her second career All-Big 12 honor and first on bars, while Woodard earned her first career recognition on beam.

THE ROAD TO FORT WORTH RUNS THROUGH NORMAN
The road to the NCAA Championships will now make a journey through Norman and Lloyd Noble Center in 2022. OU is one of four host sites this season, meaning the Sooners will have a home-floor advantage during the three-day regional competition. The Sooners were not originally slated to host in 2022, but due to issues at another host site, OU was granted the postseason competition.

This will be the fourth time since 2011 that the Sooners will play host as they hosted in 2011, 2013 and 2015. OU has won all three regional championships in the LNC and will look to make it four in April.

KINDLER VS. THE BIG 12
In 16 seasons, Kindler is 86-5 against current and former members of the Big 12 (not including regionals and NCAA Championships). Against current members of league (Denver, Iowa State, West Virginia), Kindler is undefeated in the regular season with a 46-0 record. At the Big 12 Championships, she is undefeated against Iowa State (14-0) and West Virginia (8-0) and 4-1 against Denver.

BOWERS EARNS FINAL BIG 12 WEEKLY AWARD
Freshman Jordan Bowers earned the final Newcomer of the Week award. Bowers earned her seventh Big 12 weekly award and fifth newcomer of the week honor after helping lead the Sooners to a tri-meet victory over Arizona State and Boise State on March 11. The freshman recorded three scores of 9.9-plus in the tri-meet, earning a pair of event titles. Bowers led the way on vault with a 9.9 to keep hold of her No. 1 ranking. Her second event title of the night came on floor as she recorded a 9.925. On bars, she added a 9.875 to help OU to a 49.500 on the event.

YOUNG AND HUNGRY
Of the 264 routines competed so far by the Sooners, 153 have been performed by underclassmen. That means 58 percent of routines competed are being done by freshmen and sophomores. At least one freshman has competed on vault, bars and floor in every meet this season. A freshman has appeared on beam in six of 11 meets.

The vault lineup is the youngest lineup for the Sooners as senior Allie Stern was the only upper-class gymnast to have competed during the season, until Olivia Trautman came back to the lineup on March 11. Every other athlete who has competed at least one vault for the Sooners has been a freshman or sophomore. Bars and floor have featured at least four underclassmen, and sometimes five, every week this season.

Beam, however, is the lineup with the most experience with seniors Carly Woodard and Trautman and juniors Jenna Dunn and Ragan Smith being staples in the lineup. With Trautman's return to the lineup on Feb. 19, four of the six competing athletes are upperclassmen.

MAKING MOVES
With the departure of three seniors from the 2021 season and athletes out due to injury, multiple Sooners have stepped up in big ways to start the season. Five Sooners have made their collegiate debuts and three added events in the offseason.

Jordan Bowers, Danae Fletcher, Danielle Sievers, Meilin Sullivan and Sheridan Ramsey all made their debuts in the first three weeks of the season. Bowers has competed the all-around, Sievers on bars and Fletcher, Sullivan and Ramsey all appeared in the vault lineup. Fletcher made her debut on bars and floor against Arizona and Sievers made her vault debut against George Washington. Against Florida, Sievers appeared in the floor lineup for the first time this season. In a top-two meet against Michigan, Fletcher debuted an upgraded vault and earned a 9.95 on her Yurchenko 1.5.

Audrey Davis added floor in 2022 to become an all-around competitor after spending 2021 as a three-event gymnast. Carly Woodard has competed floor in every meet after competing on the apparatus just once in 2021. Katherine LeVasseur added beam in the third week of the season and is slated to add floor as well.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Individually, at least two Sooners are ranked on every event with at least one in the top 15 on all four events and the all-around. Audrey Davis is the lone Sooner ranked in the all-around with a 39.485 NQS, good for No. 13 in the country.

On vault, Jordan Bowers continues to hold the No. 1 spot in the nation with a 9.965 NQS. Katherine LeVasseur joins her in the top 10 at No. 6 (9.930). A trio of Sooners are ranked on bars with Davis moving back to the No. 1 spot with a 9.955 NQS. Bowers is No. 14 (9.925) and Karrie Thomas is No. 21 (9.915). Four athletes are ranked on beam, led by No. 1 Ragan Smith (9.980). Carly Woodard joins her in the top 10 at No. 9 (9.935). LeVasseur s No. 16 (9.920) and Davis is 23rd (9.910). On floor, Smith is ranked No. 12 (9.940) and Bowers comes in at No. 17 (9.930).

TO 198 AND BEYOND
Since 2016, OU has totaled 42 scores of 198 or better and has 48 such scores in program history. Of those 48, only 18 have been earned at home with the other 30 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 11 weeks of the season, the Sooners have posted 131 scores of 9.9 or higher. With 264 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 nine of 11 meets this season, including a season-best 17 against Michigan on March 4.

TOP TOTALS
Of the nation's top totals this season, the Sooners hold three of the top 10 marks. The Sooners boast the No. 5 score (198.475), No. 7 score (198.200) and No. 8 score (198.175). Six schools appear in the top 10 with Michigan, Florida, Auburn, Utah and LSU all holding at least one of the top 10 scores.

QUICK HITS

The Sooners have hit 251 of 264 routines this season for a hit percentage of .951. Eight gymnasts are perfect on the season, hitting every routine they have performed. Of those eight, five have competed in all 11 meets.
The Sooners have had nine of 15 athletes who have competed at least once this season earn an event title. Eight of the nine have earned at least two event titles this season.
Jordan Bowers and Audrey Davis lead the squad with 16 and 13 event titles, respectively. Bowers owns at least one event title on three of four events and the all-around, while Davis has at least one title on two events and the all-around.
Vault, beam and floor have seen eight athletes complete at least one routine in 2022. Bars has seen seven athletes compete at least once this year.

UP NEXT

The Sooners will host the Norman Regional, March 30-April 2. Teams to compete in the three-day competition will be announced on Tuesday, March 22, at 11 a.m. CT.