No. 1 Sooners Set for Ann Arbor Regional

NORMAN – On Thursday, the No. 1 Oklahoma women's gymnastics team will look to continue their NCAA Regional success under head coach K.J. Kindler. Since 2010, the Sooners own 13 consecutive regional championships. In the 2024 NCAA Ann Arbor Regional second round, the Sooners will face North Carolina State, Ohio State and the winner of the Illinois/Ball State first round meet. The meet is set for 6 p.m. CT and will air on ESPN+.

The afternoon session on Thursday features host Michigan, Alabama, Kent State and Penn State. With the new changes to regional formats starting in 2019, should the Sooners be one of the top two teams on Thursday, they will advance to Saturday's regional final along with the advancing teams from the first session. Saturday's final is set for 4 p.m. CT on ESPN+

THE MORE YOU KNOW

THEY WERE NO. 1
For the eighth time in the last nine seasons, the Oklahoma women's gymnastics team has earned the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Championships, the NCAA announced Monday. This is the 14th consecutive season the Sooners have earned a No. 1 seed for regional competition. The Sooners claimed the No. 1 seed by posting a record-breaking NQS of 198.500. The five counting scores for OU in the NQS calculations include a 198.775, 198.650, 198.375, 198.350 and 198.325.

ROTATION ORDER
The rotation order for regionals was determined by blind draw prior to the selections. The Sooners will compete in Olympic Order – vault, bars, beam, floor – for the second round. If the Sooners advance to Saturday's final, they will begin on beam and rotate floor, vault, bars.

BITTERSWEET GOODBYE
The Sooners said goodbye to the Big 12 Conference in a big way, earning a Big 12 Championship and NCAA record 198.950 to claim their 15^th Big 12 title and 14^th under head coach K.J. Kindler. For the first time in conference history, every event was won with a perfect 10 as the Sooners completed a team gym slam. Junior Jordan Bowers claimed the vault title with her first perfect 10 of the year on the event, the uneven bars title with her second of the year on the event and floor with her third-straight perfect 10 on the event. Ragan Smith earned the beam title for the second year in a row with a perfect 10, her fifth of the season and 10th of her career. Faith Torrez shared the floor title with Bowers, earning her first career perfect mark.

Following the conclusion of the meet, Big 12 Yearly Awards were announced. Bowers was named the Big 12 Gymnast of the Year, the first Sooner to achieve the honor since Anastasia Webb in 2021. Bowers is the 13th Sooner to be named Gymnast of the Year and the sixth to earn both Newcomer of the Year and Gymnast of the Year honors in her career, joining Anastasia Webb, Nichols, Brenna Dowell, Chayse Capps and Haley Scaman. Kindler was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year for the 13th time as the head coach of Oklahoma and the 15th time overall.

RECORDS ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN
The Sooners have broken more records than most can count in 2024. On March 23, 2024, the most impressive record of all was broken as the Sooners recorded a 198.950 team score at the Big 12 Championships. OU broke a 20-year old record, topping the old mark of 198.875 held by UCLA and Stanford and set in 2004. This was the third time this season the Sooners set a new program team score. Heading into 2024, the record stood at 198.575 for OU. This season, OU posted record marks of 198.675, 198.775 and 198.950. Along with their team scoring record, the Sooners also posted an NQS record of 198.500. The Sooners also tied their program record on bars (49.825), beam (49.800) and floor (49.825).

JORDAN BOW(HER)S
Jordan Bowers has had an exceptional junior year, cementing herself in the OU record books. At the 2024 Big 12 Championship, Bowers did something no OU gymnast had done before, scoring three perfect 10s in one meet. Bowers is only the sixth gymnast in NCAA history to achieve the feat and one of just two active gymnasts to do so (Haleigh Bryant – LSU). Her three perfect scores led her to a 39.925 in the all-around, tying the program record held by legend Maggie Nichols. Her 39.925 is tied for fourth in NCAA history and tied for best score in the NCAA this season. Bowers' success extends past the Big 12 Championship. She has earned six perfect 10s this year, tallying two on bars, one on floor and three on vault. Her three perfect 10s on vault have brought her career total to four, giving her the most perfect 10s on floor in OU history. Her 10.0s on all three events this season have given her multiple 10s on vault, bars and floor, making her just the second gymnast in OU history to earn multiple 10s on three events.

THE GYM SLAM
On March 23, the Sooners combined for a team "Gym Slam", becoming just the third time in NCAA history that a team recorded five perfect 10s in one meet. Jordan Bowers secured a 10.0 on vault, bars and floor, Ragan Smith tallied one on beam and Faith Torrez added one on floor as every Big 12 title was won with a perfect score. The meet marked the first time three gymnasts have combined for a gym slam in a single meet and the second time an NCAA team has posted a gym slam in a meet.

ALL-AMERICAN SOONERS
Six members of the No. 1 Oklahoma women's gymnastics team combined to secure 15 regular season All-America honors from the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA). Seniors Ragan Smith, Audrey Davis and Katherine LeVasseur, junior Jordan Bowers, sophomore Faith Torrez and freshman Hannah Scheible all received recognition from the association.

Bowers paced the Sooners with five All-America honors for the second consecutive season. The junior earned first team honors on vault, bars, floor and the all-around and second team honors on beam. Bowers ended the season as the No. 1 gymnast in the nation on bars and No. 2 in the all-around and on floor. Bowers joins Maggie Nichols as the only Sooners to earn five regular season All-America honors in multiple seasons. Davis and Torrez each notched three honors. Along with her second-team all-around honor, Davis picked up first team honors on bars and second team honors on beam. Davis is tied with Bowers as the No. 1 gymnast in the nation on the bars. Torrez earned first team honors on beam as the No. 4 ranked gymnast on the event and second team honors on floor and in the all-around. LeVasseur brought home a pair of accolades with a first team nod on vault and second team honors in the all-around. Smith earned her third consecutive first-team honor on the balance beam, finishing the year as the No. 1 athlete in the nation on the event. In her first season of competition, Scheible earned first team honors on vault.

TO 198 AND BEYOND
Oklahoma has totaled 73 scores of 198 or better in program history, including 65 scores since 2016. Of those 73 scores, only 29 have been earned at home, with 44 coming at road or neutral site competitions. Twenty of those scores have come in regional or national competitions, including a 198.3875 at the 2023 NCAA Championship which tied for the highest NCAA Finals score in history. In 2024, the Sooners earned a program and NCAA best 198.950 at the Big 12 Championships. The Sooners have tallied 10 scores of 198-plus this season, tying the record for most scores of 198 in a season. OU currently holds the record, achieving the feat in 2018, 2022 and 2023. OU has posted nine-straight marks of 198-plus this season, becoming the first school to ever do so. No school has posted more than four straight in history. The Sooners streak also includes scores of only 198.300+, no other school in NCAA history has scored more than two consecutive scores that high.

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