By Charlie Gaasch
On March 10th, the Sooners women’s gymnastics team made the three-and-a-half-hour trip to Fayetteville for a meet with a future SEC opponent, the Arkansas Razorbacks. The number one ranked Sooners entered Barnhill Arena to face the twelfth ranked Arkansas team who were on a three-game skid. The Sooners managed to come away with another win for the year, making the total twenty-four with no losses. This win ended with a 1.075-point margin of victory. Along the way, the Sooners had another impressive night, notching two more perfect scores on the year.
As the away team, the Sooners began on the bars where Danielle Sievers led the night off with an impressive looking performance resulting in a 9.900. Each of the following gymnasts save for Faith Torrez, had a score of 9.900 or higher on bars with the highest score belonging to Audrey Davis with a 9.975. Davis has recorded the just shy of perfect score twelve times in her career and has never reached the coveted perfect ten. It truly is astounding how many times she has just missed out on the score and the fanbase certainly feels cheated for her. Many of her routines have certainly met the supposed mark of what a perfect ten entails, but for some reason, it seems to evade her. The senior has only a few more meets to right this wrong as she wraps up an excellent career with the Sooners famed program. She did notably win the bars title for the night on a great routine. This time she recorded the ever so common score (at least for her) of 9.975 in the anchor position giving OU a strong lead heading into the second event. The final scores for the first even saw OU ahead of Arkansas 49.600 to 49.350.
As the Sooners did their work on the vault, OU was able to take advantage of a weak bars performance from the Razorbacks to extend their lead. Torrez once again remained the only gymnast of the six to miss the outstanding 9.900 mark. Four of the five accepted scores on the vault were exactly that score while emerging star freshman Hannah Scheible scored a 9.925 for the highest score of the event. Scheible, the freshman from Michigan has proven to be a strong vault gymnast and has seen a gradual increase in time on the mats as the season progressed. The pressure on her shoulders has not been anything she cannot handle and the expectations of her from when she entered the program have been easily fulfilled and fast. She will be a premiere name to watch as the season begins the final stretch, and she could very likely find herself competing in a national title meet in her first season wearing the crimson and cream. Replacing this class of seniors is a tall task but one Scheible has proven to be equipped for thus far. Scheible took home the vault title on Sunday in the fifth position for OU. In a last second lineup change after Scheible, Ava Siegfeldt replaced Audrey Davis on the vault, seeing the mat for the first time on Sunday. Siegfeldt put up a solid score of 9.900 but thankfully, that is not where her afternoon ended. She was sure to leave Fayetteville with her name ringing in the ears of the Razorback fanbase. For now, the scoreboard saw OU ahead by a score of 99.125 to 98.375.
The third event of the night saw the Sooners on the floor while Arkansas took the beam. Audrey Davis continued a great showing with a score of 9.925 to lead off the routines. Bell Johnson followed with a what would be score of 9.900 before a questionable deduction of 0.1 points, dropping her to a 9.800, the lowest score Oklahoma saw all night from the judges. Ragan Smith was able to keep her 9.900 and was followed by a 9.875 by Katherine LeVasseur and a 9.925 for from Faith Torrez. Torrez looked far more comfortable on the floor, and it reflected in her score surpassing the 9.900 for the first time in Arkansas. This all lead into the anchor routine that would be delivered by the beloved junior Jordan Bowers. She had the task of finding a way to replace Johnson’s abnormal 9.800 score and she certainly was able to do so. Her routine was absolutely flawless, nailing every element of her tumbling and crowd work performance. The judges rewarded her in the best way, the first perfect ten of the night. This is Bowers’ fifth career perfect ten and she shared the special moment with her teammates and coaches in a swarm of hugs and high tens. Even the arena seemed to be able to appreciate the greatness in front of their eyes and applause was scattered under the lights. Bowers took home the beam title as the Sooners trotted to the beam for their final event of the night leading the meet 148.700 to 147.675.
The beam has seen a lot of success as of late for the women in crimson and they continued an impressive season in Fayetteville on Sunday. Audrey Davis led off on the beam with a great routine, totaling 9.925. In the second position, Ava Siegfeldt reemerged in Keira Wells’ typical spot. Wells has struggled in the past few weeks, especially on beam and head coach Kindler made the change. Wells only appeared on the vault Sunday and will likely be limited for the remainder of the season short of an injury. She certainly will not regain her second-place position on the beam and Siegfeldt made sure of that. The young sophomore took the beam and delivered a stunning and strong performance, landing all her moves, finishing with a stuck landing. Her routine earned her a perfect ten, the second of the night for OU. This is her first perfect score of her equally young career, and she has earned the right to continue with more time on the mats. After Siegfeldt, Bowers scored a 9.925. It likely would have wound up a higher score if it weren’t for a slight wobble as she prepared to finish her routine. Faith Torrez stumbled once, and the judges punished her more unfairly than it seemed with a 9.850. LeVasseur bounced back and put up a 9.900, leading into the much-anticipated Ragan Smith beam performance. Smith, coming into Sunday had put up four straight perfect tens on the beam, an equally historic and remarkable feat. Unfortunately, the streak ended in Fayetteville and Smith wound up with a 9.850 on the beam. It appeared that Smith simply tried too hard to top her prior performances and achieve another ten. This led to rare shakes and stumbles and an odd sight of a slip on her dismount. She will not be able to say she could get five in a row, but it will never be said that she is not an extreme competitor. The love of her sport is evident is Ragan Smith is absolutely one of the best to come through Norman. She will get to say her final goodbye in the coming weeks to the Sooner fans for senior night and the Big 12 championships that will be held in the LNC.
The margin of victory did not change after the beam routine as both the Sooners and Razorbacks scored an identical fourth event score of 49.600. This made the final score 198.350 to 197.275. The Sooners head back to Norman for senior night on Sunday, March 17th to say farewell to an astounding class of gymnasts. However, if that is not enough, be sure to check back into the LNC for the Big 12 championships as the Sooners prepare to head to defend their back-to-back titles and achieve a seventh national championship. The stars are shining bright in Norman around this program and the rings are shining too.
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