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Oklahoma gymnastics: Sooners earn No. 1 overall seed in NCAA Championship

By Chip Rouse

SAN JOSE, CA - JULY 08: Maggie Nichols competes on the balance beam during day 1 of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team Trials at SAP Center on July 8, 2016 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
SAN JOSE, CA - JULY 08: Maggie Nichols competes on the balance beam during day 1 of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team Trials at SAP Center on July 8, 2016 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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The No. 1-ranked women’s Oklahoma gymnastics team has been named the top overall seed for this year’s NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.

The eight-times-running Big 12 champions will be making their 11th appearance in the NCAA Regionals. Oklahoma has won 10 consecutive NCAA regional championships and has appeared in 15 consecutive NCAA championships (formerly known as the Super Six, or the final six teams that compete for the national title).

The Sooners were national champions in 2016 and 2017 and were co-champions in 2014. In addition to three national championship, Oklahoma has finished as national runner up three other times, including last season.

Oklahoma will be the top seed in the Athens (Georgia) Regional, one of four eight-team regional sites that will be held around the country April 4-6. This is a new format, replacing the previous setup, which involved six teams competing at six different regional locations.

In the new format, nine teams are assigned to the respective regional sites. On the first day of the regional competition, the two highest-seeds will go head-to-head in a play-in to earn the eighth and final spot in the regional. On Day 2 of the regionals, eight teams will compete in two groups of four, and the top two teams in each group will advance to Day 3. The top two teams on the final day of the regional competition advance to the championship finals, which will be held in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Joining OU in the Athens Regional are three other teams seeded in the top 16 nationally: No. 8 Georgia (the host school), No. 9 Kentucky and No. 16 California. Rounding out the Athens Regional are Missouri, Iowa State, Maryland, North Carolina State and New Hampshire.

The Sooners have faced and defeated three of the teams in the Athens Regional this season (Missouri, Iowa State and Georgia).

Oklahoma will begin regional competition in the second session on April 5. The three other schools in the Sooners’ group are California, Maryland and the winner of the NC State/New Hampshire competition on Day 1.

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