Oklahoma gymnastics: OU going to NCAA Championships for 16th straight year
By Chip Rouse
It has become almost second nature. But ask K.J. Kindler or any member of her women’s Oklahoma gymnastics family and they will tell you it never gets old.
On Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum, on the campus of the University of Georgia, Oklahoma bested the four teams remaining in the NCAA Athens Regional, posting a nation-best team score of 198.475 to capture its 10th consecutive regional championship and advance to the NCAA Championships for the 16th straight year.
The Sooners, who were crowned national champions in 2016 and 2017 and tied for the national title in 2014, are now headed to Ft. Worth, Texas, over the weekend of April 19 and 20 as one of eight teams vying for the 2019 national crown.
The host school. Georgia, will join Oklahoma, the No. 1 overall seed, at the NCAA Championships in a couple of weeks, courtesy of finishing second to the Sooners in the Athens Regional. California and Kentucky finished third and fourth, respectively.
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The top two teams at each of four regional sites advance to 2019 NCAA Championship.
Oklahoma’s winning team score in the Athens Regional is the squad’s seventh score of 198 or better this season and is the highest road score recorded in NCAA history. The Sooners posted the top score in all four team events and shared top honors in three of the four individual events. Additionally, OU sophomore Anastasia Webb was awarded the all-around championship. posting a career-best score of 39.675.
Junior Maggie Nichols earned a perfect 10 score on the uneven bars, sharing the individual championship in that event with Georgia’s Marissa Oakley. Freshman Olivia Trautman anchored OU’s rotation in floor exercise, her best event, posting an individual average score of 9.975 over the two days to tie Sabrina Vega of Georgia for individual honors.
Four Sooners (Brenna Dowell, Nicole Lehrmann, Webb and Nichols) shared top honors on the beam, all with an average score of 9.950.
Oklahoma will be joined in Semifinal II in Fort Worth by teams from Georgia, Denver and Oregon State. Semifinal I will feature No. 2 UCLA, LSU, Michigan and Utah. The top two teams in each semifinal will advance to the finals. In a format change this season, the Final Four will replace what previously was referred to as the Super Six.
The Sooners have competed against and beaten five of the teams who have advanced to the 2019 NCAA Championships: UCLA, Denver, Michigan and Georgia. OU, UCLA, LSU and Utah also competed as part of the Super Six in the championship final a year ago, with UCLA claiming the national title. Oklahoma finished second to the Bruins.