Oklahoma gymnastics: Sooner women take down No. 1 Michigan
By Chip Rouse
In a highly anticipated showdown of the top two finishers in last year’s NCAA Championship, the No. 2-ranked women’s Oklahoma gymnastics team defeated top-ranked Michigan in a dual competition on Friday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.
The Sooners recorded the second-highest team score in program history in defeating the reigning champion Lady Wolverines 198.475 to 197.900. The victory came one week after Oklahoma lost to No. 3 Florida in Gainesville, the fourth-place finisher in the 2021 NCAA Women’s Championship.
Oklahoma captured the outright team title in three of the four events and shared the team win on the vault. The Sooners came out on top on the beam and in floor exercise and set a new program record on the uneven bars.
OU freshman Jordan Bowers earned her first career perfect 10 score on the bars and was one of four Sooners to record a winning score of 9.975 on the uneven bars as OU set a new program record in that event. She was joined on the leaderboard by teammates Karrie Thomas, Katherine LeVaseur and Audrey Davis, all of whom scored 9.975 on bars.
Oklahoma’s collective team score of 49.850 on bars not only is a new Sooner gymnastics record but also tied an NCAA record.
The Sooners also won four of the five individual championships. In addition to Bowers’ top score on vault and the four-way tying score on bars, senior Carly Woodard posted high score on the beam and freshman Danae Fletcher was the champion in floor exercise.
Despite Oklahoma’s overall dominance in the competition, Michigan did come away with one title. The Wolverines’ Natalie Wojcik was crowned the all-around champion.
The Sooners will have little time to celebrate their huge team win, however. They are back in action on Sunday in a quad competition in Denton, Texas, featuring OU, Texas Women’s University, Air Force and Southeast Missouri.