One week after coming up just short against No. 2 LSU, the top-ranked Oklahoma women gymnasts were matched up against another top-five opponent in the Florida Gators.
Junior Faith Torrez scored a perfect 10 on her floor routine, and Oklahoma posted its first score of 198 or better this season as the Sooners defeated No. 5 Florida 198.075-196.625 in a dual competition at Lloyd Noble Center on Friday night. The Sooners eclipsed the 198 level a dozen times last season.
"We had so many meets where we've hit all 24 routines, but we've not crushed it," said Sooner coach K.J. Kindler in her post-meet interview session. "We felt like we really had to have that kind of meet. We felt like it was time to have that kind of kind of meet where you're consistent from beginning to end."
Sooner fans might not be flocking to Lloyd Noble Center with the way things are going for the OU men's basketball team, but it was certainly filled for women's gymnastics on Friday, setting a new program record with close to 10,000 fans packed into the LNC.
OU started off on vault and led after the opening rotation 49.475-49.275. The Sooners widened their advantage slightly with a score of 49.425 on bars and a 49.400 on beam gave the home squad a .300 margin heading into the final rotation, which for Oklahoma was floor exercise, one of the top events, while Florida was on beam to finish up.
The Sooners killed it in their floor routines with all six OU gymnasts, including a trio of freshmen in Lilly Pederson, Addison Fatta and Elle Mueller, posting scores of 9.92 or better, including Torrez's perfect 10 in the anchor spot. The Sooners' 49.775 team score on floor was a season high and enabled OU to extend its winning margin to a comfortable 1.45 points.
Torrez was the all-around winner with a collective score of 39.775, a career high, along with individual titles on vault, beam and floor. Senior Jordan Bowers was the individual champion on bars.
The victory was OU's 90th consecutive win at home, a streak that dates back to 2014. The Sooners are 11-1 for the season and 5-1 in the SEC. One home date remains against Michigan on March 7.
The OU women will have little time to recover as they head to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area to compete in the Metroplex Challenge against North Carolina on Sunday.