Alabama Gymnastics Falls Short in NCAA Championship

Alabama Gymnastics competed in their 22nd “Super Six” NCAA National Championship tonight in Fort Worth, Texas.

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The SEC was heavily represented tonight at the Women’s Gymnastics National Championships in Forth Worth. Alabama gymnastics, LSU, Florida, and Georgia took 4 of the 6 slots in the final competition. The non-SEC schools hailed from the Pac-12 (UCLA) and Big 12 (Oklahoma).

After a 2nd place finish in the SEC Championship behind Florida, the Bama team and second year head coach Dana Duckworth were hungry for a 7th national title.

Unfortunately, small mistakes added up in the end, and the Oklahoma Sooners took home the coveted National Championship honors.

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Because 6 teams competed in only 4 events (floor, vault, balance beam, and uneven parallel bars), two of the teams had a bye each rotation.

Alabama sat out round 1, then had a  solid start on floor in the second with 9.9 scores from both Kiana Winston and Lauren Beers. Beers, a senior and anchor member of the team, stuck the landing on her vault and earned another near-perfect 9.9 in the third.

After three rotations, Alabama lead the pack with the highest total score – and the top four teams were separated by only 15/100 of a point.

Oklahoma trailed Bama by a mere 0.025 as they started the fourth rotation on the beam, with Bama resting during their 2nd bye event. The Sooners nailed each of their beam routines, and pulled ahead of the other teams by the end of the 4th.

Alabama struggled some on the uneven bars in the 5th round; only Mackenzie Brannan stuck the landing without so much as a bobble.

The Tide fell to fourth place behind Oklahoma, UCLA, and Georgia, facing their toughest event – the balance beam – in the final rotation.

Oklahoma took to the floor as LSU finished vault, Florida ended with the bars, and Alabama rounded out the night on the beam.

Keely McNeer lead off for the Tide with a solid 9.85, followed by Mary Lillian Sanders with a 9.8. Mackenzie Brannon earned a huge 9.9 with a stellar performance, and Asia Sims stepped up immediately after to deliver another big 9.9. Bama ended the apparatus with the routine of a lifetime & a 9.95 from sophomore Nickie Guerra.

The final rotation was a truly epic battle among LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, and Alabama, as gymnast after gymnast delivered career performances. Every landing was stuck, every element solid, each movement flawless.

When the final scores were tallied, the Sooners edged out LSU and the Crimson Tide with a combined total of 197.6750.

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While a 3rd place finish wasn’t what Alabama had hoped for, the night was heralded as the most competitive Super Six to date.  Only Lauren Beers and Carley Sims are Bama seniors, so the Tide will be bringing back a whopping sixteen veteran members to the gym next season.

It’s safe to say that the Women’s Gymnastics National Championship hasn’t seen the last of this very young Alabama team.