NCAA Gymnastics Championship: After Oklahoma Sooners’ Vault Misses, Fans Call Out Meet for Falls and Chaos: “Stomach Is in Knots”

The race to the 2024 NCAA Gymnastics Championship final is on! Teams, including Oklahoma, Utah, Florida, and Alabama, battled it out, but the evening was marred by numerous fumbles and falls. Things took an unexpected turn in the second semifinal round, leaving fans shocked and disappointed.

Oklahoma, the two-time defending champions and favored team of the three-peat, faced a particularly challenging evening. Despite starting the session with vaults, the Sooners struggled to maintain their composure, with several gymnasts encountering difficulties in their routines. In the opening rotation, they posted a shocking 48.325, their lowest score on the event since 2008 and more than 1 point less than their season average. The unraveling started from the very first program.

Sophomore Faith Torrez registered the first vault fall in her collegiate career as she unsuccessfully executed her 1.5 twisting vault. “The first person is very important, so when that mistake happened, everyone tightened up a little bit,” head coach K.J. Kindler said. Torrez’s fall was followed by two others – junior Jordan Bowers and senior Katherine LeVasseur. Both of them took multiple deep steps backward on the same vault skill. Jordan, who made 42 consecutive vaults without a fall before the semifinals, scored a 9.450. As for LeVasseur, she scored a season-low 9.375.

With Jordan and LaVasseur’s scores factoring into their total, Oklahoma ended the rotation in an uncharacteristic fourth place, considering they were the No.1 ranked team throughout the season. Following that dismal showing, the chances of making a comeback became almost non-existent. While there were speculations that faulty vault tables might have been the reason, the Sooners’ performance on the beam solidified their impending departure from the tournament.

After LaVasseur and Ava Siegfeldt fell during their beam routines, that all but sealed their fate despite a 49.6625 on the bars – the highest semifinal score in school history. The Sooners finished third in the second semifinal with a score of 196.6625, not having scored less than 197.775 all season. Utah and Florida sealed their place in the championship meet on April 20, ensuring that this will be the first time since 2012 that the Oklahoma Sooners women’s team will not feature in the final.

On the subreddit page r/Gymnastics, fans gathered to discuss the event’s progress in Fort Worth, Texas. Former Oklahoma gymnast Maggie Nichols told the OU Daily, “Mistakes happen. That will motivate them, and it will help them grow and learn. It will allow them to become better next year.” However, fans weren’t as accepting, claiming that the event would go down in history as one of the most disastrous NCAA Championships ever.

Did “going for individual titles” ruin Oklahoma’s quest for NCAA Gymnastics Championship glory

Despite the historic season ending in disappointment for Oklahoma, K.J. Kindler was proud of her team. “It wasn’t as we scripted it, but we’ve taken great pride in winning, and we’ll take great pride in losing,” she said. Responding to Kindler’s statement, former artistic gymnast Kathy Johnson Clarke tweeted,

However, considering the Sooners are the top-ranked team and have won five of the last seven championships, fans expected more. Watching their routines and scores tumbling down like dominoes one after the other, a Redditor claimed the tournament was causing them to feel tension in their guts. “My stomach is in knots.”

Kindler called Oklahoma’s current roster one of the most consistent teams she’s ever trained. And seeing their performances this year, there’s no denying their prowess. The fact that they couldn’t make it to the finals for the first time since 2012 didn’t sit right with a few fans. It seemed impossible. One of them wrote, “If you would have told me OU’s greatest gymnastics team of all time wouldn’t have even made the national championship, I would have called you the biggest liar on the planet.”

Another user believed this would be a great time for Kindler to return to the drawing board. “My hope is KJ Kindler rethinks her strategies!” During the vault routines, owing to the three falls, Kindler took Siegfeldt out of the lineup at the last minute because she thought the gymnast looked “fearful.” This performance will give Kindler something to think about for next year, too.

A Redditor brought up a controversial theory. “Do we think Oklahoma was going too hard for vault sticks because they were going for individual titles? If that’s the case, it obviously hurt the team.” At the end of the day, Stanford’s Anna Roberts took home the individual vault crown. But Faith Torrez and Audrey Davis did become co-national champions on beam.

For so many years, Oklahoma has made it to the finals. And more often than not, they’ve won it. Considering this will be the first time in a while that the Sooners won’t be competing for the title, one fan was rather happy. “Oklahoma not advancing makes things so much more exciting for Saturday! I’m so tired of their monopoly on college gymnastics.”

What were your thoughts on the evening session of the NCAA Championship semifinals? Tell us in the comments!