This season has become an anomaly in the grand scheme of college gymnastics. The 2024 season has seen firsts for gymnasts, schools and programs, especially this past weekend.
Here’s whose stock is rising and falling after all the action:
Rising
No. 1 Oklahoma beats No. 2 California (again)
The No. 1 Sooners traveled to the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, with one goal: Stay undefeated.
Oklahoma (198.300) did precisely that, taking down the unranked Washington Huskies (196.450), the No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks (196.850) and the now No. 3 California Golden Bears (197.400) yet again.
Reigning beam queen Ragan Smith kept her crown with her first perfect 10 this season and sixth of her career; she’s now just one away from tying Maggie Nichol’s program record for the most 10s on beam. Jordan Bowers kept it business as usual with another all-around title, with Bowers, Smith and Faith Torrez all earning 9.950s on floor.
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Due to Oklahoma’s overwhelming dominance, questions begin to bubble, asking who’ll come along and what will it take to see Oklahoma lose in April at the NCAA Championships.
Kentucky’s Raena Worley ties No. 1
A month ago, Kentucky fifth-year senior Raena Worley was one of the most decorated gymnasts in the country, but she’d never earned a perfect 10 in her career. To say Worley was due is an understatement, and she’s been making up for lost time the past month, earning three perfect 10s.
After notching her first two perfect 10s of her career on the floor, Worley took to the bars during her team’s meet against BYU on Friday, earning a perfect 10 that helped lead the No. 6 Wildcats to a 197.775-196.600 win over the unranked Cougars.
With that performance, Worley, who was already ranked No. 2 on bars, moves into a tie for No. 1 with Oklahoma’s Jordan Bowers, as now No. 5 ranked Kentucky continues to look better every week in this year’s championship chase.
Missouri’s Mara Titarsolej makes history
In the nearly half a century that Missouri’s gymnastics program has existed, no gymnast scored a perfect 10 on bars for the Tigers. That was until Mara Titarsolej set the record straight Friday night, scoring the first perfect 10 on bars in school history on a textbook double tuck dismount.
It was an excellent night for No. 13 Missouri, who set themselves a new high score for the 2024 season: 197.475. While it wasn’t enough to get by its SEC rival No. 5 Florida (197.925), the Tigers finished only a sliver behind one of the best teams in the country while taking care of business against No. 21 Illinois (196.550) and unranked Lindenwood (194.825) at home.
PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT: LSU gymnastics beats Auburn 198.300-197.10 in the PMAC
Falling
Auburn’s loss to LSU
“Auburn is a very good team, and they’re in a much better place than their ranking indicates,” LSU head coach Jay Clark said early last week. “We know that they are an opponent that is going to give us a good test.”
While it felt like Auburn could come into the PMAC with some confidence and make things interesting on Friday night, No. 3 LSU quickly shut that door by putting up one of its best and most complete performances of the season.
The balance beam has been where LSU has struggled to find momentum all season, but if you ask this LSU squad directly, they’d tell you a different story.
“I don’t think we have a weak event,” LSU’s Aleah Finnegan said.
That’s the kind of confidence this group has and for good reason. Finnegan looked correct on Friday night when her Tigers put up the best beam score of their season: 49.725.
While now No. 2 LSU had a great night, it felt like Auburn, for the most part, beat itself early, unable to record a score of 9.850 or higher on uneven bars, its first event of the entire night.
Combine its early struggles on bars with LSU’s biggest weakness becoming its biggest strength, and it felt like a recipe for disaster from the jump for Auburn.
MORE GYMNASTICS: ‘This is us’: LSU gymnastics defeats Auburn 198.300-197.10
SEC gymnastics schedule makers
The schedule makers didn’t do the No. 16 Razorbacks any favors this weekend.
On Saturday, Arkansas traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, for the greatest opportunity of its entire season: a quad meet against the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners and the No. 2 California Golden Bears, all in front of a national TV audience.
While the Razorbacks finished in third place as expected, they gave Oklahoma and California all they had. Lauren Williams anchored for Arkansas on its final event of the night, and she put on a show, pulling off an impressive Yurchenko 1.5 that earned a 9.925 and a share of the vault title.
But that was only half of the Razorbacks’ road trip. On Monday, unranked Texas Women’s University hosted Arkansas, No. 9 Alabama and No. 17 Arizona.
The now No. 10 Crimson Tide dropped a spot in the national rankings but put up a new season high (197.675) and finished in first place thanks to Cameron Macho’s career-high 9.975 on uneven bars. The Razorbacks held their own with a second-place finish over Arizona and Texas Women’s, respectively.
Looking at the entirety of the SEC Gymnastics schedule, this is the only meet on the 2024 calendar that falls on a Monday during the middle of the day. It’s also the only time an SEC team is forced to compete in two meets in three days.
To say the long weekend for Arkansas was an anomaly would be an understatement. It doesn’t make sense for the schedule makers to do it, either. Putting a meeting during the middle of a Monday is just a slap in the face to your TV partners and viewership.
While the Razorbacks performed well in both meets, one can’t help but feel like the schedule makers did them a huge disservice here.
For its next meet, Arkansas heads home to take on No. 5 Kentucky, and the quick turnaround combined with a lack of rest and an abnormal training schedule throughout this week could easily see the Razorbacks fall flat on their face come Friday night.
