The SEC Gymnastics Championships are on Saturday, featuring eight teams in the top 15. The bottom four teams will face off in the afternoon and the top four that evening. The highest score takes all, and it’s looking like that could be just about anyone.
“This thing is going to be a slobber knocker,” head coach Jay Clark said. “It’s one, two and three in the country and then Missouri inside of the top eight. I don’t know that there’s ever been an SEC Championship evening session that stacked.”
No. 1 seeded Oklahoma will get to start on vault with LSU on bars, Missouri on beam and Florida on floor.
It will be the third time LSU and Oklahoma face each other with the tally currently 1-1 after the Tigers finished behind them in the Week 2 Collegiate Quad meet. They met again in Week 7 in Baton Rouge, where LSU got revenge.
The Tigers are returning to Alabama for the second consecutive week after taking down Auburn on their own territory. There, the team earned a new high road score of 198.200 and its second 10 of the season thanks to Kailin Chio.
Here’s a brief dissection of the three teams LSU will see in their session at the championship:
Oklahoma
It’ll be a 1-2 matchup once again as the Sooners will attempt to take LSU’s title.
Oklahoma is fresh on the SEC scene, but making the most of their conference debut with four scores over 198.000 this season and the highest NQS in the country at 198.040, giving them the No. 1 seed.
The Sooners marked an eleventh consecutive clean home record and only took one loss on the road courtesy of LSU. Yet, they remain at the top of the order.
“Oklahoma should be number one,” Clark said. “They’ve been the most consistent team from start to finish. It took us a while.”
Head Coach K.J. Kindler and the team have faced fewer misfortunes than some of their competition and have lived up to their preseason No. 1 rank.
Faith Torrez is deadly in the all-around, but most notably as the floor anchor. With one of the best double layouts in the nation, she is the only Oklahoma gymnast to earn a 10 this season.
Senior Jordan Bowers is a powerhouse on all four events, but pay attention to vault leadoff Lily Pederson’s yurchenko one and half, which the freshman has almost perfected.
Florida
It’s been a rollercoaster of a season for the No. 3 Gators.
Small mistakes early in the season gave away a victory to LSU and an upset from No. 9 Arkansas. In the mid-season, they were tasked with meeting Oklahoma on the road.
Similar to LSU, Florida has been plagued by injuries. In the Oklahoma meet, two all-arounders went down with injuries mid-performance. Anya Pilgrim has since fully returned to her position, but Sloane Blakely is out after injuring her achilles on floor, where she’d received a 10 on the same routine just one week prior.
“You’d love to have a full boat this time of year, but I don’t know many teams that do,” Clark said.
Through adversity, the team has continued to post some of the nation’s highest scores at home because of their deep roster of talent.
The Gators have seen six perfect scores this season – the most of any team in the NCAA. They earned three last week against Kentucky, with Danie Ferris receiving the first of her career, Selena Harris-Miranda on beam and Leanne Wong on floor.
After a dazzling home season, it’ll be interesting to see how they fare in Birmingham.
Missouri
Certainly the underdogs of session two, the Missouri Tigers are looking for redemption.
They were dealt an unfortunate hand, having to face all top three teams on their own home turf, so they went 5-3 in the regular season.
However, Missouri has proved not to be underestimated in this conference.
Last week, they took out Arkansas in Fayetteville and ended the Razorbacks’ chances at championship qualification despite having two top-three upsets this season.
Helen Hu has been one of the biggest names in the SEC as the top beam specialist in the country. She was the first to see a perfect score in Missouri’s SEC opener at Oklahoma and claimed her second in the season closer against Arkansas.
Mara Titarsolej’s routine on bars earned Missouri their first 10 on the event in 2024, and she’s been close to the mark at almost every meet this season. The odds are she’ll continue to deliver in the postseason.
“Everybody’s gymnastics is where it needs to be – every single team, so it’s going to be who walks into that arena with the right mindset into doing their gymnastics,” LSU gymnast Haleigh Bryant said.
