Alabama
Arkansas
Alabama Gymnastics Dazzles on Senior Night, Posts Second-Best Score in Program History to Down Arkansas, 198.075-196.000
3/4/2022 10:51:00 PM | Gymnastics
The Crimson Tide’s team total ties for the second-best in program history and is UA’s second 198+ mark in the regular-season following the school record 198.250 against Stanford in 2014
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The seventh-ranked Alabama gymnastics team took down Arkansas, 198.075-196.000, Friday night in front of 9,101 fans in Coleman Coliseum. It was the second-best score in school history and the fifth mark of 198.000-or-better.Â
The Crimson Tide honored its six seniors - Sania Mitchell, Griffin James, Kaylee Quinn, Emily Gaskins, Shallon Olsen and Lexi Graber – in their last home meet.
Luisa Blanco earned the top honors in the all-around with a 39.625, and on the uneven bars where she tied her career-best of 9.975. Graber took home the event title on floor exercise with a career-best tying 9.975 and balance beam with another career-best tying mark of 9.950. Jordyn Paradise won the vault with a career best 9.950.
Paradise and Olsen (9.900) led the Tide to a solid 49.300 on vault to open the evening, and Alabama built from there. The Crimson Tide's 49.650 on the uneven bars, the second-best team total in UA history, was built with five scores of 9.9-or-better, including a 9.950 from Makarri Doggette and Blanco's 9.975.
Graber's 9.950 and 9.900s from Ella Burgess and Mati Waligora paced the Tide to a 49.425 on the balance beam.
The Tide then proceeded to rip the roof off Coleman Coliseum with an epic floor exercise rotation, capped by Graber's second 9.975 on the event in as many weeks. Even with Graber's mark in the book, and the Tide's school-record tying 49.700 on the scoreboard, Griffin James put yet another exclamation point on the evening with an exhibition routine that scored a 9.950, the best mark of her career.
Olsen started the Tide off with a career-best 9.925 on the floor exercise and was followed by Mitchell's career-best 9.950. Gaskins brought the crowd roaring to its feet with her "Sweet Home Alabama" routine, scoring a season-best 9.900, before Blanco matched her season best of 9.950, leading to Graber's 9.975 and James' 9.950 in the exhibition slot.
Alabama Head Coach Dana Duckworth Said
""Tonight, we were on fire. I literally had a smile on my face the whole way, I couldn't stop smiling. And it didn't really have to do with the scores. It had to do with watching them put every single thing they had into every single moment tonight. We said tonight we wanted to start strong, we wanted to stay strong and we wanted to finish strong. And they accomplished all of that."
Inside the Score Sheet
- The Crimson Tide's 198.075 tied for the second-best mark in school history, with its match coming in Baton Rouge, La., at the 1996 NCAA Central Regional Championship, which was the first 198 score in UA history
- The Tide's floor exercise tally of 49.700 tied the school record that came against Georgia in 2001
- Alabama's uneven bars score of 49.650 was the top regular-season mark in school history and tied for the second-highest overall
- Alabama has now scored 197.000-or-higher the last seven meets in a row, including five scores of 197.5+
- Alabama took home first on every apparatus and in the all-around against Arkansas
- Overall, Alabama posted 15 scores of 9.900-or-better, including two that went for 9.975
- Jordyn Paradise posted a career-high 9.950 on the vault and a career-best 9.850 on the uneven bars
- Luisa Blanco's 9.975 on the uneven bars tied her career-best mark, while her 9.950 tied her season-best mark on the floor exercise
- Ella Burgess tied her career best of 9.900 on the balance beam
- Makarri Doggette tied her season-best uneven bars score with a 9.950
- Emily Gaskins scored a season-best 9.900 on the floor exercise and a season-best 9.900 to lead off the Tide's uneven bars lineup
- Lexi Graber tied her career-best on the balance beam (9.950) and floor exercise (9.975)
- Lilly Hudson posted a career-best 9.925 on the uneven bars
- Shallon Olsen tied her season-best 9.900 on the vault and posted a career-best 9.925 on the floor exercise
- Sania Mitchell posted a career-best 9.950 on the floor exercise
Up Next
- Alabama closes out its 2022 regular season Sunday with the Elevate the Stage meet in Huntsville, Ala., where the Tide will face Arkansas, Auburn and Georgia
- The meet will stream live on FloGymnastics
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Players Mentioned
