Live Updates: Alabama Gymnastics at NCAA Championships Semifinals
Alabama gymnastics is back at the NCAA semifinals for the second year in a row. Last year, the Crimson Tide came just shy of advancing to the finals, but Lexi Graber (floor exercise) and Luisa Blanco (balance beam) came away with individual national championships.
Thursday at noon Alabama will look to move on to the finals for the first time since 2017. The fifth-ranked Crimson Tide are in the afternoon session with No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Utah and No. 8 Minnesota with the top two teams going to the finals at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Crimson Tide got some positive injury news from head coach Dana Duckworth with Blanco expected to return to the beam and vault lineups in Fort Worth. Makarri Doggette will still only be competing on bars.
Alabama will open up on bars, its best event, before moving to beam, then floor and close out the meet on vault. A scoring reminder that at the NCAA championships, there are six judges instead of four, so the highest and lowest scores are dropped and the other four are averaged.
The meet will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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Live Updates
Rotation 4- Alabama finishes on vault
- Crimson Tide finishes with a 197.100, its lowest scores since week two against Florida. Too many little mistakes added up for Alabama today, and the season will once again end in the semifinals.
- Alabama does not get strong landings and consequently does not put up good scores.
- Vault is the quickest rotation, so Alabama will get all their scores in relatively quickly and then have to play the waiting game.
- Alabama has six 10.0 start values in the vault lineup, so they have the capability of putting up a big score.
Alabama vault lineup
1. Shallon Olsen- Big start as Olsen sticks the landing on her Yurchenko double- 9.875
2. Kaylee Quinn- Quinn under-rotates and has to take a step back on the landing- 9.775
3. Jordyn Paradise- Has to take a big step forward on the landing, and these are not the vaults Alabama is looking for- 9.7625
4. Lilly Hudson- Hudson has to take multiple steps on the landing, and at this point, Alabama's only hope for advancing at this point would be Utah falling twice on beam- 9.700
5. Luisa Blanco- Even with only one good ankle, Blanco delivers Alabama's best vault so far- 9.9125
6. Lexi Graber- 9.800
Vault total: 49.125
Rotation 3- Alabama moves to floor
- The Crimson Tide puts together its best rotation so far with no scores below a 9.85. Alabama cuts slightly into the deficit and only trails Utah by .1375 heading into the final rotation.
Alabama floor exercise lineup
1. Shallon Olsen- solid start to the rotation- 9.85
2. Mati Waligora- She had a slight hop on the landing of her first tumbling pass, but another solid routine for Waligora who was filling in for Griffin James- 9.875
3. Emily Gaskins- A strong performance from the senior- 9.8625
4. Cam Machado- Nice routine from Machado. Alabama putting together a good rotation so far- 9.875
5. Lilly Hudson- Strong finish to the routine for Hudson, definitely her best routine of the meet so far- 9.9125
6. Lexi Graber- Lexi puts the exclamation point on a big floor rotation for Alabama- 9.925
Floor total: 49.450
Rotation 2- Alabama heads to beam
- Alabama remains in third at the halfway point. Crimson Tide will likely either need Utah or Oklahoma to have to count a fall in these final two rotations, or perform to near perfection on vault and floor to advance out of the semifinal.
- Blanco is stunning in her return to the beam, but overall Alabama actually lost ground in the rotation. Oklahoma and Utah were both lights out on bars and floor respectively.
Alabama beam lineup
1. Ella Burgess- Incredible start for Alabama on beam where the Crimson Tide will need to try and make up some ground- 9.8875
2. Shallon Olsen- She has a big balance check during her connection series. She managed to hold on, but Alabama will want to drop this score- 9.725
3. Lexi Graber- Nice response from Graber following the mistakes from Olsen- 9.875
4. Shania Adams- Another solid routine for Alabama from Adams, and she gets Alabama's first 9.9 of the meet- 9.900
5. Lilly Hudson- Would have been a high scoring routine up until the dismount where she nearly fell down. Alabama will have to count a lower score on beam now- 9.600
6. Luisa Blanco- Alabama's best routine in Blanco's return to the beam- 9.9375
Alabama beam total- 49.325
Rotation 1- Alabama (uneven bars), Oklahoma (vault), Minnesota (balance beam), Utah (floor exercise)
- Alabama is in third place after the first rotation behind Utah and Oklahoma.
- This is Alabama's second lowest bars score of the season. While that doesn't look great overall, the judging all around the meet is tougher. For example, No. 1 Oklahoma only got one score of 9.9 or above on vault. However, Alabama will need to score higher on the other three events if it wants to advance.
Alabama bar's lineup
1. Emily Gaskins- Gaskins was a last minute substitution for Shania Adams according to the TV broadcast. She had some leg separation throughout the routine, but stuck the landing on her double layout dismount- 9.800
2. Mati Waligora- A solid routine from Waligora. A slight hop on her dismount- 9.8125
3. Lilly Hudson- Finishes with a stuck landing, but had some slight mistakes throughout- 9.7875
4. Cam Machado- 9.85
5. Makarri Doggette- Alabama's best routine so far- 9.8625
6. Luisa Blanco- Blanco comes up big with a strong finish to Alabama's rotation- 9.875
Team bars total: 49.200
Alabama at NCAA Regional
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