Six Oklahoma Gymnasts Land All-America

The No. 1-ranked Sooners open NCAA Regional action next weekend in Norman.

John E. Hoover | Mar 23, 2023

By OU Media Relations

Six members of the No. 1-ranked Oklahoma women's gymnastics team combined for 10 regular season All-America honors from the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA), the organization announced Thursday.

Senior Ragan Smith, juniors Audrey Davis and Katherine LeVasseur, sophomores Jordan Bowers and Danielle Sievers, and freshman Faith Torrez all received recognition from the association.

Regular season All-America honors are based on an individual's final National Qualifying Score (NQS) prior to NCAA regional competition. First-team honorees are ranked 1-8 nationally, and second-team designees are ranked 9-16. Both team honors include ties.

The Sooners have at least two gymnasts recognized on every event, while Bowers represents OU in the all-around.

Bowers leads OU with five regular season honors, earning a spot on the teams for all four events and in the all-around. The Lincoln, NE, native earned first-team honors in the all-around and on beam and floor, and earned second-team recognition on vault and bars. She joins OU legend Maggie Nichols (2017 and ’18) as the only Sooners in program history to garner five All-America honors during a regular season. With seven regular season All-America honors on her resume, Bowers finished the regular season as the fifth-ranked all-arounder in the nation and No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference.

Joining Bowers on vault as All-Americans were LeVasseur and Sievers, who both earned first-team honors. LeVasseur, the 2023 Big 12 Event Specialist of the Year, earned her second straight regular season All-America honor on vault and third overall. The San Antonio native finished the regular season as the No. 4 vaulter in the nation after earning a pair of perfect 10s this season. Sievers earned her first regular season All-America honor after tying for eighth overall in the nation on the event.

For the third consecutive season, Davis earned first-team honors on bars, marking her fourth regular season All-America honor overall. She finished the regular season tied for sixth on bars nationally and first in the conference.

Smith, the No. 5-ranked gymnast on beam and first in the Big 12, picked up regular season first-team honors on beam for the second consecutive year. The Lewisville, TX, product earned three perfect scores this season, including her second Big 12 beam title last weekend. Smith has earned four career 10.0s to rank fifth in OU career history.

Torrez, the 2023 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, earned her first All-America honor with first-team recognition on floor. She is tied for eighth overall on floor and has been the top freshman on the event for the past five weeks.

The Sooners will have the weekend off before hosting the NCAA Norman Regional March 29-April 1 inside Lloyd Noble Center. OU is the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Championships and will face No. 16 seed Ohio State, Arkansas (which is ranked No. 17) and the winner of Ball State/NC State in the second round next Thursday, March 30 at 6:45 p.m.

Published Mar 23, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.