OU women's gymnastics: Three takeaways from Sooners' win over BYU, Utah State, TWU

NORMAN — There wasn’t any drama this time.

But the top-ranked OU women’s gymnastics team added some late, tying the second-best score in program history on the floor exercise and the fifth-best overall score, blasting BYU, Utah State and Texas Woman’s with a 198.450 on Friday at Lloyd Noble Center.

BYU finished second with a 196.250, while Utah State finished third with a 195.000 and TWU fourth with 194.575.

Two weeks earlier, the Sooners needed a strong close on the floor to keep their home winning streak intact in a victory over Denver.

Friday, they needed no such strong finish to pull out the victory on Eras Night, with Taylor Swift’s music being front and center.

Only two non-OU athletes bested Bell Johnson’s 9.900 in the second spot on the final rotation.

But the score, which would’ve led plenty of teams, wasn’t even enough to count for OU.

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Audrey Davis started with a 9.925 before Johnson followed with her 9.900.

Ragan Smith then posted a 9.950, Katherine LeVasseur turned in a 9.975 to ultimately win the event and Faith Torrez and Jordan Bowers closed with back-to-back 9.950s.

“I think it starts with the crowd,” LeVasseur said. “It was an amazing experience and they had a lot of energy going into it.”

The 49.750 on the floor tied the Sooners’ score last season vs. Arizona State. The program record in the event is 49.825, set in 2019 vs. Florida.

The wins stretched OU’s home winning streak to 79. They came on the 10th anniversary of the Sooners’ last home loss.

Here are two more takeaways from the Sooners’ victory:

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Meilin Sullivan comes up big

Going into Friday’s meet, Meilin Sullivan had competed just twice for the Sooners — both times as a vault specialist in 2022.

But the senior came up huge Friday, with a 9.900 on the uneven bars after Dani Sievers went through warmups but was unable to compete due to illness. Sullivan also made her debut on the balance beam, posting a 9.700.

“Definitely tonight she deserved every bit of that,” Ragan Smith said. “It was just amazing just to watch her shine on bars and beam.”

Sooners coach K.J. Kindler said Sullivan was “knocking on the door” of a permanent spot in the bars lineup.

When Sullivan arrived at OU ahead of the 2021 season, she suffered from myocarditis in the wake of a bout with COVID-19.

“At the time, we knew very little about COVID and what we did know is that she had that and she was told she could do no activity for four months — and when I say none, I mean she couldn’t go for a walk,” Kindler said.

That kept Sullivan out as a freshman and then she was hurt each of the last two seasons.

“It was heartbreaking actually,” Kindler said. “And she just kept coming in and coming back and rehabbing and coming back from these injuries. It’s a very difficult thing to do gymnastics and then to watch your friends do it when you can’t do it is frustrating and she always did it with patience of an angel. She was just always there supporting them and you never heard a peep or complaint from her.”

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K.J. Kindler shuffles the vault lineup

One of Kindler’s biggest goals coming in was to have a better vault warmup and vault rotation to start the meet after a season-low 49.175 two weeks ago against Denver followed with a 49.250 last week at Arizona State.

“We only did half that,” Kindler said.

At least it was the important half, as the Sooners posted a 49.550 — their second-best score of the season in the event.

Kindler shuffled the lineup, moving Faith Torrez from the anchor spot into the No. 2 slot while sliding freshman Hannah Scheible back to anchor while shuffling the rest of the order some behind leadoff vaulter Audrey Davis.

The moves paid off, as freshman Keira Wells posted a season-high 9.925 in the No. 3 spot followed by Jordan Bowers’ season-high 9.975 and LeVasseur’s season-high 9.975 in the next two spots.

LeVasseur slipped on her warmup, sliding off the table.

“She crashed,” Kindler said.

LeVasseur’s move down the lineup gave her a few extra moments to collect herself before turning in her best vault of the season.

“Luckily I had some time to just calm myself down,” LeVasseur said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU Sooners women's gymnastics beats BYU, Utah State and Texas Woman’s