Oklahoma Sooners advance to NCAA women's gymnastics finals with Utah, LSU and Florida

FORT WORTH, Texas — Jenna Dunn and Olivia Trautman have started off the balance beam with a bang so many times in recent years.

Thursday in the NCAA women’s gymnastics semifinals, Dunn and Trautman came through in a major way once again, bouncing back from disastrous routines in the regional finals.

Dunn’s and Trautman’s performances helped key the way for the top-ranked Sooners to advance to Saturday’s 3 p.m. finals with a 198.1625.

OU, which finished behind fifth-ranked Utah at 198.225, is in the finals for the 10th consecutive season.

LSU and Florida advanced from the first semifinal.

April 1, Dunn and Trautman fell off the beam in consecutive performances, putting the Sooners streak of making the championships in dire straits.

OU dug out of that hole to win and advance.

Thursday, both were excellent.

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Dunn started off the second rotation with a 9.9125, her highest score since late January.

Then Trautman followed with a near-perfect 9.95 to tie a career high in the event.

“There was no way they were going to do anything but that,” Sooners coach K.J. Kindler said of Dunn and Trautman.

Kindler said in the days leading up to the event that she was thrilled with the way the pair had responded to their struggles at regionals.

“I was super happy with the routine I hit tonight,” Trautman said. “After me and Jenna made that mistake last week, we did a lot of numbers in the gym, going back to all the basics and just the little things that we know that we needed to get better on. … Tonight we just came in with confidence and trusted our training that we did throughout the week and I’m just super proud of her and proud of myself.”

After sitting in third place after the first rotation, the Sooners moved up to second following their 49.55 on the beam.

Here are four other takeaways from the semifinals:

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Olivia Trautman takes vault title

After she hit her landing on the vault to close the Sooners’ night, Trautman embraced OU vault coach Lou Ball.

“We did it,” Ball told Trautman. “You did it.”

She sure did.

Trautman earned a 9.95 in the event, tying her career high and edging Denver’s Lynnzee Brown and Boise State’s Courtney Blackson for the individual championship in the event.

Brown and Blackson each posted 9.925 scores in the first semifinal.

Trautman’s title was even more special given how far away competing in the vault seemed to be before the season, much less winning a national title.

Doctors recommended Trautman medically retire after she suffered yet another injury in the leadup to her fifth season at OU.

“It means so much,” Trautman said. “Every opportunity I get to compete, I’m just super thankful that I get to do that. Gymnastics wasn’t really in the picture at the beginning of the year so just to have those opportunities with the girls is just something amazing and I’m so happy to be a part of.”

Trautman is OU’s first individual champion since Anastasia Webb won the all-around, vault and floor titles in 2021.

Maggie Nichols, Brenna Dowell, Nicole Lehrmann, Taylor Spears and Kelly Garrison are the only other Sooners’ gymnasts to win individual titles.

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Floor performance lifts OU to the top

The Sooners completed the comeback in the third rotation, with a string of scores of 9.9 or better on the floor exercise.

Audrey Davis started with a 9.9, Ragan Smith followed with a 9.925, Jordan Bowers with a 9.95 and Danielle Sievers a 9.9375. Freshman Faith Torrez then posted a 9.95 to not only put OU ahead, but to give the Sooners a bit of margin heading into the final rotation.

The Sooners were in third place after the first rotation, posting a 49.4875 on the uneven bars.

It was OU’s lowest score in the event since Jan. 16.

Ragan Smith highlighted the event for the Sooners with a 9.925, her highest score since Feb. 24 against West Virginia.

While Trautman finished the vault strong, the Sooners struggled some there on landings, leading to an uncharacteristic 49.4625 in the event, opening the door for the Utes to pass OU in the final rotation.

“It came down to the last rotation so we just kind of battled it out,” Smith said. “It was amazing just competing with other teams, just watching their strengths.”

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OU gymnastics gets big gift

Before OU’s women’s gymnastics team got started in the second session of the NCAA semifinals on Thursday at Dickies Arena, it was already a big day for the Sooners.

OU alum Michael Wilson made a $1 million donation in support of men’s and women’s gymnastics at the school, it was announced Thursday morning.

The money will go toward the $12 million expansion and renovation project at the Sam Viersen Gymnastics Training Center.

Wilson, a 1979 graduate, was a five-time All-American with the Sooners, winning the NCAA floor exercise championship his final season at the school.

He previously donated $300,000 toward the project.

The expansion and renovation proposal includes new team suites, recovery areas, meeting rooms and sports performance spaces.

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Florida, LSU advance in first NCAA semifinal

The first semifinal earlier Thursday went down to the wire, with a pair of SEC programs battling it out.

LSU edged Florida, 197.475-197.400, as both advanced to Saturday’s championship round. California and Denver were eliminated.

The Gators led going into the final rotation, before LSU turned in a 49.475 on the uneven bars to leap past Florida, who finished with a 49.3 in the vault.

The rotation was highlighted by Haleigh Bryant’s 9.9375 for LSU, the second-highest bars score of the opening session.

Florida’s Trinity Thomas, who was injured in the floor exercise at regionals, competed in the vault and bars, scoring 9.9 and 9.95 in the events.

Thomas entered the event as the reigning NCAA all-around champion.

The Sooners knocked off Florida 197.950-197.700 on March 3 at Lloyd Noble Center. They beat LSU 197.600-197.450 on Jan. 16 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's gymnastics: Sooners, Utah advance to NCAA Championships