OU women's gymnastics: Four things to know ahead of the Big 12 Championships

Ryan Aber, Oklahoman
·4 min read
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NORMAN — The top-ranked OU women’s gymnastics team starts transitioning to the postseason at 6 p.m. Saturday with the Big 12 Championships in Morgantown, West Virginia.

The meet, which also features No. 13 Denver, Iowa State and West Virginia, will be televised on ESPNU.

Here are four things to know about the Sooners going into the meet:

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Last chance to improve NQS

The conference meet is considered a regular-season event for purposes of calculating the teams’ National Qualifying Scores.

NQS measures the teams’ top six scores — with at least three being road or neutral-site matchups — in each event and overall.

Those scores are used to seed the top 16 teams in the 32-team NCAA field.

The Sooners will host an eight-team NCAA Regional from March 29 to April 2 at Lloyd Noble Center. The field will be announced Monday.

Heading into this weekend’s meet, the Sooners are No. 1 with a 198.3 NQS overall, ahead of No. 2 Michigan — the only team to knock off OU this season.

The Sooners are also tops in vault and uneven bars, second in balance beam and third in the floor exercise.

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OU coach K.J. Kindler, left, talks with Ragan Smith during a women's college gymnastics meet against Florida on March 3 at Lloyd Noble in Norman.
OU coach K.J. Kindler, left, talks with Ragan Smith during a women's college gymnastics meet against Florida on March 3 at Lloyd Noble in Norman.

Conference dominance

The Sooners have won nine of the last 10 Big 12 titles, with the only blemish on their record coming in 2021 when Denver upset OU in Morgantown.

The Sooners have won 18 conference titles, including 12 in the Big 12, under K.J. Kindler.

Kindler is 92-5 against conference opponents during the regular season and conference meets during her career.

Denver is the only current member of the league to have beaten the Sooners under Kindler.

The Pioneers are clearly the biggest threat to OU in the meet, having posted a program-best 198.15 against Towson on March 5.

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Jordan Bowers works on her routine at a University of Oklahoma (OU) Women's Gymnastics practice in Norman on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2023.
Jordan Bowers works on her routine at a University of Oklahoma (OU) Women's Gymnastics practice in Norman on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2023.

Jordan Bowers’ beam improvement

Sophomore Jordan Bowers is ranked No. 6 in the all-around, with a NQS or 39.67.

Bowers’ lofty status is largely due to her improvement on the balance beam.

A year ago, she slid out of the beam lineup and into an alternate role early in the season.

She was scheduled to be an alternate to start this season, before Katherine LeVasseur’s injury opened the door for Bowers to move into the lineup.

Bowers posted a 9.925 on the beam in that meet and has competed in the all-around in all 11 meets this season. The only other Sooners to compete in the all-around this year are Audrey Davis (six times) and Faith Torrez (three).

“Really just gaining confidence for myself and just trusting myself when I go out there,” Bowers said of the key to her improvement on the beam. “I had a few bumps in the road last year on beam, but toward the last half of the season, I really gained confidence in the gym.”

Kindler said Bowers’ improved dismount has been a big key as well, though agreed that confidence was the biggest difference.

“Beam is hugely mental,” Kindler said. “And she’s in a super good place after what she’s done this year. … She’s really worked hard to improve just every little detail.”

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Oklahoma's Olivia Trautman celebrates after competing on the bars during a women's college gymnastics meet between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Florida at Lloyd Noble in Norman, Okla., Friday, March 3, 2023.
Oklahoma's Olivia Trautman celebrates after competing on the bars during a women's college gymnastics meet between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Florida at Lloyd Noble in Norman, Okla., Friday, March 3, 2023.

Olivia Trautman working back on floor

Early in the season as she worked her way back from yet another injury, super senior Olivia Trautman said she would concentrate on returning in three events, with the floor exercise not being in the plans due to the stress on her body.

But with her return going better than expected — Trautman returned on the beam Jan. 29 at Denver, and broke into the vault and uneven bars lineups on Feb. 24 against West Virginia — Trautman has been working on a potential return to the floor.

It won’t likely happen this weekend, especially after Trautman experienced some soreness early in the week after doing half of her routine.

“So I have to be really thoughtful about when I do the next half and how she goes into tumbling,” Kindler said.

But with two weeks off after the conference meet, Trautman could make her return to the floor for regionals.

Trautman last competed on the floor for the Sooners in 2021, when she was a first-team All-American in the all-around and a second-team All-American in the event.

As a freshman in 2019, Trautman earned first-team All-American honors in the floor and was ranked No. 2 nationally in the event.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's gymnastics: Four things to know about Big 12 Championships