Arkansas, Missouri looking to rebound

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas gymnastics team had a heartbreak loss by a tenth of a point last week to Kentucky.

Missouri put a little more pain into its performance that night. The Tigers (1-4) fell by five-hundredths of a point — 196.7 to 196.65 — at No. 14 Auburn last week to drop to 0-3 in SEC action.

Arkansas (0-4, 0-2 SEC) is still looking for its initial victory for first-year Coach Jordyn Wieber and trying to stop a 10-meet SEC losing streak when it faces Missouri today. The 6 p.m. Central meet at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo., will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

The Razorbacks have to disassociate their dual meet losing streak from their performances as they moved up to No. 14 in the national rankings this week.

Weiber’s first four meets have come against teams currently ranked Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 12.

Such is life in SEC gymnastics.

The Razorbacks have not won a dual meet since a rout of No. 18 Arizona last Jan. 12 in Tucson, Ariz. Their last victory over an SEC opponent in a dual meet came in a 196.75-to-194.875 decision over No. 16 Auburn on Feb. 9, 2018.

Since then, the Razorbacks have placed fifth in consecutive SEC championships — beating Kentucky, Auburn and Missouri last year — but have struggled with nine consecutive SEC dual meet losses.

Arkansas will be led by the nation’s No. 4-ranked floor exercise team. Junior Sophia Carter is ninth nationally on the event, while redshirt freshman Bailey Lovett is tied for 31st with Missouri all-around Morgan Porter and others. Arkansas sophomore Kennedy Hambrick, who has improved to 25th in the all-around rankings (39.25), is up to 34th on the floor. Razorbacks junior Sarah Shaffer, who has returned from injury to go up on three events the past two meets, is 52nd on the floor exercise.

The Razorbacks are now in the top 25 nationally in all four events, including 16th on the uneven bars, 22nd on the balance beam and 23rd on the vault.

A series of poor landings on the vault by the Razorbacks last week gave Kentucky enough of a cushion on the opening rotation to hang on as Arkansas blew out a 49.525 showing on the floor exercise.

Missouri’s top even is the beam, where the Tigers’ 49.088 average score is eighth in the country.