SENIOR NIGHT
Oklahoma looked to cap an undefeated regular season as it hosted Alabama on Friday during Senior Night
NORMAN — The No. 11-ranked team in women's gymnastics came into Lloyd Noble Center on Friday night and posted its best score of the season. Still, No. 1 Oklahoma rolled to victory yet again, staying undefeated with a 198.275-197.250 win over Alabama in front of 4,172 fans. It was the final regular-season home meet for Brenna Dowell, and Dowell got off to a great start, nailing a perfect 10 on the vault — the first 10 on vault during her senior season for the defending NCAA vault champion. Dowell had struggled with her landings in the event this season. “I'd stuck a lot in practice,” Dowell said. But after sticking the landing on her warm-up routine before the meet, Dowell felt good about her chances and repeated the feat when it counted. Dowell came up big late in the meet with a careerhigh 9.925 on the beam, an event the Sooners had struggled with at times recently. After failing to clear a 49.200 on the beam in the last three meets before last weekend, Oklahoma has posted three consecutive scores of at least 49.475, including Friday's 49.575. After leading off on the event at Michigan last Saturday and Iowa State on Monday with Olivia Trautman out with an injury, Dowell returned to her familiar No. 2 spot on the beam. Before the meet, Sooners coach K.J. Kindler asked Dowell if she wanted to stay in the leadoff role. “That's OK, Olivia can start,” Dowell told her, convincing Kindler to move Trautman back to the first slot. Competing right behind Dowell, another senior, Nicole Lehrmann came through with a 9.900. Lehrmann altered her beam routine in mid-February. Since then, four of her five scores have been at least 9.875. Lehrmann's change allowed her to be more aggressive on the beam, something Kindler said has been key to the Sooners' across-the-board better scores on the beam recently. “My flick lay's always been a very consistent thing for me,” Lehrmann said. “It's something I've done for a really long time. I know it like the back of my hand vs. the triple series, which was something different, something I had to think about. So when you go out there and compete a skill you've done for seven years or something like that it's much easier to focus on being aggressive vs. something you're kind of nervous about because it's brand new.” The Sooners (17-0) finished the regular season undefeated for the sixth time under Kindler. “We have fought and clawed our way through it,” Kindler said. “It may not seem that as an undefeated team ranked No. 1. That sounds like it was easy, but it has not been easy. No week has been easy. Every week the lineups have changed. We've been challenged by something new. “I'm really proud of of how they've grown over the course of this year probably more than any other year. We're possibly more prepared than we ever have been for postseason because so many people can step in and have experience.”