Alabama’s best event was beam with a 49.5, Florida’s high was on bars at 49.45 and Georgia’s best effort was on beam with a 49.3625.
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LSU and Georgia qualified for the finals in the early session, giving the Southeastern Conference four teams in the Super Six.
A year after finishing third as an undefeated No. 1 seed, Oklahoma was the top-ranked team again and scored 197.675 points to hold off a late surge by second-place LSU on the final event and win the school’s second team title Saturday night.
This was the Crimson Tide’s 34 consecutive NCAA Championship appearance and its NCAA-best 22 Super Six berth.
LSU opened with a 49.1250 on bars, highlighted by a 9.85 from Myia Hambrick, a 9.8375 from Shae Zamardi and 9.8125s from Jessica Savona, Ashleigh Gnat and Lexie Priessman. Georgia’s Brandie Jay and Alabama’s Katie Bailey tied for the vault title (9.95).
Through three rotations with each team having competed on two events, Alabama sat atop the standings with a 98.7000, just ahead of OU’s 98.6750.
Sloan, a former U.S. Olympian who came in with three NCAA individual event titles, finished the first session leading the all-around at 39.7.
In Sloan’s final event, she scored a 9.9375 on the bars, garnering a 10 score from one judge.
The second through fourth-place teams were separated by a tenth of a point on the final day of competition, but Florida coach Jenny Rowland said despite the slight miscues the team is OK with the result. “But at the same time, I know they looked back and there were no regrets from anybody”. Denver’s Nina McGee won floor exercise, also at 9.95. “I’ve always believed that chemistry wins championships”.
“I don’t think we were really thinking a lot about past year”, Gnat said. He was fifth in the all-around a year ago.
Alabama is now the only team in the country to finish in the top four at the NCAA Championships the last eight years in a row. “Everyone in that room has worked hard, but this group in particular has a little extra something when it comes to their chemistry that I can’t really describe”, Kindler said.
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The Tigers posted a 49.3375 on beam, the highest beam total at the NCAA Championships in school history.
