What We’re Talking About
We have champions! We’ll start with the individuals. Your 2022 all-around champion is Trinity Thomas, who posted a 39.8125 on Thursday to secure the title. Runner-up was Sunisa Lee with a 39.6750. Trinity also took home titles on floor with her perfect 10 routine and uneven bars with a 9.9750. Suni took home the title on balance beam with a 9.9625. And your 2022 vault champion with a 9.9625 is Jaedyn Rucker; who stuck her Yurchenko 1.5 in the first session (the only gymnast from the morning session to leave Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX with a national title).
The advancing teams to the final four were Oklahoma, Florida, Auburn and Utah. …And what an incredible final it was. After the first rotation Oklahoma posted a 49.1875, their worst event total on floor exercise of the entire season. Utah led the competition, followed by Auburn, Florida and finally Oklahoma. The Sooners needed to be lights out if they were going to climb back into contention. Challenge accepted! Oklahoma went from their worst floor rotation of the entire season to post their best vault session of 2022 with a 49.6625. They followed that up with their second highest uneven bars score of the season and then hit beam with their third highest beam score of the season. Reminder: This was with six judges scoring compared to the two-judge scores from the regular season. An incredible amount of composure by the Sooners to execute the cleanest gymnastics of the day and securing the program’s 5th National Championship title.
Feelings
- Spencer should get a ring for being Oklahoma’s muse, right?
- If states want to keep attacking human rights, the arenas will continue to have a lot of empty seats.
- The NCAA needs to respect individual titles like team titles.
- Not showing individual scores in the arena is a dereliction of duty.
- Michigan deserved better, but the best performances advanced.
- Everyone should take note of Raena Worley’s technique of singing along to Beyonce while doing her beam routine in the NCAA final.
- If she wasn’t already, K.J. Kindler is now on the Mount Rushmore of women’s gymnastics coaches.
- Ragan Smith deserves every ounce of joy she’s feeling right now.
- Don’t wear a predominantly white leotard in NCAA finals.
- If you want to win a national championship you need 10.0 vaults and you need to hit them.
- Auburn’s 4th place finish was more than the Suni-effect, but being under the spotlight all season surely helped.
- It should be a crime that the NCAA hasn’t posted the scores for the National Championship almost a week after individual champions were crowned.
Facts
- Three of the top five all-arounders were Florida Gators: Trinity, Megan Skaggs (3rd!), and Leanne Wong (5th). The other two you might have heard of: Suni (2nd) and Jade Carey (4th).
- Trinity waited for 14 minutes while the podium got fixed then won the national bars title right after. Stone cold killer.
- Student manager Shea Wheeler of Florida is a hero.
- Auburn concluded the best season in program history.
- Jade Carey announced she’s continuing elite.
- So did Jordan Chiles.
- Trinity mentioned that she’s inspired by her elite teammates and might give it another go.
- Melanie de Jesus dos Santos will train with Cecile and Laurent Landi in preparation for the 2024 Olympics.
- Gymnastics still isn’t getting the respect it deserves by big media rights holders. It was bumped to an earlier time to accommodate NHL and it outperformed hockey by 29% in ratings.
- We’re getting new head coaches in college. Clemson is about to announce their first head coach and Chris Waller from UCLA has resigned.
- Leanne has a strong bow game.
Award(s)
- Childhood Love of Gymnastics Embodied Award: Missouri (team)
- Best Use of an Accessory in a Business Venture: Leanne Wong’s Bow Boutique
- Best Use of the Moment to Shine: Adeline Kenlin (BB) , Kyla Bryant (FX)
What’s On the Socials?
https://twitter.com/TheBBSituation/status/1515417659856367622?s=20&t=KKlN56bM0CuYM_4kwmOhfQ
Beam National Champ! https://t.co/uMBaSbiNev
— GymCastic (@GymCastic) April 15, 2022
Your UB National Champion. https://t.co/t6ptGhDPGV
— GymCastic (@GymCastic) April 15, 2022
Your vault national champion! https://t.co/PHft7MbL5V
— GymCastic (@GymCastic) April 15, 2022
https://twitter.com/SECNetwork/status/1514762512138477576?s=20&t=KKlN56bM0CuYM_4kwmOhfQ
https://twitter.com/StanfordWGym/status/1514673012062130177?s=20&t=4dbcOc12FuHSLsK6PPHhYA
Leveled up. https://t.co/4PBeVOI1TJ
— GymCastic (@GymCastic) April 10, 2022
Quotes
“I was locked in.” ~ Ragan Smith, Badass
Ragan describing her lights out balance beam routine to seal the team title while the crowd roared for Trinity’s perfect 10 on floor.
♦
“I was reading the Balance Beam Situation articles—we read the internet, all of us do whether we admit to it or not. I saw that and immediately sent it to my senior class and said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’” ~ Carly Woodard, Sooner Genius
Carly being a true leader took the bulletin board material that Spencer offered up (see photo of K.J. in the above tweet) and used it, along with her teammates, to fuel their desire to prove you don’t need an Olympic roster to win a national title.
♦
“I’ve never seen anything like that, just routine after routine near perfect, or perfect. It was unbelievable.” ~ Alyssa Baumann, Super Senior
Alyssa explaining how special Trinity is with her mastery of the sport.
♦
“We’ll see.” ~ Trinity Thomas, Legend
Trinity responding to whether or not she’ll take her Covid year and return next season.
♦♦♦
What? You want even more? Join Club Gym Nerd and you get a bonus episode every Friday at noon Pacific (although we’re taking this week off) and you get access to all of our archives. Then we give the sober analysis on Monday (or Tuesday) after we’ve allowed the data to penetrate our feelings.
This column was composed and compiled by Steve Cooper, Editor, GymCastic; as performed by hosts Jessica O’Beirne and Spencer Barnes.