“Our goal was to come in and win the session,” KJ Kindler said on Thursday afternoon after doing just that. “We talked about it last night. Baker Mayfield gave us a little pep talk.”
The former Oklahoma and current NFL quarterback encouraged the Sooners to “wake up feeling dangerous,” Olivia Trautman said. The Sooners have oriented each meet around pep talks from legends, and Mayfield called the team to help it prepare for the semifinal.
The advice certainly paid off. The Sooners maintain their No. 1 ranking heading into the team final on Saturday after a dominant performance and the only 198 of the semifinal round. Utah will join Oklahoma out of semifinal one after topping Alabama and Minnesota on the heels of another lights-out beam rotation.
Oklahoma started out a bit off its usual pace on vault and opted to put Audrey Davis in the anchor spot. Davis hadn’t vaulted since March, and not at all during postseason. She was slated as the alternate.
“Audrey always knows that that is a possibility. It’s something that we’ve actually planned to do during the season, but we have never done it until today. So kudos to her because I pulled her out of the corral, and I said you’re up!” Kindler said.
Davis wasn’t phased. A seasoned competitor and the assigned alternate, she had been staying warm just in case. Her Yurchenko full added a 9.800 and allowed the Sooners to drop a 9.650.
The Sooners had another new lineup in rotation two, when Trautman stepped into the bars top six for the first time this year. Her dismount landing irritates her knee injury, so Kindler has been slow to add her back to that group and limits her dismounts in practice.
“We’ve made some really difficult decisions here at the end knowing that we have to go for it; we have to really put our strongest minds up there. Olivia has been coming along all season, but she has not competed until tonight,” Kindler said.
The gamble paid off. Trautman performed well and the team notched a 49.575 on the event, using stuck landings and precise handstands to take the lead from Utah, which had been out ahead after one.
Davis wasn’t surprised that Trautman re-entered the lineup with a bang. “Whenever Olivia raises her hand, everyone knows that she’s gonna hit and everyone trusts her to do what she knows how to do,” she said.
The Utes, meanwhile, started the meet on floor, which is a unique challenge, according to Tom Farden.
“You’ve got the adrenaline, but you also have to have the performance quality. You’ve got some nervousness. We really felt the athletes handled it well.”
A 49.475 on the event was enough to be leading the field going into the second rotation. Utah competes five 10.0 start value vaults, and Farden was pleased with the way the Utes’ floor energy carried into the second rotation, especially with Maile O’Keefe’s massive Yurchenko full to kick the group off.
“It’s really nice starting with Maile because her vault is huge, so it gives us that starting point,” Jayden Rucker said of O’Keefe’s performance. Rucker herself nailed her Yurchenko one and a half, getting massive height and becoming the NCAA champion on the event for the second time in her career.
The Utes’ strong rotation wasn’t enough to keep pace with Oklahoma on bars, though, and they fell to second heading into the second half of the meet. In rotation three, the Sooners were clean and consistent on beam while Utah had some missteps on bars.
Farden said half of his lineup failed to work with the bar, and he’ll do some technical coaching before the final to improve that lineup.
Meanwhile, Kindler also sees areas for improvement in her team’s beam routines in rotation three. Jenna Dunn started off with a falter on her dismount, and the rest of the lineup had her back. Still, Kindler sees little errors as a place where the Sooners can gain tenths on Saturday.
Heading into the final rotation, Oklahoma and Utah were comfortably ahead of Alabama and Minnesota. The Sooners ended the meet on floor, a first for them in the 2022 postseason, and Utah headed to its best event in beam.
“They brought balance beam as a weapon for Utah; we needed one. I mean, we have a strategy in how we put this program together in the last several years, and this is part of it,” Farden said of his beam lineup, which notched the highest total on the event across both semifinals.
Utah’s beam rotation wasn’t enough to catch the Sooners, who were on a roll, but the Utes did increase their lead over the rest of the field significantly.
On the off day between semifinals and finals, both teams will stick to a routine, the student-athletes will handle some schoolwork and there will be some team activities.
“We’re going to Disney World. We’ll be back,” Kindler joked.
In all seriousness, Kindler firmly believes her No. 1 Sooners are underrated, and the winner on Saturday will come down to whichever team hits under the pressure.
“No one’s expecting us to win this. That’s what I believe. And I think we can do it,” she said.
Article by Emily Minehart
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“It’s really nice starting with Maile because her vault is huge, so it gives us that starting point,” Jayden Rucker said of O’Keefe’s performance. Rucker herself nailed her Yurchenko one and a half, getting massive height and becoming the NCAA champion on the event for the second time in her career.
Is this an error?
I don’t think Rucker has ever been VT champion. She’s a junior. 2020 was cancelled , 2021 it was Bryant and Webb. This is her first championship.