money 'We can pull this off': Secretariat story inspires OU to rally for fifth NCAA women's gymnastics championship
FORT WORTH, Texas — After the first rotation in Saturday’s NCAA women’s gymnastics finals at Dickies Arena, OU senior Carly Woodard turned to some of her teammates and recalled the team’s “legend of the meet.”
Secretariat, the legendary race horse.
“He came out the gate last in every single race he had,” Woodard said. “So that was kind of going through my head. … We still have this. We can build this momentum on the next three events and we can pull this off.
“And that’s exactly what we did.”
After a dismal start that had the Sooners in last place after the floor exercise, OU stormed back to claim the program’s fifth national championship, beating Florida 198.2-198.0875 in a finish that came down to the wire.
It didn’t take long for the Sooners to turn the momentum back in their favor.
Two days before, OU started off slow on the vault, then bounced back with a trio of strong performances to capture the semifinal and advance to Saturday’s finale.
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In that meet, Sooners coach K.J. Kindler highlighted Baker Mayfield as the legend, and the team meeting even included a phone call from Mayfield himself.
There was no such call, obviously, from Secretariat, but the lessons highlighted paved the way for the Sooners.
OU posted a season-low 49.1875 on the floor to start the meet, placing their backs against the wall.
But seeing how Woodard and others responded in the moments before moving to the vault, Kindler didn’t feel the need for any inspiring speech despite a .325 deficit after the first event.
“There wasn’t a lot that needed to be said,” Kindler said. “Their heads were in the right spot. It wasn’t about, ‘Oh no,’ it was more about, ‘Let’s go.’”
After Allie Stern started off with a 9.9 on the vault, Katherine LeVasseur put the comeback into overdrive with a 9.975 in the No. 2 spot.
During the vault rotation two days before, LeVasseur posted a season-low 9.65.
“I just think that kind of fueled everybody,” Kindler said of LeVasseur’s vault. “Didn’t feel like we got to show our true selves in that event (Thursday).”
The momentum kept up from there, including from Jordan Bowers’ 9.9375 directly after LeVasseur’s and then Olivia Trautman’s 9.9625 two spots later that helped give the Sooners a 49.6625 in the vault — a season high and the highest score in the event during the NCAA Championships in program history.
Then on the bars, the Sooners seized control, leaping from third place into the lead.
Freshman Dani Sievers started with a 9.975, followed by a 9.9375 from LeVasseur to continue her big day.
By the time Bowers celebrated her stuck landing in the No. 5 spot by pumping both fists, ultimately scoring a 9.95, momentum was firmly in OU’s favor.
But with Florida and Utah close behind, there was little room for error heading into the final rotation.
A year ago, it was Michigan closing out a championship on the balance beam as the Sooners’ comeback came up just short on the floor exercise.
This time, though, it was OU sealing a national title on the beam.
The Sooners closed with five consecutive performances of 9.9 or better to clinch the championship.
It wasn’t easy, though.
The Gators made a strong push, and narrowed the gap with NCAA all-around champion Trinity Thomas’ perfect 10 on the floor in the No. 5 spot.
Thomas’ score posted just as OU’s closer, Ragan Smith, was about to start her critical series on the beam.
With the large contingent of Gators fans — and plenty of others in attendance — cheering loudly for Thomas’ score, Smith kept her cool and nailed her series, then her dismount, to clinch the title.
Smith didn’t wait for her score to celebrate, letting out a scream and running off the platform for her teammates.
“I thought I did everything I could in that beam routine,” Smith said.
When her 9.9625 posted, it didn’t matter what Florida’s Payton Richards scored. OU was national champions.
“I don’t know if you guys have seen anything like that before but I personally have not,” Kindler said as she sat down to begin her post-meet press conference. “What fight, what heart. What heart they had to fight back after floor. Didn’t count themselves out.”
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Smith said she didn’t hear the crowd’s reaction to Thomas’ score.
Kindler then pulled out a sheet of paper that had been hanging in the Sooners’ locker room at the event.
The quote printed on it had been plastered across the OU gymnastics facility for much of the year.
“If there is a year when it is actually safe to predict Oklahoma not winning, this is the year,” the paper read, quoting a preseason preview of the Sooners on a gymnastics website.
Saturday, it was the super senior Woodard who encouraged her teammates to remember the pre-meet lesson.
In the preseason, it was Woodard who found the quote.
“We read the internet. All of us do, whether we admit to it or not,” Woodard said. “And I saw that and immediately sent it to my senior class, and was like, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Woodard’s roommates, Allie Stern and Emma LaPinta, came up with the plan to print out the quote — and others — and hang them where they and their teammates would see it constantly.
It helped fuel the Sooners after a mid-January loss at Utah, then a late February defeat at Florida.
But when it mattered most, OU was on top.
“Love being in those meets that are tight,” Kindler said. “Where they get their back pushed to the wall and they respond.”
More: How does the Sooners' 2022 NCAA title team compare to OU's other women's gymnastics champions?
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's gymnastics: Sooners rally to win fifth NCAA championship
