The University of Alabama gymnastics team, ranked third nationally, achieved a season-high score of 197.950 in its win over No. 8 Arkansas on Friday night at Coleman Coliseum. The event, known as the Power of Pink meet, saw Alabama surpass Arkansas’s 196.900 and record a total that ties for the sixth best in program history and is the highest since the 2024 season.
Alabama gymnasts claimed all individual honors across events. Senior Gabby Gladieux led with three titles: balance beam, floor exercise, and all-around. Chloe LaCoursiere shared the uneven bars title with Azaraya Ra-Akbar, who also won vault and shared balance beam honors with Gladieux and Jasmine Cawley.
Head coach Ashley Johnston commented on the team’s performance: “What a fun night that was! First, I just want to thank everybody sitting in here and our entire Tuscaloosa community for being so loud and proud tonight. We could really feel the energy in the air and it was just so positive and uplifting. It made a huge difference [for our team], starting from our march in with our fighters and survivors and just carrying it throughout the entire meet. It was really a magical night.
“What I’m most proud of is how our team handled adversity throughout this week. We had our fair share of sickness and some different uncharacteristic things that came up, on top of having a couple of weird mistakes during the meet, but we never let it phase us. And that’s been a word that we continue to talk about – being unphased and being relentless. So, I was most proud of how our team really brought that alive [tonight] and was steady throughout the entire competition. We competed with fierce joy, we were focused and mission driven, but we also had a lot of fun tonight. That’s the recipe for this team, and we’re going to continue to find that blend as we go into this next phase of the season. So overall, huge step in a really exciting direction, and we’re hungry for more.”
Freshman gymnasts played an important role on vault as Ra-Akbar scored 9.975—a career high—and McKenzie Matters earned 9.925 in her debut on the apparatus, contributing to Alabama’s season-best rotation score of 49.500.
LaCoursiere has now posted scores of at least 9.925 in every meet this season across all events she has competed in.
Ra-Akbar recorded scores above 9.900 on each of her three events for the third time this year.
Five Crimson Tide gymnasts either tied or set new career-high marks during Friday’s competition:
– Jasmine Cawley matched her bests on beam (9.900) and floor (9.875).
– Gabby Gladieux tied her career high on floor (9.975).
– Chloe LaCoursiere tied her best floor score (9.925) while setting a new personal best all-around (39.500).
– McKenzie Matters scored 9.925 on vault.
– Azaraya Ra-Akbar achieved her top mark on vault (9.975).
In event breakdowns:
– On vault, Matters debuted with a strong performance while Ra-Akbar improved her previous week’s score.
– On uneven bars, LaCoursiere and Ra-Akbar both scored 9.950.
– Three gymnasts—LaCoursiere, Cawley, Gladieux—scored 9.900 each on balance beam.
– Gladieux anchored floor exercise with another near-perfect routine at 9.975; LaCoursiere (9.925) and Ra-Akbar (9.900) added strong scores as well.
Alabama will face Auburn next Friday at Auburn Arena; coverage begins at 7:45 p.m CT live on SEC Network.
