| 2021 OKLAHOMA ROSTER |
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| Seniors | ||
| Jordan Draper |
UB FX |
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| Evy Schoepfer |
VT BB FX |
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| Karrie Thomas |
UB BB |
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| Anastasia Webb |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Carly Woodard |
BB |
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| Juniors |
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| Emma LaPinta |
FX |
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| Allie Stern |
VT FX |
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| Olivia Trautman |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Sophomores | ||
| Vanessa Deniz |
UB BB FX |
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| Jenna Dunn |
BB |
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| Erin Hutchison |
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| Ragan Smith |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Freshmen | ||
| Audrey Davis |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Julianne Fehring |
VT UB FX |
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| Danae Fletcher |
VT UB FX |
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| Bell Johnson | VT UB FX |
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| Katherine LeVasseur | VT UB BB FX |
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| Audrey Lynn | VT |
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| Sheridan Ramsey | VT |
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| Quinn Smith | VT UB BB FX |
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| Meilin Sullivan |
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RANKING HISTORY
2020 – 1st
2019 – 1st
2018 – 2nd
2017 – 1st
2016 – 1st
2015 – 3rd
2014 – 1st
2013 – 2nd
2012 – 7th
2011 – 3rd
THE 2020 STORY
The 2020 season doesn’t count as a championship because there wasn’t one, but as the team holding the #1 ranking when everything shut down, Oklahoma gets to claim the closest thing the 2020 season had to a title. At least, 2020 can count as the fourth season out of the last five in which Oklahoma has been the #1 team.
DEPARTING ROUTINES
Maggie Nichols – VT, UB, BB, FX
Jade Degouveia – VT, UB, FX
Brehanna Showers – [VT, UB, BB, FX]
Brooke Weins – VT
INCOMING ROUTINES
Audrey Davis – VT, UB, BB, FX
Katherine LeVasseur – VT, UB, BB, FX
Quinn Smith – VT, UB, BB, FX
Danae Fletcher – VT, UB, FX
Julianne Fehring – VT, UB, FX
Bell Johnson – VT, UB, FX
Sheridan Ramsey – VT
2021 PROJECTION
Steady.
It’s popular to predict a regression for Oklahoma in 2021 because of the not having Maggie Nichols (and Jade Degouveia) that’s going on, but I don’t see it, at least not to a degree that’s going to change Oklahoma’s position in the hierarchy. Of course, not having those auto-10s from Nichols will be a blow to every lineup, but the team is deep enough thanks to this 814-person freshman class that these lineups can still be nation-beating even without Nichols.
VAULT
2020 Event Ranking: 1
| Lineup locks: Olivia Trautman, Anastasia Webb, Allie Stern |
| Lineup options: Katherine LeVasseur, Quinn Smith, Evy Schoepfer, Julianne Fehring, Ragan Smith, Audrey Davis, Danae Fletcher, Audrey Lynn, Bell Johnson, Sheridan Ramsey |
Oklahoma has made a name for its “oops all 10.0 starts!” vaulting team recently, but there’s work to do to keep that up in 2021 with the departure of two of the team’s best vaults from Nichols and Degouveia. Nonetheless, Oklahoma will have Olivia Trautman, Anastasia Webb, and Allie Stern all returning with 9.9+ able Y1.5s. Trautman got two 10.0s in five vaults last year, and Webb went into the 9.9s on nine of eleven occasions.
Several freshmen have Y1.5s that they will hope allow them to join the exclusive club this year, and I’d expect to see Katherine LeVasseur, Quinn Smith, and maybe Julianne Fehring get in there. Yet, Evy Schoepfer’s tucked Y1.5 finally rose to the level required to break into Oklahoma’s lineup last season, so that vault won’t necessarily be easy for the freshmen to displace. They’ll have to be on it.
As for other vaulters, there’s always Ragan Smith, who led off sometimes with her full last season, but Oklahoma will still hope to classify that as a backup vault rather than a postseason-lineup vault. A similar story will apply to the other athletes with fulls and various non-10.0s. The plan will be to avoid using them, but they exist.
BARS
2020 Event Ranking: 1
| Lineup locks: Ragan Smith, Audrey Davis, Anastasia Webb, Karrie Thomas |
| Lineup options: Olivia Trautman, Danae Fletcher, Quinn Smith, Katherine LeVasseur, Vanessa Deniz, Jordan Draper, Bell Johnson, Julianne Fehring |
Similarly to vault, Oklahoma has lost the two highest NQSs from its nation-leading 2020 bars team (you know that thing where Jade Degouveia’s best event was suddenly bars?) but does return quite a competitive crew, this one led by Ragan Smith.
The Sooners will add Audrey Davis to the mix, who has end-of-the-lineup talent on this event, and Anastasia Webb and Karrie Thomas will certainly return. Thomas missed some time last season but remains easily a top-6 bars worker on this squad.
Olivia Trautman has always been on of those “I guess maybe bars for her too?” types since it’s her weakest piece, but she came into the bars lineup last season when unable to do anything else and started racking up the big scores there as well. Trautman has made a strong case for herself to return to the bars lineup this time around. Beyond that, both Vanessa Deniz and Jordan Draper had moments last season on bars, so you wouldn’t be surprised if they’re next in line on the Oklahoma bars evolution conveyor belt, but you could also see several additional freshmen emerge as bars threats, it’s just unclear whom.
That’s a conundrum faced with several of these lineups (honestly why I put off previewing Oklahoma for so long)—what to even do with these freshmen. On most events, there are three or four of them with believable potential who are sort of neck-and-neck based on their JO quality, but who’s going to emerge to take the 1.5 open spots in the lineup? On bars, Quinn Smith and Katherine LeVasseur are definite possibilities, though I also like the idea of Danae Fletcher, who is entering in January and has excellent potential here.
BEAM
2020 Event Ranking: 3
| Lineup locks: Ragan Smith, Anastasia Webb, Carly Woodard, Audrey Davis, Olivia Trautman |
| Lineup options: Jenna Dunn, Karrie Thomas, Katherine LeVasseur, Quinn Smith, Evy Schoepfer, Vanessa Deniz |
It’s a little weird to see that #3 next to Oklahoma’s beam ranking. It’s the first season since 2012 (2012!) that Oklahoma hasn’t finished the year ranked as the best team on beam. Oklahoma’s NQS was still over 49.5, however, so no one is calling the fire department about it. This continues to look like a high-level lineup in 2021 without a ton of turnover.
Like maybe exactly one turnover. The easiest way to handle this lineup would be to slot Audrey Davis into the empty Maggie Nichols role, and keep everything else the same. Davis is the one freshman I’d feel confident about making the beam lineup, joining returning locks Ragan Smith, Anastasia Webb, and Carly Woodard who all competed beam every week last season (and for Webb, every week every season) with NQSs over 9.9.
Olivia Trautman is the team’s go-to leadoff, and there seems no reason to expect that to change in 2021, so we’re looking for just one additional beamer. Last season, that was Jenna Dunn, who successfully fulfilled the Oklahoma “this woman is a walk-on beam specialist and you’ll never believe what happens next!” prophecy for eleven consecutive hits, though she could face some freshman competition from LeVasseur and Quinn Smith. Or veteran competition. Karrie Thomas never went lower than 9.850 in her replacement performances last year, and Evy Schoepfer hit twice for 9.8s, so the rest will have to fight for that spot.
FLOOR
2020 Event Ranking: 3
| Lineup locks: Olivia Trautman, Anastasia Webb, Ragan Smith, Katherine LeVasseur |
| Lineup options: Jordan Draper, Emma LaPinta, Danae Fletcher, Audrey Davis, Vanessa Deniz, Allie Stern, Quinn Smith, Bell Johnson, Julianne Fehring |
On floor, Oklahoma will be very much reliant on the return of Olivia Trautman to lead this squad. She was not able to compete floor at all in 2020, which was a 9.950+ that Oklahoma would, you know, have enjoyed putting in the lineup. The path to at least maintaining last year’s scoring is pretty clear, then, because you lose Nichols but you gain Trautman back. Anastasia Webb and Ragan Smith will likely occupy the other spots in the second half of the lineup, as they did last season.
In terms of new floor routines, I’d look to Katherine LeVasseur as the top prospect with the biggest tumbling potential. It’s possible that she could turn out to be the only new one in the lineup given the development we’ve seen from Jordan Draper and Emma LaPinta. Those routines were high 9.8s last season and Oklahoma wouldn’t have much problem returning them to the lineup. Still, the team will want to develop some additional big routines to account for some of the lineup’s highest scores going bye-bye. (This is such a 2013 throwback. “Oklahoma has such beautiful floor workers, but do they have enough big tumbling?!?!?!?”) But, the way it looks right now 9.850-9.875-9.875-9.900-9.900-9.950 is a pretty good lineup outlook and on par with that the team was doing last season.
„It’s possible that she could turn out to be the only new one in the lineup given the development we’ve seen from Jordan Draper and Emma LaPinta. Those routines were high 9.8s last season and Oklahoma wouldn’t have much problem returning them to the lineup.“
PLEASE replace Draper and LaPinta! Sure those routines were high 9.8s but at most other schools they would’ve been high 9.6s… I know Oklahoma can turn out better FXs instead of relying on overscoring.
I think Spencer is underselling Fletcher and Quinn Smith. They were first and second at JO nationals on floor and will probably settle into the lineup there with Webb, Trautman, Ragan Smith, and LeVasseur
I think he only mentioned her on bears because it is the only event with recent video. Her scores show she’s a pretty strong all arounder and I think she will be in more than her fair share of lineups
The concern I have with Smith and Fletcher is that we haven’t seen any recent videos of either one. I know Fletcher is a late arrival, but I would think that if Smith were training well we would have seen her. We’ve seen clips of LeVasseur, Meilen Sullivan pre-myocarditis, Audrey Davis, and Audrey Lynn’s front pike half on vault, so Oklahoma obviously isn’t trying to keep the freshmen under wraps or anything. My guess is that Quinn Smith is injured or recovering from injury given that she hasn’t competed recently and the lack of training videos.
I think Draper could stay, but I’m not sold on LaPinta. I can see Fletcher being better than both of them. Although if they all have similar scores, I’d see her fiving the spot to Draper but rotating Fletcher in to get the freshman experience. Deniz was also pretty good in her few appearances last year. I thought she would have contributed more last year.
I’m not convinced Emma will compete floor. I thought she was routinely overscored, and I think some freshman will be competing for her spot this year.
What happened to Brooke Weins?
http://oklahoma.sidearmsports.com/sports/womens-gymnastics/roster/brooke-weins/14125
She is listed as a sophomore here but not on the roster itself. Maybe she is red-shirting?
Oklahoma is the deepest team out there this year despite losing those critical routines from Nichols and Degouveia! You could split the roster in 1/2 and both teams would still be in the top 15:
Team A:
VT: Webb, LeVasseur, Davis, Fehring, Schoepfer, Ramsey
UB: Webb, LeVasseur, Davis, Fehring, Johnson, Draper
BB: Webb, LeVasseur, Davis, Dunn, Schopefer, Ramsey
FX: Webb, LeVasseur, Davis, Fehring, Schoepfer, Draper
Team B:
VT: Trautman, R. Smith, Q. Smith, Fletcher, Stern, Flynn,
UB: Trautman, R. Smith, Q. Smith, Fletcher, Deniz, Thomas
BB: Trautman, R. Smith, Q. Smith, Woodard, Deniz, Thomas
FX: Trautman, R. Smith, Q. Smith, Fletcher, Deniz, LaPinta
I hope NCAA championships can happen this year because next year Florida will have a very deep roster, but this year its OU’s to lose!
I wouldn’t place any monetary bets on OU being the team to beat this year! I am an OU fan as well but also down to Earth and realistic. They are not the deepest team by any means and on paper behind Florida. Replacing Jade and Maggie is one gigantic challenge. Seems you are overly optimistic about the Freshman class. Fingers crossed you are right and I am wrong.