The Cyclones finished fourth at the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship in Norman, Oklahoma, on Saturday night. 

The team faced off with the four other Big 12 gymnastics teams: the hosting and undefeated Oklahoma Sooners, No. 9 Denver, BYU and West Virginia. 

For the five-team format of a gymnastics meet, the teams operated on the typical rotation system with each team shifting systematically from one event to the next. However, in this case, one team took a “bye” round as there are only four events available to participate in. 

Floor exercise scores well

On the first rotation, the Cyclones took on the floor exercise portion of the championship. The floor exercise throughout the season stood as one of the team’s better-performing events, and the Big 12 Championship was no different.

The scoring from the floor exercise usually comes heavily from freshman star Noelle Adams. However, that was not the case Saturday. Instead, Kaia Parker and Ella Schell led the team, scoring 9.900 each.

Adams herself was not far behind, scoring a 9.875. Schell, another Cyclone freshman, held a season-high score of 9.950, while her average score stood at 9.654 beforehand.

This high-scoring clip from the Cyclones resulted in a team score of 49.300 points in the first rotation, lending to a solid opening. 

Low scoring overall 

The Big 12 Championship was a fairly low-scoring affair for the Cyclones as a team. Their score fell a bit below average, finishing with 196.350 points. 

The team scoring was lower than usual due to low scoring from individual performers. Three gymnasts scored a 9.900 or higher, and two of them came in the first rotation. The last came in the final rotation during the bars competition. 

The bars were a notable low spot of the night as the Cyclones scored 47.850 points overall, while Adams failed to score at the nine-point mark, reaching an 8.500, the worst score of the night overall. 

Fourth-place finish

The Cyclones found themselves in fourth place when the meet ended. Their final score came nowhere close to reaching near the third-place team, BYU, finishing a 2.6 differential behind. 

The Sooners continued their undefeated streak by placing first at the Big 12 Championship.