Alabama Gymnastics Ranked Sixth Nationally, Seeded Third at SEC Championships
After closing the regular season with a 197.100-196.600 win over Iowa State last Friday, Alabama gymnastics is sixth in this week’s national rankings.
The same six teams from last week’s rankings make up this week’s top tier, with two teams swapping places. Oklahoma and LSU remain first and second, while UCLA and Florida switched places at third and fourth, respectively. Utah and Alabama remain fifth and sixth. Denver is seventh, followed by Georgia, Michigan and Oregon State.
This week’s rankings also determine the seeding for Saturday’s Southeastern Conference Championships. The 2017 SEC Gymnastics Championships will take place Saturday, March 18 at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla.
LSU (1), Florida (2), Alabama (3) and Georgia (4) make up the top four seeds and will compete in the evening session that begins at 6 p.m. ET. The SEC’s first session is comprised of No. 12 Kentucky (5), No. 14 Missouri (6), No. 21 Auburn (7) and No. 26 Arkansas (8). The afternoon session gets underway at 2 p.m. ET.
Alabama will start the 2017 SEC Championships on the balance beam before advancing to the floor exercise and vault before finishing on the uneven bars.
Alabama has been seeded third at the SEC Championships the last three years and have come away with SEC titles in 2014 and 2015 and a runner-up finish in 2016.
The Crimson Tide is ranked third nationally on the floor exercise, fourth on the vault and balance beam and sixth on the uneven bars.
Junior Kiana Winston is fourth nationally and first in the SEC in the all-around again this week. Winston is also fifth on the floor, seventh on the balance beam and 23rd on the uneven bars. Junior Nickie Guerrero is third on the balance beam and 24th on the vault. Senior Aja Sims is ninth and freshman Maddie Desch is 18th on the floor exercise. Senior Katie Bailey is 18th on the vault.