FAYETTEVILLE -- Jordyn Wieber's master building plan came into a clear focus at the University of Arkansas' NCAA Gymnastics Regional at Walton Arena on April 6.
The fifth-year coach stacked good recruiting classes on top of each other for four years and continued to lay the foundation of her vision for the Razorbacks. The build culminated in having her most talented team fortuitously at home to score a 197.825 and out-point Kentucky and Minnesota for second behind powerhouse LSU.
The Razorbacks advanced to the NCAA Gymnastics Championships, where they will compete at 3:30 p.m. Central today in a semifinal against No. 2 seed LSU, No. 3 seed California and No. 8 seed Stanford.
The top two teams from each of the semifinals will advance to the finals at 3 p.m. Saturday, which will air on ABC.
"Everybody is just so bought in and so excited," Wieber said. "This season more than any other it just feels like all the puzzle pieces have really come together: Culturally, gymnastically, competitively.
"I'm just so happy for our student-athletes to be able to earn this opportunity. I'm really hoping they shine and take advantage of that opportunity on Thursday and hopefully get to Saturday."
Senior Jensen Scalzo has been part of Arkansas teams that finished third, fourth and fifth at NCAA regionals the last three years before this year's breakthrough.
"Since the first day of the preseason every person has showed up every single day giving their 100%," Scalzo said. "In and out of the gym I think it just came together in the most perfect way and each person is a leader in their own way on this team. When you have those people on teams, we push each other."
Junior Maddie Jones has been part of the previous two teams that came up just short of nationals.
"I think it's just the grit and the detail work this team has and has been committed to since the first day back in August," Jones said of what separated the 2024 roster from its predecessors. "We're never satisfied. We know we can always do more and we've come back in every single day after a meet and just kept detail working, kept getting better. We also just radiate so much joy and have so much fun with each other and we do our best gymnastics when we're having fun."
The NCAA Championships will resemble an SEC vs. Pac-12 showdown with only one team outside those conferences in the mix in defending champion Oklahoma. The two-time defending champion Sooners, who will be joining the SEC this summer, are the team to beat with six titles since 2014.
The night semifinal at 8 p.m. will feature top seed Oklahoma, fourth seed Florida, fifth seed Utah and sixth seed Alabama. The SEC has two teams in each semifinal while the Pac-12 has three of the eight entrants.
The Razorbacks have scored 197 or better in 11 meets, more than doubling the previous school record of five in a single season, including a program-best 198.1 in a win over Nebraska on March 15.
Wieber and her staff managed to have the team peaking in April with the 197.825 in the regional final the second-best score in school history.
Arkansas qualified for its ninth NCAA finals, but its first in the new regional format, which sends only eight teams to the championships. In each of the Razorbacks' other eight appearances, 12 teams advanced to the championships.
"This is what we expected to do," Wieber said. "This is what we wanted to do and it really feels like we took a big step this year. I know last year not making it to Day 2 [of regionals], the team was feeling really unsatisfied and they expressed at the beginning of this year. They wanted to be the team that got over that hump of not just being satisfied with making Day 2 of regionals but being the team that did it, that finally qualified to nationals."
LSU Coach Jay Clark has noted the rise of the Razorbacks under Wieber.
"I think Arkansas is certainly on a trajectory that's really good, especially this year," Clark said after the regional final. "It took a little while for them to kind of get their own culture and their own kids.
"I told them when they first started -- I've known [assistant coach Chris Brooks] and Jordyn for a long time -- to be patient and their time would come. Because they know what they're doing and they've got the right energy for it and the right enthusiasm."
The Razorbacks have big-time contributors in every class.
Seniors Scalzo and Sirena Linton, a transfer from Arizona who has competed as an individual at the NCAAs, have been solid specialists. Scalzo has been integral in the uneven bars lineup with only one score below 9.825 in the 14 competitions. Linton has worked on the bars and balance beam, and her 9.925 in the anchor spot in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional final was clutch.
The junior class features Kalyxta Gamiao, Jones and Leah Smith, who have been big-time scorers on multiple events. Gamiao, the lead on beam all season and on the floor exercise in 11 meets, has been a model of consistency. Her 9.95 on the balance beam tied LSU's Konnor McClain for the regional title.
Jones serves as the anchor on bars and is second on beam and third on the floor exercise. Smith put up a huge 9.95 on her Yurchenko full to finish second in the regional final. She has been consistent in the fourth spot on the floor, with only one score lower than 9.825 all season.
Jones has 21 scores of 9.9 or better on the year, including triple 9.9s on the bars, beam and floor exercise in the regional semifinal on April 4.
The sophomore class is the most loaded for Wieber and her staff with standouts Frankie Price and Lauren Williams of Rogers, plus uneven bar specialists Reese Drotar and Jaime Pratt, and multi-event aces Cally Swaney and Cami Weaver. Price and Weaver signed with the class of Gamiao, Jones and Smith but had redshirt seasons due to injuries.
Williams and Price, competing fifth and sixth on the floor exercise all season, have taken the team to crescendos with their high-level tumbling passes all season. Both have scored lower than 9.9 on the floor exercise only twice this season. Williams, an individual performer on the vault at last year's NCAAs, has six 9.95s on the floor and five 9.925s or better on the vault.
Price posted a 9.975 on the floor exercise in a win over Kentucky on Feb. 23 and has seven 9.95s or better on that event this year.
Drotar posted a career-high 9.95 to finish second on the bars in the regional final, while Swaney and Weaver hit 9.9s to contribute to the big balance beam performance in that meet.
The leadoff on vault, Weaver has only one score below 9.8 on the season. She also has three 9.925s on the beam.
Freshmen Hailey Klein and Priscilla Park have been integral additions as well. Park was a big contributor early as she went up in the all-around three times in the first five meets. Klein only competed on the floor exercise early, but she joined the vault lineup for good on Feb. 9 then added the beam the following week and has been up every meet since.
Park contributed a 9.9 on the uneven bars in the regional final and she has a 9.975 on the balance beam. Klein has three 9.925s on the beam and just one score lower than 9.85 on the floor.
The Razorbacks say keeping their circle tight is the key to advancing to Saturday's finals.
"We just need to be us. When we go out there and be the team that we are and have fun the results follow," Scalzo said.
"I think just going in with the same mindset we had at regionals," Jones said. "We don't like to make the moment too big. ... We just go in there and have fun and do our thing and we definitely have a really good chance to make it to Day 2."
Added Wieber: "I know that they know this is a big deal and I don't really need to say that for them to know it. What they need from me, and this has honestly been consistent messaging all season, is don't build up any singular moment.
"A meet is a combination of so many moments, so many routines. No one moment is the most important. We've continued to repeat that and do that all season. The good thing about our conference is that we've been in some really high pressure situations many, many times throughout the season."
Arkansas sophomore gymnast Frankie Price has posted seven 9.95s or better this season in the floor exercise, helping the Razorbacks to the NCAA Championships which start at 3:30 p.m. today at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)