Five Reasons to Watch Alabama Gymnastics This Season

Alabama gymnastics opens the 2024 season Saturday night at the Super 16 Gymnastics Championships in Las Vegas against Auburn, UCLA and Cal. 

As she heads into her second season as head coach, Ashley Johnston and her squad are looking to build on their second-place finish at the SEC Championships. The Crimson Tide did not make the NCAA Championships last year, with the season instead ending in the regional final. They have much bigger goals in Year 2. 

"Ever since we ended the season last year, we have been really committed and driven to doing the work along the way to put our team in the best position possible for a great season," Johnston said. 

Johnston is confident with the squad she has heading into 2024. Here are five reasons to watch Alabama gymnastics this season:

1. Super Seniors

All four gymnasts that were eligible– Luisa Blanco, Ella Burgess, Makarri Doggette and Mati Waligora– decided to come back and use their fifth and final year of eligibility. It's a talented group that brings a ton of experience back to the 2024 squad with all four gymnasts contributing on one or four events of their four seasons (outside of Burgess' Achilles injury in 2021.)

The headliner of this class is Blanco, the 2021 SEC individual champion and NCAA champion on balance beam. She was Alabama's lone representative at the 2023 NCAA Championships as an individual competitor on the uneven bars and nearly came home with another individual national title. Over the offseason, she was busy competing on the international level and was named to Colombia's team for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. 

According to Doggette, there was "unfinished business" for the group, but each girl came to the decision on their own about whether or not to return this year. Burgess realized in the middle of last season that she wanted to come back to Alabama for her fifth year. 

"Just through COVID and injuries, I didn’t get to reach my full potential yet," Burgess said. "I knew that I needed another year to try and accomplish that and just give more to this team because it’s going to be something special this year.”

Burgess has been a fixture in Alabama's beam lineup in the leadoff spot since returning from her season-ending injury in 2021. Doggette has also dealt with injuries throughout her Crimson Tide career, but has been a high scorer for Alabama on all four events, including two perfect 10s in her career on the uneven bars. 

Waligora is also a gymnast who has been able to contribute for Alabama on all four events at various times– last season mainly on bars, floor exercise and balance beam. 

"That group has been through a lot from staff changes to a different culture to years of competitive success, they bring a lot to this team," Johnston said. "It’s a huge value for us to have them on this roster to lead our really talented freshmen group and the rest of the team into this 2024 season.”

2. Consistent Core

Really the only consistent lineup piece that Alabama lost from last year's team that finished second at SECs is Shallon Olson. Other than that, the Crimson Tide brings back pretty much everyone else that saw consistent rotational spots from meet to meet. 

Starting with the regular seniors, Shania Adams and Cameron Machado both were lineup mainstays for Alabama last season. Adams competed in the all-around a lot as a freshman, but mainly appeared in the floor lineup last year. Macahdo was in the bars lineup for all 13 meets and even made her debut on floor. 

All-American Lilly Hudson highlights the junior class. Hudson competed more routine for the Crimson Tide than any other gymnast last season. She was the only Alabama gymnast to compete in the all-around in every single meet. Fellow junior Jordyn Paradise was a steady presence in Alabama's vault lineup. 

Dynamic sophomore Gabby Gladieux will be looking to build upon a strong freshman campaign where she landed All-SEC honors and the 2023 SEC Vault Championship. Karis German, Lillian Lewis and Rachel Rybicki all contributed at some points throughout their freshman seasons and could have a bigger impact in the lineup this year. 

3. Fresh Faces

Alabama added three gymnasts in the freshman class that are bringing a lot of buzz to the team: Jamison Sears, Chloe LaCoursiere and Gabby Ladanyi. 

Sears is the most decorated as a Junior Olympic National Champion on the balance beam and floor exercise along with being the all-around and balance beam champion at the 2022 Nastia Liukin Cup. She will like be the first to make an impact as a freshman. 

"Jamison’s a little firecreacker— she always has energy," Burgess said. "Chloe’s just dialed in, a hard worker, but also brings a level of fun. Gabby is just so calm, but her presence is known. Look out for those this season. It’s going to be awesome to see their work pay off.”

Johnston also signed one gymnast from the portal in Pitt transfer Natalia Pawlak. She spent just one season at Pitt before transferring to join the Crimson Tide, but competed at the 2023 NCAA Regional Championships with the Panthers. 

"She brings such a great perspective to our team," Johnston said about Pawlak. "She had a different experience last year and had a lot of competitive success, but it’s much different than competing in the SEC. It’s been really neat to have her join our roster and be able to share that experience.”

4. Loaded Schedule

As the saying goes, in the SEC, it just means more. And that's certainly the case for the strength of Alabama's schedule in 2024. 

During the regular season, Alabama will face six of the eight teams that competed at the NCAA Championships last season, including the regular season finale at defending-national champion Oklahoma. The season opens with the neutral site quad meet against Auburn, UCLA and Cal– all teams that finished ranked inside the top-12 last season. 

The Crimson Tide will host home meets against Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Georgia along with a quad meet against non-conference teams. There are road trips to Florida, Auburn, LSU, Texas Women's University and Oklahoma. 

Almost all of these programs will be ranked in the top-25, and each week Alabama will be going against the best of the best. 

5. Team Can Compete for National Title

Alabama wasn't shy about their goals for this season. Doggette said the team made a poster of the goals, and the ultimate goal is a national championship. 

"We want to be undefeated," Doggette said. "We want to be SEC champs, regular season champs, regional champs, national champs. We want it all, and that’s what we’re going for. We’re not moving that standard.”

Sometimes team can shy away from putting that type of goal on the season publicly, but not this squad. Alabama has a good mix of experience, youth, depth and talent from top to bottom. There are gymnasts who have competed on the biggest stages collegiately and internationally. 

Johnston said she absolutely feels like she has the pieces in place to win a national championship in Year 2. 

"And we’ve talked about it a lot," she said. "I think that was a really big piece of growth for this team. I think in the past, there were maybe some fears involved in stating that goal, not knowing if they could get there because there was a lot of work to be done. And I think that says a lot about this group that they’ve committed to doing the work. 

"They’ve stepped into the challenges. They’ve worked to develop the culture among each other to be able to challenge each other to be at their best, and it’s a really competitive group so I’m excited to see them really go for it."