Alabama gymnastics’s season-opening win over North Carolina continued to affirm the Crimson Tide’s place as one of the dominant gymnastics programs in the NCAA.
Alabama’s 197.025 score in the win made the Crimson Tide the No. 3-ranked team in the country and was the fifth-highest opening score at home in program history. The team reached the high score without a couple of key pieces in graduate student Cameron Machado or sophomore Jamison Sears, both of whom have short-term injuries.
Head coach Ashley Johnston is in her third season in Tuscaloosa and is progressing. In her first year, the team made it to the NCAA regionals, and she followed it up in her second season with an NCAA championship semifinal appearance. This season, Johnson hopes to make her first national championship finals appearance.
Success is always the standard when it comes to gymnastics at Alabama. Much of that is due to legendary head coach Sarah Patterson, who coached the Crimson Tide from 1979-2014. When she entered, she was already the fifth coach in five seasons after the gymnastics program was founded in 1975.
Under Patterson’s leadership, Alabama won six national championships, including one in four different decades. She accumulated 1,006 wins in her coaching career and 43 postseason championships and is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
Patterson coached alongside her husband, David, who was an associate head coach. The two coached together for all 36 seasons up until their retirement in 2014.
After Patterson retired, she left the program in the hands of assistant coach Dana Duckworth, who immediately continued the success within the gymnastics program by winning an SEC championship in her first season. She would win another SEC title in 2021 and made regional appearances all eight years as head coach before she stepped down in 2022.
Johnston came in firmly knowing the standard of success at Alabama. She was a gymnast under Patterson from 2008 to 2011 and won two national and two SEC championships.
“We pull together to accomplish a common goal,” Johnston said. “At Alabama, that goal is to compete for championships.”
So far, Johnston has continued the success of the Crimson Tide gymnastics program. In each of her first two years, her teams have achieved a top-two finish at the SEC championships and made the regionals both years, capped off with a NCAA championships appearance last season.
Now in the 2025 season, the Crimson Tide’s dominant opening win signaled this may be Johnston’s best team yet. It is a testament to the Crimson Tide’s ability to reload without having to rebuild, as the team lost All-Americans Makarri Doggette and Luisa Blanco but still appears to have a very bright future.
“It’s so hard to think about replacing some of those household names,” Johnston said. “They have been fan favorites. They have been incredible impact players for our program.”
The team’s first performance gave some clues about who could help the void left by Doggette and Blanco. Junior and second-team All-American Gabby Gladieux won the event titles in vault, floor exercise and all-around. Freshman Paityn Walker proved she has a very bright college career ahead, claiming event title on the uneven bar.
With a program that has 39 NCAA championship appearances, 42 straight regionals appearances and has 21 top-two finishes in the last 25 years at the SEC championships, it’s safe to say the Crimson Tide has one of the most stellar and storied gymnastics programs in the country.
Alabama’s next opportunity to impress will be against Kentucky in Lexington on Friday at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.