Razorbacks in top 10

FAYETTEVILLE – Co-head coach Mark Cook said last week heading into the season-opener he thought his Arkansas gymnastics team was a top 10 program.

Turns out he knew what he was talking about.

The Razorbacks opened the year ranked No. 11 in the preseason, but after scoring a 195.075 at then-No. 4 Oklahoma last week, the Razorbacks have moved up to No. 10 in this week’s GymInfo poll.

"I feel we are where I thought we would be," co-head coach Mark Cook says. "But there’s a lot of room for improvement. The rankings are so tight, it comes down to consistency. We need to take care of business."

The top 10 includes Florida, Stanford, Utah, Michigan, UCLA, Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon State, this week’s home opponent Alabama at No. 9 and the Razorbacks. The second ten includes Nebraska, Kent State, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Ohio State, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, Arizona and Washington.

"It was great to start off against solid competition," co-head coach René Cook says. "We didn’t count any major mistakes and now we have confidence. We need to clean up some little mistakes so we can continue to move up."

In the individual events, Arkansas is No. 13 on vault, No. 21 on bars, No. 11 on beam and No. 9 on floor.

Individually at OU, freshman Katherine Grable won the all-around with a 39.225, and led the team with a 9.80 on beam. Junior All-American Jaime Pisani tied for first on floor (9.875) and was second in the all-around with a 39.15.

In the individual rankings, Grable is eighth in the country in the all-around and Pisani is tied for 12th.

Pisani is tied for 13th on vault and tied for 10th on floor.

In the South Central Regional rankings, Arkansas is second overall behind Oklahoma. The Razorbacks are third on vault, bars and beam, and second on floor.

Individually, Grable is first in the all-around, Pisani is second and sophomore Jordan Salsberg is 12th. On vault, Pisani is tied for third, Grable is tied for seventh, and senior All-American Michelle Stout and sophomore Amanda Siebert are tied for 19th. On bars, Pisani is tied for fifth, Grable tied for seventh and freshman Shelby Salmon tied for 14th. On beam, Grable is tied for eighth, freshman Scarlett Williams tied for 11th, Salsberg tied for 15th and junior Mariah Howdeshell tied for 19th. On floor, Pisani is tied for second, Grable tied for eighth, sophomore Kelci Lewis tied for 14th and Salsberg tied for 18th.

Arkansas finished 11th in the nation in 2010 and has ended the year ranked among the nation’s top 15 for six consecutive seasons.

Friday’s meet against No. 9 Alabama is the home and Southeastern Conference opener. It begins at 7 p.m. in Barnhill Arena.