By the slimmest of margins, the women’s gymnastics team defended its title at the Big 12 Championships Saturday evening in Ames, Iowa.

The No. 8 Sooners defeated No. 12 Nebraska, 196.125-196.075 for their first back-to-back conference titles since OU’s three-peat from 1984-1986. No. 14 Missouri, also in contention, finished third with 195.925. Host Iowa State finished fourth with 195.775.

OU’s sixth conference title was the second for head coach K.J. Kindler, an Iowa State alumna who coached in Ames until moving to Norman after the 2006 season.

“It’s always exciting to be able to call yourselves the Big 12 Champs,” Kindler said. “This has been one of our goals since the offseason. It’s one of those events that you wake up in the morning with a knot in your stomach and that doesn’t leave until the last routine. You want it so bad for your athletes, who have worked so hard during the entire year and it’s so exciting to see their hard work result in another conference title.”

OU began on balance beam with six hit routines, including meet-high 9.850s from senior Haley DeProspero and freshman Megan Ferguson. Led by junior Kristin Smith’s 9.900, the Sooners took the night’s highest event total of any team on floor exercise, a 49.250.

OU notched a 49.100 on vault with all scores ranging from 9.800 to 9.850 from sophomore Melanie Root, but nearly lost the title on uneven bars in the last rotation. The Sooners were forced to count DeProspero’s 9.600 after defending Big 12 uneven bars champion Hollie Vise unexpectedly fell (9.250). The Sooners’ 48.775 was the lowest bar total of all four teams, but, in the end, the Sooners squeaked by the Huskers by a mere o.050.

The 13-4 Sooners took the long way to the title. The team’s connecting flight from Dallas to Des Moines, Iowa, was cancelled, forcing the squad to fly to Chicago and take a six-hour hour bus ride to Ames. The team left Norman at 8:45 a.m. and didn’t arrive in Ames until after 1 a.m. the next morning.

Missouri’s Sarah Shire (39.450) won the all-around with senior Ashley Jackson finishing fifth (39.225) and DeProspero eighth (39.075). Jackson and Ferguson tied for first on uneven bars, and Ferguson and DeProspero tied for a share of the beam title.

The team next will compete at the regional championships on April 4, with the location to be decided this week. The team must finish in the top two at regionals to qualify for the NCAA Championships, April 14-18 in Lincoln, Neb.

“While the victory is nice, we can’t become complacent,” Kindler said. “We still have a lot of work to do to reach all of our season goals and we will get back in the gym with intentions of improving each and every day.”