As confetti rained down on the national-champion Michigan Wolverines, senior star Anastasia Webb watched from afar as tears rolled down her cheek.
Long after the Wolverines — and nearly everyone else — had left the Dickies Arena floor in Fort Worth, Texas, after defeating Oklahoma 198.250-198.1625 on April 17, Webb was still there. She stood at the foot of the massive curtain separating the backstage from the floor, looking across the stadium one last time.
Another tear fell, and she walked off the floor. Now, Webb has announced that moment was her last as a Sooner gymnast.
After graduating from OU with teammates Jordan Draper, Evy Schoepfer and Carly Woodard on Sunday, Webb took to Instagram to share that she will not take the extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19 and will pursue a master’s degree in health administration at the OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.
The night before Oklahoma’s national championship loss, Webb delivered the second best performance of her career. She scored a 39.7875 on the all-around, breaking 9.9 on each event for the fifth time in her career and the third time in 2020, shy to only her March 7 performance against Centenary and Texas Woman’s.
Her semifinal performance against Utah, LSU and Alabama earned her the individual all-around national championship, as well as shares of the title on vault and floor. Webb’s stellar night also cemented her as a first-team All-American on each event, bringing her career total to 20 All-American awards, trailing only OU alum and current graduate assistant coach Maggie Nichols for the most in program history.
Webb had previously been named the Big 12 Gymnast of the Year and the Region 4 Gymnast of the Year. She won the 2021 Honda Sport Award for Gymnastics, another prestigious award given to the best female athlete in every collegiate sport.
She was nominated for the American Athletic, Inc. award — better known as the Heisman trophy of women’s gymnastics. Whether she collects the AAI or not, her trophy case may need to be upsized, as she’s garnered nearly every award imaginable over the course of her four years at Oklahoma.
OU is the second team in NCAA history to break 198 in a national final and not win the national title. The other was the 2018 Sooner squad, who narrowly fell to UCLA when Webb and the rest of the 2021 senior class were freshmen.
The 2021 team’s final performance was better than the 2018 team’s 198.0375, giving them the highest score to never win a national championship. The 198.1625 is the sixth highest NCAA final score in history, trailing Oklahoma and Florida’s tie of 198.175 in 2014, Oklahoma’s 2017 and 2019 performances, and Michigan’s 198.250 from this year.
Webb said after the first day of national competition she believed it was the team’s destiny to win the national championship, and with good reason. OU looked better than Michigan at every step throughout the season.
The Sooners held the advantage from their regular season scoring average, to their national qualifying score, to their two regional and NCAA semifinal performances. Michigan then put up a program-high score to claim the national title.
Even though Webb only won one national championship in 2019, after finishing in a narrow second twice and not having the opportunity to compete in 2020 due to COVID-19, her mother believes Webb accomplished what she set out to do.
“I don’t think she has any regrets,” Magda Webb told the Daily. “I know that she feels very accomplished with what she did.”
Of the four graduates, Woodard is the only one who chose to return to the team for the 2022 season. Senior Karrie Thomas, who hasn’t yet graduated, will also take the extra year of eligibility.
With Webb’s graduation, Oklahoma replaces a competitor and leader on the floor. OU head coach K.J. Kindler will be tasked with replacing all four of her routines, in addition to Schoepfer’s vault and floor routines and Draper’s floor and bars routines.
When healthy, freshman Audrey Lynn will likely slide back into the rotation on vault after a strong but short first season. As for the rest of the open spots, it remains to be seen whether a senior or junior, like Woodard, Ragan Smith or Vanessa Deniz will step into bigger roles, or if a younger gymnast will take the open routines.
Regardless of who steps into Webb’s spots in the rotation, she’ll be there to support them, and the rest of her now-former teammates.
“She’s going to be able to support her teammates as a friend and with her wisdom and support emotionally,” Magda said. “She will always be there for them, she has great friendships with the team. I know they’re going to be close and she’ll support the team as much as possible.”
Editor’s note: This post was corrected at 8:30 p.m. on May 17 to reflect the correct spelling of the OU Health Sciences Center.
