No. 8 Alabama Beats Clemson 197.475-196.550 in Littlejohn Opener

Alabama's freshmen showed up to Clemson like they'd been doing this for years. They hadn't. That made it even more impressive.

Littlejohn Coliseum • Clemson, S.C. • January 9, 2026 • NCAA Gymnastics

Clemson Gymnastics | Clemson Athletics

CLEMSON, S.C. — When the lights came on at Littlejohn Coliseum for the first big test of the 2026 gymnastics season, the No. 8 Alabama Crimson Tide did not flinch. Not for a single rotation.

Alabama opened its 2026 season with authority, defeating the Clemson Tigers 197.475-196.550 — a score that broke the program's highest season-opening total in UA history by .350 of a point. The Crimson Tide did not just win a road meet in a hostile environment. They made history doing it.

And they did it behind gymnasts competing in their very first collegiate meet.

THE FRESHMEN ANNOUNCED THEMSELVES

The phrase "true freshman" usually comes with an asterisk in college gymnastics. A qualifier. A caveat about the learning curve. Not here. Not on this night. Not in this class.

In her first ever collegiate routine, true freshman Azaraya Ra-Akbar was nearly perfect — scoring a 9.975 on a stunning uneven bars routine to earn the event title. One judge gave her a 10. Let that land for a moment. First collegiate routine. 9.975. Event title. At Littlejohn Coliseum, against a ranked ACC opponent, with the lights fully on.

Fellow freshman Jasmine Cawley won the all-around with a 39.475, captured the vault title with a 9.9, and scored another 9.9 on balance beam. Alabama's head coach Ashley Johnston trusted her true freshmen to anchor and lead off multiple lineups — and they delivered with a calm and confidence that defied their experience level entirely.

Alabama scored a 49.425 on bars, beam and floor — a beam score that would have been the program's third-highest of the entire 2025 season. This was not a team playing it safe in Week 1. This was a program setting a tone.

CLEMSON HELD ITS OWN — AND BRIE CLARK WAS BRIE CLARK

Credit where it is due — Clemson competed hard on its home floor and showed glimpses of what this program is becoming under Co-Head Coaches Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell. The Tigers scored 196.550, the fifth-highest score in the program's young history at the time, against one of the SEC's elite programs.

The floor exercise title went to Clemson's Brie Clark, who scored a 9.925 to win the event over Alabama's best. When the brightest spotlight in the building fell on the floor exercise rotation, Clark stepped up and owned it — as she has all season long.

THE BIGGER STORY

A No. 8 SEC powerhouse opening its season on the road at an ACC program in just its third year of varsity competition — and Clemson making that opponent work for every tenth — is its own headline. The Tigers are no longer a novelty. They are a legitimate test.

Clemson is in just its third season as a varsity program and has ranked in the top ten nationally in attendance in each of its first two seasons, averaging more than 8,000 fans per meet at Littlejohn Coliseum. The building was rocking on this January night. The opponent was formidable. And Clemson left that floor with its head held high and its trajectory pointed firmly upward.

Alabama broke a record. Clemson raised its standard. Both programs left Littlejohn with something to build on. That is what January gymnastics is supposed to look like.

Final Score: No. 8 Alabama 197.475, No. 19 Clemson 196.550 | Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, S.C. | Jan. 9, 2026