Alabama

No. 8 Alabama gymnastics opens 2024 season with victory at Super 16 quad meet

Published

2 years ago

January 7, 2024

No. 8 Alabama gymnastics opens 2024 season with victory at Super 16 quad meet

The No. 8 Alabama gymnastics team got their season off to an ideal start in Las Vegas by winning a quad-meet over No. 5 UCLA, No. 7 California and No. 17 Auburn at the Mean Girls Super 16 Championships. The Crimson Tide were the only team of the four to crack a team score of 197, finishing with a 197.125. Cal finished second with a 196.850, Auburn third with a 196.600, and UCLA fourth with a 196.550.

Alabama competed out of the traditional order, starting with the floor exercise, typically the final event, before moving into the vault, bars and beam. The double-rivalry matchups between UCLA-Cal and Alabama-Auburn, as well as the high rankings of each team, made this fourth and final session of the Super 16 one of the most anticipated collegiate gymnastics events of the early season.

More: Alabama gymnastics: 5 things to know about the Tide’s 2024 season

Here are three takeaways from the Crimson Tide’s first meet of the season:

Opening with floor routine was by design

Opening the night with an event typically reserved for the finale was an interesting way to start the 2024 campaign for Alabama. According to coach Ashley Johnston, though, starting with the floor routine was an integral part of the team’s strategy.

“We selected to start on the floor because it has been one of our really strong events, not just tumbling-wise, but we’ve been working hard on the performance,” Johnston said after the meet. “We felt like that was going to be a really good place to start strong and just settle into the groove of competing again.”

The team certainly seemed settled following a team score of 49.250 on the floor, and they carried that momentum through the rest of the night.

Blanco and Gladieux provide immediate star power

Senior Luisa Blanco and sophomore Gabby Gladieux started the 2024 season right where they left off in 2023. Both All-SEC performers last year provided the Tide with a much-needed spark in all four apparatus.

Gladieux scored a meet and career-high 9.975 as the floor anchor, setting the tone early in the night with a score that would not be topped, not just on the floor but in any other area. Blanco, meanwhile, clinched the victory for the Tide with an exemplary beam routine that earned a 9.875. She also tied for the meet-high on the uneven bars with a 9.900.

Both finished in the top five for all-around individual scoring. Blanco tied with UCLA’s Selena Harris for second overall with a 39.550, while Gladieux tied for fourth with Auburn’s Olivia Hollingsworth with a 39.450.

Encouraging debuts for two freshmen

First-year competitors Jamison Sears and Chloe LaCoursiere both made their Crimson Tide debuts in Las Vegas. The two freshmen provided a key spark to the Alabama lineup.

Sears scored a 9.850 as the leadoff vaulter, while LaCoursiere scored a 9.900 from the same lineup position on bars. LaCoursiere also performed on the vault, but an out-of-bounds landing knocked her score down to 9.775. Live stream commentators Jordan Chiles, a Team USA gymnast, and DD Breaux, longtime LSU gymnastics coach, agreed that she likely would have scored a 9.900 or above without the deduction.

LaCoursiere was also granted the opportunity for exhibition performances on floor and beam, scoring 9.850 and 9.575, respectively, on those. Each team had an exhibition performer for each event, but none of these scores counted towards the event scoring.

What’s next for Alabama gymnastics?

The Crimson Tide will travel back home to host No. 12 Missouri on Friday, Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. CT.

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Alabama

Husband, 19, fatally shot wife, 24, himself at Alabama hospital moments after welcoming their first child

Published

8 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Husband, 19, fatally shot wife, 24, himself at Alabama hospital moments after welcoming their first child

A husband fatally shot his wife before turning the gun on himself at an Alabama hospital just moments after they welcomed their first child on Sunday.

Kynath Terry Jr., 19, gunned down 24-year-old Precious Johnson before fatally shooting himself inside the Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital around 9:30 p.m. Sunday night, WTVM 13 reported.

Johnson delivered a healthy baby just before she was murdered. It’s not immediately clear if the baby was present during the shooting, but police said that Terry and Johnson were the only ones injured.

Terry’s mother told the outlet that the couple were having some marital issues leading up to Johnson’s due date, but nothing that made her fear her son would become violent.

She told the outlet that Terry completed Army National Guard training before tying the knot with Johnson.

She noted that Johnson didn’t want Terry’s side of the family at the hospital for her child’s birth, but it’s unclear if anyone from the mother-to-be’s own family was there.

The hospital was plunged into a lockdown “out of an abundance of caution” while police investigated reports of a shooting. It wasn’t lifted until hours later when they determined there was “no active threat to patients, team members or the public,” the outlet reported.

The Homewood Police Department described the tragedy as “an apparent murder-suicide and is domestic in nature.”

Danne Howard, the president of the Alabama Hospital Association, told the outlet that the chilling attack “was an isolated incident” unlike anything she’d encountered during her three decades working in the state.

Howard said, in the wake of the tragedy, the Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital would undergo a security overhaul implementing “lessons learned” from a mandated after-action report.

Just three months ago, in a town six miles outside of Homewood, a beloved sports reporter was fatally shot by her husband before taking his own life. Their 3-year-old son, who was unharmed, led his grandfather to his parents’ bodies.

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Alabama

Air Force base security tightens, AL reacts after attacks in Iran

Published

21 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Air Force base security tightens, AL reacts after attacks in Iran

The United States and Israel-led attacks on Iran are having an impact in Central Alabama.

The military actions that began Saturday targets the military forces of Iran and the nation’s ability to build nuclear weapons.

In Montgomery, Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex have stepped up security so that all entry points will have a 100 percent ID check, the bases said on social media. The Trusted Traveler Program is suspended, which allowed Department of Defense identification holders to vouch for passengers.

Visitors without base access will have to go through the visitor center to get a pass.

Central Alabama residents react to the Iran attacks

For Travis Jackson of Montgomery, the attacks bring back memories, bad memories. He served one tour in Iraq from 2007-2008 with the U.S. Army. He attained the rank of sergeant before leaving the service and has worked the last 10 years as a community activist and diversity, equality and inclusion coordinator.

“I had a flashback of being overseas again,” he said when he first heard news of the attack. “The first thing I thought of was corporate greed. Of yet again seeing what has transpired throughout the years of any war overseas.”

He feels the attacks are a mistake.

“It’s going to be detrimental to the economy, notably with the increase in oil prices,” he said.

Removing the current regime in Iran and establishing a more western friendly country could improve hopes for a more stable Middle East, said Amy Stephens of Elmore County.

“I don’t know if there will ever be peace there,” Stephens said. “But Iran has been the causing trouble over there for almost 50 years.”

Ray Roberts of Prattville served in Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990 and 1991 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. He served in an ordinance company with the Alabama Army National Guard. He was a sergeant when he left the service and now works as a draftsman at a Montgomery manufacturing plant.

“It wasn’t a surprise,” Roberts said of the attacks. “President Trump had said they were coming. When he says something like that, he means it. I am glad we are working with Israel so it’s not just the United States. I wonder if Europe and some of the other Gulf nations will join the attacks.”

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com. To support his work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

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Alabama

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey receives Boy Scouts’ Circle of Honor

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey receives Boy Scouts’ Circle of Honor

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey was honored for her lifelong dedication to youth and community service during the 12th annual Black Warrior Council Boy Scouts of America Circle of Honor awards luncheon.

The ceremony, which was held Feb. 27 at the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Tuscaloosa, serves as a fundraiser for the council’s scouting program.

The Circle of Honor award is presented to people in west central Alabama whose livelihood and actions reflect the same values of the Black Warrior Boy Scouts. Recipients have also shown advocacy for youth and leadership in the community.

Past recipients of the award include Terry Saban, Nick Saban, former U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, scientist and philanthropist Thomas Joiner, pharmacist and retailer James I. Harrison Jr., civic leader Mary Ann Phelps and more.

Cathy Randall, a Tuscaloosa businesswoman, educator and philanthropist, presented Ivey with the award. Randall was inducted into the Circle of Honor in 2025 along with her late husband, Pettus.

Ivey said she was grateful to receive the honor by the Black Warrior Council and highlighted the importance of public service.

“I’m proud to have dedicated my life to public service, there’s no more noble calling than to uplift and empower lives,” said Ivey during the Feb. 27 ceremony.

Ivey thanked the scouting organizations, including the Black Warrior Council for its contributions to educational opportunities, economic development, and public safety.

“In particular, I’m proud of the work done by our Scouting organizations like the Black Warrior Council, who lay a foundation for successful future in both our young people and our state, thank you for all you do to build a stronger Alabama by changing lives and preparing our future leaders,” said Ivey, a native of Camden in Wilcox County.

Ivey is wrapping up her second term as governor after a long career spent primarily in government.

After graduating from Auburn University in 1967, Ivey worked as a high school teacher and a bank officer. She served as reading clerk for the Alabama House of Representatives under then-Speaker Joseph C. McCorquodale and she served as assistant director at the Alabama Development Office.

In 2002, Ivey was elected to the first of two terms as Alabama’s treasurer and in 2010, she was elected to the first of two terms as lieutenant governor. On April 10, 2017, Ivey was sworn in as Alabama’s 54th governor after the resignation of Robert Bentley. She filled out the rest of Bentley’s term before winning the gubernatorial election in 2018 and she was re-elected in 2022.

She will leave office at the end of this year.

She is the first Republican woman to serve as Alabama’s governor but she’s the second woman to hold the state’s top executive office. Tuscaloosa County native Lurleen B. Wallace, a Democrat, became Alabama’s first female governor in 1966.

Circle of Honor luncheon raises nearly $200,000

Also during the ceremony, retired DCH Health System administrator Sammy Watson, who served as the event’s emcee, announced that the council had raised $197,000 through the luncheon that day.

Proceeds from the lunch will be used to expand Boy Scouts programs, making them available to over 3,000 young people in west central Alabama.

The Boy Scouts of America is the nation’s leading outdoor education and character development program. The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.

Reach Jasmine Hollie at JHollie@usatodayco.com. To support her work, please subscribe to The Tuscaloosa News.

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