Minnesota women's gymnastics made history on Thursday, as the Golden Gophers punched their first-ever gymnastics Final Four ticket after upsetting UCLA in the NCAA gymnastics championships semifinals in Fort Worth.
"I'm so proud of these guys," Minnesota coach Jenny Hansen said afterwards. "They believed we could do this and they just walked in today with that belief and were steady all the way through. I'm just so proud of them. I'm still a little in disbelief."
The Golden Gophers scored 197.4625 to claim the last remaining spot in Saturday's final, joining Oklahoma, Florida, and LSU in the Final Four.
The victory capped a stunning postseason run for Minnesota, first upsetting perennial contender Utah in the regional final before taking down No. 4 UCLA in the semis.
UCLA entered Thursday as the Big Ten champion with high expectations. However, the Bruins struggled on bars early, with Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles falling during the rotation. UCLA clawed back into second place entering the final event, before an error-filled vault rotation ended the team's championship hopes.
Minnesota, on the other hand, delivered a strong performance on bars in the final rotation to secure the historic berth.
Brooklyn Rowray later won beam, becoming just the second Gopher to claim an individual NCAA gymnastics title while adding to the breakthrough night.
Minnesota now prepares for Saturday's team championship final, as the Gophers face off against three powerhouse programs en pursuit of their first NCAA gymnastics team title.
How to Watch the 2026 NCAA Gymnastics Final Four
The 2026 NCAA gymnastics championships Final Four — AKA "Four on the Floor" — hits the mat on Saturday at 4 PM ET, live on ABC.
Faith Torrez delivered the biggest shock of the NCAA gymnastics championships so far on Thursday, after the Oklahoma senior captured the all-around title with a 39.7875 score despite facing injuries all season.
Torrez hadn't competed in all four events this season before last night, having only performed on uneven bars and balance beam since February. This week's semifinals marked her 2026 all-around debut.
"If you would have [told] me probably two and a half weeks ago that I would be in this position right now doing four [events], like living out my dream right now, I'd probably laugh at you," Torrez said after the trophy ceremony.
Torrez defeated Olympic and world champions to claim NCAA gymnastics' highest individual honor. LSU's Kailin Chio finished second with a 39.6125 score, while Florida's eMjae Frazier placed third.
Oklahoma coach KJ Kindler said Torrez asked to start training on floor again after lat March's SEC championships. She made the transition slowly, only completing a full routine earlier this week.
"She is so talented," Kindler said. "Great air awareness, great sense of being able to do it when you've been off of it for that long."
Torrez's performance helped lead defending champion Oklahoma back to Saturday's championship meet, with the Sooners posting the day's top team score of 198.3000.
Four Gymnasts Claim Titles After All-Around Winner Faith Torrez
Four additional gymnasts claimed individual titles on Thursday, led by Torrez's teammate Keira Wells winning vault with a 9.9750. Florida's Riley McCusker earned her first individual national championship on bars with a 9.9875, while Minnesota's Brooklyn Rowray won beam.
Later, Olympian Jordan Chiles concluded her decorated UCLA career by capturing the floor title with a 9.9750.
Oklahoma, Minnesota, Florida, and LSU now advance to Saturday's NCAA gymnastics championships final.
The 2026 NCAA gymnastics championships roll on Thursday as eight remaining college teams kick off the national semifinal round in Fort Worth, Texas.
LSU, Florida, Georgia, and Stanford will compete in Semifinal I at 4:30 PM ET on ESPN2. Oklahoma, UCLA, Arkansas, and Minnesota battle in Semifinal II. Each session's top two teams advance to Saturday's final, completing the NC gymnastics championship bracket.
Reigning champion Oklahoma enters the semis after notching the quarterfinal's highest score. Florida, LSU, and 2025 runner-up UCLA trail close behind. The Sooners posted the highest NCAA Championship score in the sport's history in 2017 with a 198.3875.
The individual all-around trophy is also up for grabs. Competitors from both qualified and unqualified teams take center stage in the individual competition.
LSU's Kailin Chio enters as the all-around frontrunner after a dominant season. However, UCLA's Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles also stands ready to contend after earning a perfect 10 on floor at the NCAA Regional Final.
This year's field features both gymnastics powerhouses and surging programs ready to shake up the standings. While Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, and UCLA return for another battle on the national stage, Georgia, Stanford, Arkansas, and Minnesota head to Texas looking to upset the favorites.
“I’m so proud of this team,” said Golden Gophers head coach Jenny Hansen after Minnesota ousted Utah at Regionals. “Our team came in confident and excited for this opportunity. They had tremendous belief when they walked in the building that we could do something really special tonight.”
How to Watch the 2026 NCAA Gymnastics Championships Semifinals
The NCAA gymnastics championships semifinals kick off today at 4:30 PM ET, live on ESPN2.
Eight powerhouse programs punched their tickets to the NCAA gymnastics championships after dominating regional competition this weekend.
Top-ranked Oklahoma leads the field heading to Fort Worth after posting a 198.350 at the Lexington regional. The Sooners will defend their seventh national title alongside No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 UCLA, No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 Stanford, No. 9 Arkansas, and No. 13 Minnesota.
Oklahoma captured last year's crown with 198.0125 points, topping UCLA, Missouri, and Utah in the finals.
The Golden Gophers delivered the weekend's biggest shock, edging No. 12 Utah in the regional finals with a 197.625 score. The result ended Utah's 49-year semifinal streak dating back to the competition's inception.
Individual performances lit up the regionals as athletes battled for championship berths. UCLA senior Jordan Chiles notched a perfect 10.0 on floor exercise while LSU sophomore Kailin Chio earned a flawless vault score.
Four all-around competitors secured individual qualification spots despite their teams falling short. Utah's Avery Neff, Michigan State's Nikki Smith, Ohio State's Tory Vetter, and Air Force's Maggie Slife will compete alongside the eight advancing teams.
Additional event specialists qualified across vault, bars, beam, and floor competitions. The list includes Iowa's Aurélie Tran, after the Canadian artistic gymnast posted a perfect 10.0 on bars at the Corvallis regional.
How to Watch the 2026 NCAA Gymnastics Championships
The gymnastics championships kick off April 16th, with team semifinals starting at 4:30 PM on ESPN2. Baton Rouge and Tempe regional qualifiers compete first, before Corvallis and Lexington teams take the floor.
The top two teams subsequently advance to Saturday's championship final at 4 PM ET, live on ABC.
NCAA gymnastics takes center stage this week, as top college programs kick off the five-round college tournament ahead of the April 18th four-team championship.
No. 1 Oklahoma returns as both top seed and reigning NCAA champion, followed by No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Florida, and No. 4 UCLA.
The Sooners earned this year's No. 1 seed by posting the highest National Qualifying Score (NQS) at 197.937. LSU follows at 197.917, Florida at 197.700, Alabama at 197.500, and UCLA at 197.478. Oklahoma additionally holds Top 5 rankings across all four individual events, including No. 1 on vault and No. 2 on balance beam.
"It's a make-or-break situation," Sooners head coach KJ Kindler said of the NCAA gymnastic tournament's seeded second round. "You come with it or you don't qualify… It's definitely more intense."
This week's first round sets up the rest of the regional bracket. Each consecutive round subsequently narrows the field before two teams advance to the NCAA final in Fort Worth. The gymnastics championships feature a five-round format that tests consistency and execution under pressure.
Individual athletes will also compete for event and all-around titles. LSU’s Kailin Chio and UCLA's Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles emerged as frontrunners for individual honors, as Chiles brings championship experience and momentum from UCLA's Big Ten title.
"We're coming for y'all," Chiles said after the Bruins' Big Ten championship win. UCLA now looks to avenge last year's NCAA final loss to Oklahoma.
How to Watch the 2026 NCAA Gymnastics Championships
The NCAA gymnastics tournament begins today at 2 PM ET, with the regionals streaming live on ESPN+.
NCAA gymnastics is hitting its stride, with the SEC gearing up to flex its regular-season muscles via a stacked conference schedule.
Fresh off a narrow 0.2-point loss to No. 1 Oklahoma last week, No. 2 LSU will host No. 3 Alabama on Friday night — with the Tigers bolstered after earning a season-high road score of 197.925 against the defending national champion Sooners.
Leading LSU's charge this year is all-around contender Kailin Chio, with the star sophomore not only earning the team's only perfect score of the season so far, but doing it four times, logging 10s on vault, floor exercise, and twice on the balance beam in the last month.
"She's just operating at such an efficient, consistent, extremely high level, and seems to really rise to the occasion in moments where we need her," Tigers head coach Jay Clark said of the nation's second-leading all-arounder.
The Crimson Tide will also come to play on Friday night, with Alabama's best chance to surpass LSU coming on the uneven bars, where junior Chloe LaCoursiere and freshman Azaraya Ra-Akbar currently top the event as the Nos. 1 and 3 gymnasts, respectively, in the country.
With seven of the eight top college gymnastics teams hailing from the SEC, the conference is looking strong in its hunt for a third straight NCAA trophy, with LSU snapping a nine-year SEC title drought in 2024.
Then in 2025, SEC debutants Oklahoma added to the conference streak, securing a seventh program NCAA championship after winning their first six national trophies as a Big 12 team.
How to watch Alabama vs. LSU gymnastics on Friday
The SEC gymnastics titans will meet in Baton Rouge on Friday night, with live coverage beginning when the teams take the mat at 9:30 PM ET on the SEC Network.
Olympic champion Laurie Hernandez is trading the balance beam for Broadway, debuting in the musical & Juliet this spring.
The two-time Olympic medalist will play the dance role of Charmion beginning March 17th. The limited Stephen Sondheim Theatre run marks a career milestone, after Hernandez conquered Season 23 of Dancing with the Stars.
"To make my Broadway debut in & Juliet is a dream come true," Hernandez said in a statement.
"The show is so much fun to watch as an audience member, and I can't wait to join this incredible cast and actually perform in the show each night."
Laurie Hernandez adds to her post-USA Gymnastics résumé
Laurie Hernandez first captured attention at the 2016 Rio Olympics as part of the "Final Five" US Women's Gymnastics team. She won a team gold medal and individual silver on the balance beam in Brazil.
She went on to make headlines several years later, detailing years of emotional and verbal abuse suffered under Team USA coach Maggie Haney in a New York Times interview. USA Gymnastics subsequently suspended Haney for eight years.
After retiring, she became a two-time New York Times bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, and UNICEF Ambassador. The 25-year-old went on to earn a degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in drama and creative writing.
Hernandez's role in & Juliet was previously performed by social media star Charli D'Amelio. The production — which earned nine Tony Award nods — runs through June 14th.
The contested bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics women's gymnastics floor exercise is heading back to court for fresh examination. The same controversy produced an iconic photograph of Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles honoring gold medalist Rebeca Andrade.
Switzerland's supreme court announced Thursday that judges have returned the gymnastics case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to review new evidence in what they termed highly exceptional circumstances. The ruling offers Jordan Chiles renewed hope of reclaiming the bronze medal initially awarded to her in Paris.
The issue centers on whether Team USA submitted a scoring appeal within the required one-minute deadline. Afterwards, Biles and Chiles created a celebrated Olympic moment at the gymnastics medal ceremony when both kneeled to honor Brazil's Andrade as she stepped onto the podium's top position.
Days after, Romania successfully appealed to CAS. The bronze medal was subsequently reassigned to Ana Maria Barbosu and presented to her in Bucharest, with the decision hinging on the US team's challenge.
The Swiss Federal Tribunal now wants CAS to examine recordings from the August 5th event that demonstrate the appeal meeting the deadline. The court indicated this evidence could likely sway the ruling in favor of Chiles.
Chiles' lawyer Maurice M. Suh expressed satisfaction with the decision, stating the video evidence conclusively supports his client's claim to the gymnastics bronze medal. He confirmed Chiles will vigorously defend her position during the review process, which could take at least one year to complete.
The 24-year-old UCLA gymnast has moved forward despite facing online criticism, some racially motivated, following the initial controversy. Chiles returned to the mat for UCLA while embracing opportunities with Dancing with the Stars, Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, and NWSL side Angel City.
Gymnastics superstar Jordan Chiles might have already conquered the world, but she isn’t finished with the record books just yet.
The UCLA star and Olympic gold medalist is officially on Gym Slam watch. According to a recent report from Forbes, Chiles is on the verge of becoming one of the few college gymnasts in history to record a Perfect 10 on all four apparatuses.
The senior already notched perfect marks on her signature events — bars and floor — for fifth-ranked UCLA. Now, Chiles is hunting an elusive 10.0 on vault and beam, intent on joining college gymnastics' most exclusive ranks.
Chiles came close to rounding out the Slam last weekend against Nebraska. That's when the 24-year-old received a Perfect 10 on vault and 9.90 on uneven bars, before posting a 9.975 on beam — a fraction of a point shy of her goal.
Only 15 gymnasts have achieved the Gym Slam, including legends Trinity Thomas, Maggie Nichols, and fellow Bruin Kyla Ross. The milestone would solidify her transition from an Olympic powerhouse to one of college gymnastics' greatest all-arounders.
After a decorated run at the Paris 2024 Games, Chiles returned to UCLA to finish second in both the Big Ten and NCAA all-around rankings.
Chiles will get another shot at history when UCLA visits East Lansing on Sunday to face Big Ten rivals No. 21 Michigan State. However, the pair's head-to-head history favors the Spartans, with the Bruins falling twice to their conference foes in 2025.
How to watch Jordan Chiles compete in UCLA gymnastics
No. 5 UCLA takes on No. 21 Michigan State on Sunday, January 25th at 1 PM ET, live on FOX.
Just one week into the 2026 NCAA season, UCLA women's gymnastics is the nation's No. 1 team for the first time since 2018, with senior Jordan Chiles — a two-time Olympic medalist in her final year of collegiate competition — leading the charge.
"It is really easy to be at the end of your career thinking, 'Okay, I am good with where I am at,' but they do not have that mentality," Bruins head coach Janelle McDonald said of her senior-heavy squad.
Winning the all-around in UCLA's January 3rd opening meet, Chiles is the current all-around No. 1, while also topping the rankings in the uneven bars, balance beam, and floor events, while sitting second in the vault.
"I've got the cutesy, I've done the hip hop," Chiles said of her updated senior floor routine. "This is more like the passionate, confident last year of being a Bruin."
Notably, Chiles and UCLA have a leg up in the scores-based national gymnastics rankings considering they began their 2026 NCAA campaign before most other top programs: Only 14 Division I squads — 10 from the Power Four conferences — have started their seasons so far.
This allowed the Bruins to lead the ranks before the rest of the field could earn any points to challenge UCLA's top spot — though that will change this weekend when the majority of the NCAA's gymnastics squads enter the fray.
Pitting some of the NCAA's best squads against each other, the annual Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad will officially kick off the 2026 season in style this weekend, welcoming 2025 champions Oklahoma, finalists UCLA and Utah, semifinalists LSU and Michigan State, and regional contenders Cal, Kentucky, and Michigan across two four-team sessions on Saturday.
How to watch UCLA at the 2026 Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad
The Bruins will aim to keep their No. 1 spot in the first session of Saturday's the 2026 Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad, where UCLA will battle Oklahoma, Utah, and LSU at 4 PM ET on ABC.
The second session will begin at 8 PM ET, when Michigan State, Cal, Kentucky, and Michigan will compete head-to-head, airing live on ESPN2.