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+.
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.
No. 2-seed Oklahoma won their third NCAA gymnastics championship in four years on Saturday, topping fellow finalists No. 4 Utah, No. 5 UCLA, and No. 7 Missouri with an overall score of 198.0125.
With seven titles since 2014, Oklahoma regains its reputation as the sport's current dynasty, finishing atop the podium after falling short of a three-peat last year.
"Our theme wasn't redemption this year at all," Oklahoma head coach K.J. Kindler told reporters after Saturday's victory.
"Does it make it sweet? Yes, but this team was capable of this last year. We just failed. And people fail all the time. They fail every day. And we talk about [it] all the time that the glory is in getting back up again."
Freedom allowed Oklahoma to reclaim NCAA gymnastics crown
Last year, the then-defending champion Sooners stumbled in a shocking loss in the national semifinals, a fate the 2024 champion LSU squad similarly suffered last Thursday, when the top-seeded Tigers failed to advance to the final meet of 2025.
Between overcoming the semifinals hurdles themselves and seeing LSU ousted — arguably Oklahoma's biggest competition entering the weekend — the Sooners were able to breathe easier and enjoy their last competition of the season.
"After advancing, and we got to today, we were free," said senior Audrey Davis. "We had no weight on our shoulders. We were free to do our best gymnastics."
That freedom had the Sooners leading the charge, finishing their first rotation on beam tied with eventual runners-up UCLA before taking full control of the meet — Oklahoma grabbed a second-rotation lead on the floor and never relinquished it.
As for the rest of the field, Missouri earned a program-record third-place finish in their first-ever NCAA final, while nine-time champions Utah closed their season in fourth.
For Oklahoma senior Jordan Bowers, the final weekend of her collegiate career was one for the books.
In addition to the team title, Bowers won the individual all-around competition during Thursday's semifinals — a day that also crowned LSU’s Kailin Chio (vault), Missouri’s Helen Hu (beam), and UCLA's Jordan Chiles (uneven bars) and Brooklyn Moors (floor) as national apparatus champions.
"Just truly a fairytale ending," Bowers said on the ABC broadcast. "I'm so freaking proud of this team, and I'm so proud to be a Sooner."
Eight top squads are edging closer to Saturday’s 2025 NCAA gymnastics championships team trophy, with the pivotal semifinal round kicking off on Thursday afternoon.
No. 2-seed Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 7 Missouri, and No. 11 Alabama will hit the mat first, before 2024 winners and the 2025 bracket's No. 1-seed LSU goes to work to defend their title against No. 4 Utah, No. 5 UCLA, and No. 8 Michigan State.
The top two teams from each of Thursday's semifinals will advance to compete for the national title on Saturday.
Semifinal meets will crown individual NCAA champions
First, however, five individual NCAA trophies will be bestowed on Thursday night, as the semifinal meets will determine the 2025 all-around and event champions.
In addition to the athletes on the eight qualifying teams, four all-around competitors and 16 event specialists will join the race for solo NCAA hardware, with each earning an invite as the top performer in their respective category at one of the sport's four Regional tournaments.
These individual contenders will follow a qualified team's rotation schedule during their semifinal meet.
Leading the all-around pack is LSU star and 2024 individual champ Haleigh Bryant, though she'll face stiff competition in her bid for a back-to-back championship.
Standing in Bryant's path are Oregon State's Jade Carey, Arkansas's Joscelyn Roberson, Denver's Madison Ulrich, and Washington's Mary McDonough, alongside qualified team athletes like UCLA's Jordan Chiles — Carey’s 2024 Olympics teammate.
Bryant will also defend her shared 2024 vault title, though her co-champion on that event, Cal's Mya Lauzon, will instead compete for beam and floor hardware this week.
All other 2024 event winners are also back, with LSU's Konnor McClain and Florida's Leanne Wong seeking to repeat on beam and floor, respectively. Wong will also hunt another trophy on bars, alongside last year's co-champ, Utah's Grace McCallum.
How to watch the 2025 NCAA Gymnastics Championships
The first 2025 NCAA gymnastics semifinal starts at 4:30 PM ET on Thursday, followed by the second semi at 9 PM ET.
Live coverage of both semifinal meets will air on ESPN2.
With the 2025 NCAA gymnastics season in full swing, top collegiate athletes are already eyeing mid-April's national championship in Fort Worth, Texas.
Unlike elite gymnastics, where difficulty can outweigh execution, the college level values precision over big tricks, so Division I athletes all aim for perfect 10s in their competition performances.
Despite this difference, many of the world's most decorated elite gymnasts also compete in the NCAA. Two-time Olympian Jade Carey is back for her senior season with No. 14 Oregon State while her US teammate in both Tokyo and Paris, Jordan Chiles, is entering her junior year at No. 11 UCLA.
The Bruin, who took the 2024 NCAA season off to prepare for last summer's Olympics, will attempt to reclaim the national titles on uneven bars and floor exercise that she earned in 2023.
Top teams poised for the podium
After earning their first national title last spring, No. 2 LSU is hitting the 2025 mat armed with a stacked roster, headlined by 2024 all-around champion Haleigh Bryant and social media star Livvy Dunne.
Add in last year's freshman phenom Konnor McClain, whose prowess on the balance beam ultimately clinched LSU the NCAA trophy, and 2024 Olympic alternate Kaliya Lincoln, who opened her NCAA career with a 9.825 vault two weeks ago, and the Tigers are more than capable of a back-to-back run.
LSU isn't the only SEC team predicted to make a deep run this season, as the conference is once again flush with perennial contenders.
Elite US stars Kayla DiCello and early Freshman of the Year frontrunner Skye Blakely will join two-time US Olympic alternate Leanne Wong in trying to return No. 7 Florida to the NCAA championship meet. At the same time, new SEC team No. 1 Oklahoma, winner of seven of the last 10 NCAA trophies, could see senior Jordan Bowers de-throne Bryant for the 2025 all-around title.
Also causing early national championship chatter are 2024 finalists No. 5 Cal, who return two of the country's best all-arounders in senior Mya Lauzon and junior eMjae Frazier, and Big Ten champs No. 6 Michigan State, whose veteran-heavy lineup boasts stars Skyla Schulte and Sage Kellerman.
How to watch NCAA gymnastics this weekend
Some of the country's top NCAA gymnasts will take the mat when No. 7 Florida visits No. 2 LSU at 7:30 PM ET on Friday. Live coverage will air on ESPN2.