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.
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.
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+.
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."