After the exciting season, full of dynamic performances and often stunning results, the NCAA gymnastics championships in 2025 are finally up to us and only eight teams remain in rivalry for the final crown.
Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, Dickies Arena, Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri and Alabama will start the event in the first semifinals on Thursday (16:30 et on ESPN2), while LSU, Utah, UCL and Michigan State will compete in the evening (21:00 ET on ESPN2). The two best teams from each semifinal will advance to the Saturday team finals (16:00 ET on ABC) and the individual winners will be appointed on Thursday after the second semifinals.
According to analyst ESPN and 2015, NCAA Master Samantha Peszek will be a weekend.
“I think it’s one of the strictest fields in a really long time, maybe sometimes,” Peszek said on Friday. “I think all eight of these teams are very competitive and this year it showed moments of size that could face any team in the country.”
So for the time being, we will leave us countless questions about how the competition will be played. Can LSU successfully defend his title to return to his back? Will Oklahoma get a trophy after a shocking disturbance of the event in 2024? Can Florida, Utah or UCLA or any of the other teams surprise and capture fame? And who will entertain the highest individual honor of the annual competition all around? Here’s everything you need to know that it goes to the last weekend of the Gymnastics College season.
Champions
This time LSU was in four NCAAs a year ago, but never secured the best place of the stage.
But of course, everything changed last April. Tigers earned the wild season and managed to capture the first national championship, the hero of the winner of the ubiquitous Haleigh Bryant and the triumphant final rotation on the beam in which the team has gained the highest collective score (49,7625) in the history of the event.
The victory was inspired Bryant to return to the fifth yearAnd maybe it’s not on his list charged with talent than LSU. This depth has been proven during the season. The team led by Bryant, Aleah Finnegan and Konnor McClain and Freshman Phenom Kailin Chio, the team ended a regular season of 1 and on the vault and in the first five at the other events. LSU lost twice this season – she finished second behind Oklahoma on the Sprouts Farmers Collegiate Quad during the second week and to Arkansas on the road two weeks later.
At the Sec Championships last month, which included Oklahoma for the first time, LSU won the highest score with 198,200 and won the sixth conference title. At the beginning of this month, Tigers won in Pennsylvania Regional and their 198.050 was the second highest score in the entire regional competition. The team seems to be more than able to start it back.
In January, head coach Jay Clark said that the goal of the team for this year was to win titles SEC and NCAA, but in his approach and expectation was pragmatic.
“We present (our goals) soon and then we are not talking about them again,” Clark ESPN said. “We put our head down and went to work and tried to go one step by one. We recognize small targets along the road much more than we focus on some final result that if this happens with your existence, you will end up disappointing several times than not.
“Of course we want to win again. It will be this year? I don’t know. We’re just working on it.”
Redemption
In the last decade, no team has closed the status of the “dynasty” than Oklahoma. Soors arrived in Fort Worth last year as a double ruling champagne and looked ready to reach three peat.
Everyone knows what happened next. During the opening rotation of the team on the vault during the semifinals, Oklahoma had three gymnasts that suffered from the main mistakes of the landing and the team was fourth in the fourth place and headed for their second event. Despite the brave efforts for the rest of the meeting with Sooners, they could not end the deficit since 2012 and since 2012 they handed over their earliest east.
But that was then.
From this shocking result, Sooons accepted their status “underdog” (be clear, These are their words And maybe no one else) and find motivation in what happened. It worked.
The team led by Jordan Bowers and Faith Torrez and the fifth year of postgraduate student Audrey Davis was dominant throughout the season. Oklahoma did not win the title at the SeC championships, instead he finished second and lost in a regular seasonal awning match with LSU. But the team won everything else and that’s not an exaggeration.
The Sooners score from 198,450 received a regional final in Washington and was the highest score in all regions. And the Bowers earned three perfect 10.0 scores during this competition (on the safe, bars and floor). Oklahoma enters the NCAA championship with the average score of the highest season (197,908) in the country and for most of the season was in the first place.
As Sooners learned last year, anything is possible in Fort Worth. However, head coach KJ KJ said ESPN after the first team meeting that they believe that last year’s result will only help them this season.
“We own what happened, we are responsible for what happened. We made a mistake. Oh my God, we are people. It’s a hard time to make a mistake, but it happened. Ignoring would be stupid because the rest of the country doesn’t ignore it, so we don’t build it, we use it to improve us.”
Other candidates
LSU and Oklahoma are popular titles, but there are several other teams to raise the trophy on Saturday.
After a strong season, which included victory over colleagues from the elite eight teams Utah, Michigan State, Missouri and Alabama, no. 3 Florida won – by 0.025 points! – its regional finals for the 22nd time in the history of the program. With Leanne Wong and Selena Harris-Miranda, they both ranked in the first five at the national level in the world, Gators will try to advance to Saturday “four on the floor” for the fifth year and win their fourth title NCAA and the first since 2015.
According to ESPN analyst John Roethlisberger, who won three times three times during his college career, they have what it means. He said Florida was in the “Top Tier” competition, along with LSU and Oklahoma, but added an objection.
“Florida can have the highest ceiling of any team at the NCAA championships,” Roethlisberger said. “But they also had some fluctuations. They went to the bars at the Sec Championships and built a record NCAA score and then went to beam and had many other teams across the country for their standards – but it was a big step back and finished third.”
Similar possibilities can be said about the nine -time NCAA team, which competes in its 49 (!) Setting National Championship. Red rocks are included in the fourth No. 4 and come from the incredible debut season in a large 12 after winning the titles of regular season and championship. Olympic silver medalist Grace McCallum from 2020, now senior and ruling Big 12 champion in All-Around and vault, Utah has not lost a meeting from falling on Florida on February 2. finally Being a year when Red Rocks will end drought and win the first NCAA championship since 1995?
UCLA, the former Utah conference PAC-12, was equally successful in the first year in Big Ten. After a faint start of the season, Bruins No. 6-evaluation swept the conference competitions, won a regular season and won the conference championship with a big ten record of 198.450. This performance was evidenced by how good the team can be when it’s the best. Chae Campbell won the title of versatile And Jordan Chiles (Floor), Brooklyn Moors (Floor) and Cien Alipio (Beam) earned a perfect 10.0s during the competition. In the UCLA area, he competed in Utah and only two tenths of the point in the regional finals ended in the first place in Utah. Bruins are now advanced for the first time for the first time to Saturday’s championship since 2019 – and then win their eighth NCAA title and first since 2018.
And do not count No. 5 Michigan State, No. 7 Missouri and No. 8 Alabama. All three teams did it so far for some reason. Roethlisberger said the Spartans would be fashionable.
“If someone in the country goes through a long shot if we could go to a sports book in vegas for gymnastics, I think many people would like to give money for a Michigan state,” Roethlisberger said. “You will have great chances and have only this fire and this Panache that many other teams do not have.”
Distinction
One of the most interesting aspects of the NCAA championships is to include individual qualifiers-the most common versatile competitor and Top Finišer at every event from every regional who are not part of a competitive team. These gymnasts become almost temporary team members because they rotate during the semifinal competition with a new group. Some remarkable pairing this week includes Oregon State’s Jade Carey with LSU and Arkansas’ Josceln Roberson with Utah. Oklahoma called Denver’s Madison Ulrich, who will rotate with Sooons, “extra special bonus teammate” In a post on social media.
These individuals also have their eyes on some glossy new hardware. Carey, senior and triple Olympic medalist, had a historical season. Carey was the first in the nation in the nation and beam at the first season, even during the fourth place Oregon State in the regional finals. The four -time NCAA finalist, including last season, Carey will try to close his decorated collegial career with the final individual title.
𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 Routine for meeting Week on Monday.#Mwm x #Gobeavs pic.twitter.com/pak2hriyua
– Oregon State Gymnastics (@beavergym) April 1 2025
Roberson, an alternative to the US Olympic team in Paris, also had a newcomer season for Razorbacks and could impress its debut NCAA Championships.
“It was really fun to watch Joscen only accepts the university gymnastic world,” said ESPN analyst and six -time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman. “And he is also a phenomenal competitor and (I am) really excited as he does in his first national championship.”
While Carey is popular for a versatile crown due to her seasonal results, Bryant LSU could have repeated and her teammate Chio could also close his brilliant season of newcomers. Oklahoma’s Bowers and Torrez could say, like Florida Wong and Harris-Miranda, Utah’s McCallum or UCLA Campbell or Chiles. One thing is for sure: Thursday’s meeting with stars will be an epic battle between some of the best and brightest sports.
