FORT WORTH, Texas — The stage is set.
Saturday at 2 p.m. MDT in Dickies Arena, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 4 Utah, No. 5 UCLA and No. 7 Missouri will compete for the 2025 national championship.
It will be a winner-take-all competition televised on ABC.
Oklahoma is looking to return to the top of the sport after a one-season hiatus. Utah is trying to end a 30-plus year streak of not winning a national championship. UCLA is in position to win its first national title since 2018. And Missouri is hoping to pull off perhaps the greatest underdog story in women’s college gymnastics history.
Who will win? When all is said and done which team will be the best that 2025 had to offer?
These four events — one per team — will go a long toward determining that.
Oklahoma on vault
Oklahoma’s Audrey Davis competes during a meet Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. | John Amis, AP
These are not the Oklahoma Sooners of 2023, 2022, 2019, 2017 or 2016.
Don’t be mistaken, the Sooners very easily could win another national championship Saturday. They are the highest ranked seed remaining, the most proven team on every event and the roster is replete with talented gymnasts.
But, OU has shown vulnerabilities this season. LSU demonstrated that multiple times during the regular season by beating the Sooners and it was on display Thursday in the afternoon semifinals of the NCAA gymnastics championships.
Oklahoma won the meet easily enough, advancing alongside Missouri, but the Sooners weren’t sharp across the board. This version of Oklahoma has cracks. Where might those cracks show up the most in the national championship meet? It has to be vault.
At the end of the regular season Oklahoma was the No. 3 team in the country on vault, with a national qualifying score (NQS) of 49.475. OU even hit as high as a 49.625 on the event, the second highest registered by any team in the country.
Oklahoma has vaulters. But in the national semifinal they only scored a 49.1250 on vault. Not a single Sooner scored in the 9.9 range, with Jordan Bowers leading the way with a 9.8875. There were multiple under-rotated vaults‚ not as egregious as the ones from the national semifinals in 2024, but still notable. And sticks were nearly impossible to come by.
Vault is, currently, the most volatile event in NCAA women’s gymnastics. It is the event most ripe for mistakes on landings, when sticks are of utmost importance.
How the Sooners compete on vault Saturday will determine if they win another national title. Do what they did Thursday and Oklahoma will open the door for Utah, UCLA and Missouri. Do what they have proven capable of at times throughout the season and Oklahoma could slam the door on the competition by the end of the third rotation.
Utah on beam
Utah’s Amelie Morgan competes on the balance beam during the NCAA championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday, April 17, 2025. | AP
It happened again.
The once-vaunted beam lineup for Utah fell well short of its potential Thursday in the national semifinals with a score of 49.2125.
It was some of the usual and some not. Camie Winger continued to struggle, after what was an All-American season on beam. Grace McCallum too was shaky, a trend that somewhat defies logic. But even Amelie Morgan, ever the stalwart in the leadoff position, had a rough go with multiple notable balance checks during her routine.
Ranked No. 3 on the event to end the regular season, Utah has struggled mightily throughout the postseason on beam. At the Salt Lake City regional and now at nationals.
The Ronald McDonald house welcomes the Red Rocks
Utah was able to overcome its beam struggles Thursday, due in part to standout rotations on floor and bars. And the Red Rocks have managed to overcome their beam struggles in previous meets as well. At some point though — Saturday in particular — it may become too much to ask, especially with a national title on the line.
The Red Rocks compete on beam during the second rotation of Saturday’s national championship meet. In theory, there should be less pressure on the lineup, since it won’t be the first or last event of the day for Utah.
Utah also very clearly has talent on beam, some talent that isn’t even competing right now — sophomore Elizabeth Gantner was part of Utah’s beam lineup at the national championships last season.
If Utah is going to end its title drought it will need to return to form on beam. Otherwise, the Red Rocks will be at the mercy of the other teams competing.
UCLA on vault
Vault has, rankings notwithstanding, been UCLA’s most troublesome event this season. The Bruins have many capable vaulters, but rarely do they vault well at the same time.
Ranked No. 7 in the country on vault at the end of the regular season, UCLA had moments of greatness on the event at the Salt Lake City regional.
On Thursday night, however, UCLA was far from elite. UCLA scored a 49.2375, lowest of the four teams that competed in the evening semifinal. Only Chae Campbell scored a 9.9 or better.
Making matters worse, Mika Webster-Longin, one of UCLA’s better vaulters, was injured and her status for the national championship meet is unclear.
UCLA doesn’t start or end the national title meet on vault — it is the team’s second event following floor. That should take some of the pressure off the event. But vault has done UCLA in during nearly every loss this season, including three against Utah.
Add in the fact that it is the most volatile event in the sport and UCLA’s vault performance Saturday could very well determine the national champion.
Do well and the Bruins have shown they can score as well as any team. Their other three events are capable of massive scores.
Do poorly, though, and UCLA could quickly eliminate itself from national title contention.
Missouri on floor
Missouri’s Kennedy Griffin competes on the floor exercise during the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday, April 17, 2025. | Tony Gutierrez, AP
Over the course of the regular season, Missouri proved itself as good as any team on two events — bars and floor. The Tigers were question marks, when compared to other elite teams, on beam and vault but you could always count on their floor and bars rotations.
That wasn’t the case in the national semifinal, on floor specifically.
Entering the postseason, Missouri boasted the fourth-best floor lineup in the country, but on Thursday the Tigers registered a 49.2250 on the event. That was the lowest score on floor by any of the eight teams that competed in the national semifinals.
Missouri is a long shot to win the national title. The Tigers pulled off a major upset of Florida to make it to the national championship meet and gymnastics has a tendency to treat underdogs poorly when it counts the most.
Missouri will have no chance of making history if it doesn’t perform up to is capabilities on floor. On Thursday, no Tiger scored a 9.9 on the event, the high score being a pair of 9.8750s from Kennedy Griffin and Jocelyn Moore.
If Missouri wants to be competitive Saturday, that can’t happen again.
Floor is the final event of the day for the Tigers. If they perform at the level they’re capable of, the Tigers could be well positioned to storm past a couple teams in the final rotation.
If Missouri performs anything like it did Thursday, though, the odds are good that it will finish in last place among the four teams. The wealth of talent is too significant at Oklahoma, Utah and UCLA for Missouri to underperform, especially on one of its strongest events.
Utah’s Grace McCallum celebrates the team after competing on the uneven bars during the NCAA gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday, April 17, 2025. | AP
