It all comes down to this.
The stage is set for what could be the closest NCAA title race in years. No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 LSU, and No. 3 Florida — three teams that spent most of the season in the top three nationally — join the Cinderella team of the 2026 NCAA season, No. 13 Minnesota, in the 2026 NCAA finals, and we expect this to be a battle that comes down to the final routine.
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Oklahoma
The Sooners made a statement in the semifinals, posting the highest score of the entire day with a 198.3 — and were the only team to break the 198 mark. In the finals, Oklahoma has elected to start on vault and finish on floor — the same draw they’ve basically had all season outside of away meets.
In the semifinals, the Sooners started hot on vault, posting a 49.75, a season high and NCAA championship program high, thanks to five out of six stuck landings. The return of Faith Torrez on this event (her first time vaulting since Feb. 20) couldn’t have come at a better time, with sophomore all‑arounder Addison Fatta limited to just beam in the semifinals after spraining her hand one week ago. Torrez is a veteran who has patiently waited all season for her moment to shine in the all‑around — she also added floor to the mix for the first time this season and won the NCAA title in her first meet back. The other NCAA individual champion on Oklahoma’s squad is junior Kiera Wells, who opened the competition with a stuck Yurchenko 1.5 and posted a near‑perfect score of 9.975. The challenge for the Sooners may be capturing the magic of that 49.75 once again. A score that big is hard to come by in general, let alone in back‑to‑back meets. Granted, they don’t NEED a score that big to win necessarily, but they’ll want several strong vault landings once again in the finals to get a lead early.
The other area that will be telling for the Sooners is bar landings. They stuck three out of six dismounts in the semifinals, which was unusual by their standards.
Head Coach KJ Kindler joked to the media after the semifinals that the team didn’t stick enough bar landings and said more would be coming during the finals.
“Our goal is to get four,” Kindler said. “That’s kind of our magic number. If we can catch four landings on any event, that’s a good spot to be in … Every athlete out there wants to make it to the last night and sometimes they do uncharacteristic things because they’re trying so hard. Sometimes you don’t see all the sticks that you might normally see in moments like this.”
In a meet where it could come down to a half-tenth, the Sooners will need their usual precision on those landings to hold off the other teams. From there, things should be smooth sailing if they can build momentum early on.
On beam, the Sooners are one of the best teams in the country, and floor can also be a very strong event — and, of course, it’s the most familiar one to end on! We should have a pretty good idea by the halfway point of this competition how likely an eighth national title is for the Sooners.
“We always say consistency wins,” Kindler said. “If we can be in the ballpark of what we normally are as human beings and gymnasts, we’re going to come up with a similar score or similar routine every single time.”
Florida
Florida has not won an NCAA title since 2015, but if there was any season in the last decade when it feels like momentum is leading the Gators to that moment, it’s this one. Florida claimed the SEC title about a month ago — topping two of the other teams in the final. They also hold the two highest scores in the entire country with a 198.575 and 198.450.
Florida comes into the finals having scored the second-highest score in semifinals (197.7875), and they have one of the most talented rosters in the country, with names like Kayla DiCello, Skye Blakely, Selena Harris-Miranda and eMjae Frazier leading the charge.
In the semifinals, the Gators went 49.4+ on every event but vault, posting a 49.2250, with no stuck landings. That could be the difference in the end, so getting a few stuck landings will be critical to close the gap if other teams are delivering sticks.
The Gators elected to start on beam, where they are the No. 1 team in the country, and end on bars, where guess what? They’re also the No. 1 team in the country. Bar landings were a struggle for a lot of teams in the semifinals, but the Gators had no problems — getting four of six landings, with just a tiny scootch on DiCello’s landing, which so badly wanted to be the team’s fifth stick.
Finishing on bars just might be the best-case scenario for this Florida team. If they can keep themselves either ahead or closely behind the other teams going into that last event, they will be in the perfect position to go lights on, which they’ve done many times this season, and bring home the trophy.
LSU
The semifinals wasn’t the best day for the LSU Tigers (197.4375), but have no doubt, this team is hungry to get back to the top of the podium.
When talking to the media after the competition, Head Coach Jay Clark described his team as fighters.
“We fought through some serious adversity today,” he said. “We just couldn’t get out of our way for two events (bars and beam), but then we put the pedal to the medal at the end and were able to (advance). Hopefully the air is out of the balloon, we got that off our back. I know everyone has a little bit of PTSD from last year when we did kind of similar things. Now we got that put to bed and hopefully we can get some rest and get back in here Saturday and do the thing.”
Vault and floor were solid and up to the usual standard for this LSU team — it was landings on bars and wobbles on beam that made things interesting heading into that final rotation. On bars, the only stuck landing they saw was from Konnor McClain, who fans weren’t even sure they’d see compete until podium training due to an elbow injury sustained in the regional semifinals.
On beam, the event where the Tigers will end the competition, they were shaky, with only McClain eclipsing the 9.9 mark. LSU will need to be better in the finals if they want any chance of a repeat performance from 2024, when they took home the trophy.
Beam isn’t the ideal event for the Tigers to end on, but they are certainly capable of getting the job done, especially when they have Kailin Chio doing her normal. And don’t forget, the Tigers ended on beam when they won the title in 2024. Granted, McClain is the only one from this current team who was in that lineup, but they’ll be hoping to channel that energy.
It’ll be important for the Tigers to start strong on floor, their best event, and establish a lead early on and also get some confidence and momentum rolling.
Minnesota
Minnesota is in the Final Four — just as we all predicted! But seriously, what a year this Gopher team is having! They continue to beat the odds and put to shame anyone who doubts them. In fact, we’re a little afraid to say that their chances of winning are the lowest out of this group because if there’s one thing this team is going to do, it’s prove everyone wrong.
Being in the Final Four for the first time in program history is already a huge accomplishment, but we can’t help but feel like this Gopher squad has nothing to lose and is going to come in hot during the finals. Nobody is expecting them to win, just like nobody expected them to advance to nationals or to be in the Final Four. A team that can embrace that underdog mentality is a dangerous team — and the Minnesota Gophers are clearly dangerous.
“One thing we told these guys is we can’t go into this meet trying to be perfect. That’s when you hold back, get tight and make mistakes,” Head Coach Jenny Hansen said after the semifinals. “It’s really just do us. Be who we are, do what we’ve been doing every day in practice, and let’s do that. I feel like when we do that, we have performances like tonight, and that’s how we were at the regional finals as well.”
The Gophers posted its best score ever at nationals and the third highest score from the semifinals overall (197.4625), with an event high of 49.4375 on floor.
In the finals the team will start on bars (where Teryn Crump hit a season high 9.9125 and Lacie Saltzmann posted a career high 9.9625 during the semifinals) and end on vault, which isn’t an ideal event for any team to finish on simply because it tends to be the lowest scoring unless you stick. The good news is freshman Arianna Ostrum has really found her groove and knows how to get that landing. She has scored a perfect 10 on vault already in her young career and posted a rotation high 9.925 for the Gophers in the semifinals. Sarah Moraw also has a very clean Yurchenko full that she often lands with minimal deductions.
When you look at scores from the season, Minnesota is the least likely to win the title. But, as we’ve all learned, you can never say never in this sport.
To win its first NCAA title in program history, the Gophers will need to go lights out and compete like they have nothing to lose. If they do that, and the other teams open the door, Minnesota can absolutely do it.