FORT WORTH, Texas – The Oklahoma Sooners gymnastics team stood in a circle, looking only at each other, as the crowd at Dickies Arena focused on the balance beam.
The Sooners’ day ended with another high-scoring floor routine by senior Faith Torrez, and it all came down to LSU sophomore Kailyn Chio on balance beam.
While the rest of the crowd on the field was cheering, gasping and wondering, no one looked away from the Oklahoma crowd. They lay in each other’s arms for the next several moments. Head coach KJ Kindler later said that he told his team how proud he was of them but admitted that he did not know what would happen next.
“Boy, when we were meeting after our last floor routine, I had no idea,” Kindler said. “We didn’t know what position we’d end up in, but what I said to them was, ‘You did everything you could.'”
All that was enough.
And when Chiyo’s final score – 9.90 – appeared on the screen, her fate was sealed and reality began to set in.
Oklahoma won its eighth national title – since 2014 and under Kindler’s leadership – with a total score of 198.1625. That was .0875 points better than LSU, and almost half a point better than third-place Florida.
Minnesota, making its championship meet debut, finished fourth after playing spoiler to Utah in the regional finals and UCLA in the semifinals. Immediately after the final score was announced, there were chants of “Boomer Sooner” in the crowd, long hugs and tears of joy, confetti was thrown over the loudspeakers as “We Are the Champions” and balloons with the number 8 were seen throughout the stands and on the floor.
While winning national titles has become synonymous with the Oklahoma program over the past decade, Saturday’s title was hardly a guarantee. The Sooners were narrowly edged out for the SEC Championship title by Florida last month and had to reconfigure their lineup this week when second-year sophomore Addison Fatta, an all-around staple for the team throughout the season, injured her hand and was limited to beam only. And on Saturday, the team had a challenging beam rotation that saw a fall from Keira Wells and a 9.735 count from Fatta, and LSU fell behind entering the final rotation of the day after holding the lead the rest of the meet.
But after beam, which ended with strong performances from freshman Ella Murphy, which Kindler later called the “most nervous” experience of her life, as well as Lily Pederson and Torrez, the Sooners came together and regrouped.
“We just reminded ourselves to go for it, leave everything on the floor,” Torrez said. “As KJ said, ‘Leave everything on the floor. Just be aggressive, don’t play it safe and you know what we have to do.’ But we did a good job staying in our bubble, so we were really focused on us.”
Pederson said she was able to relax despite the pressure, because she knew it was somewhat out of her hands.
“None of us were really paying attention to the score because at the end of the day, if we do our best gymnastics, that’s all we can ask for,” Pederson said. “We can’t control the score. And I think that’s what we all did.”
On the floor, the Sooners dominated whichever event Kindler and his staff chose to close out. Inspired by Torrez’s 9.95, and not needing scores under 9.90 to count, Oklahoma left nothing to chance.
And meanwhile, the Tigers, the 2024 champions, had a fall of their own to Lexi Zeis on beam and couldn’t make up the difference with the rest of their lineup.
Kindler credited LSU for “making it extra, extra tough” and “pushing us to our limits.”
For Torrez, who has been limited all season due to injury, the weekend was a fairy-tale cap to a historic collegiate career. After not being able to compete all the way through the season, Torrez was able to compete in all four events for the first time in Thursday’s semifinals. Despite her lack of experience this year, she won the individual national title, shocking Chiyo and several other talented gymnasts, and helping the Sooners post the highest score ever entering the championships.
“It’s a dream come true,” Torrez said of her final two meets as a college gymnast.
With Saturday’s win, the Sooners passed UCLA in the all-time standings to occupy third place. Georgia still owns the record with 10, and Utah has nine. The mark also ties the team with Oklahoma’s renowned softball team for the most women’s programs at the school.
Kindler told reporters that she would never have believed it if anyone had told her when she took the job in 2006 how successful she would be – but she stressed that she does not take the feeling of winning a national championship lightly.
“I mean, I was in disbelief today,” Kindler said. “We were just on the edge of our seats. I honestly couldn’t believe it. They’re all so different. They’re all unique and they’re all incredibly special. You can’t shake the feeling of accomplishing something like this.
“And all credit goes to the athletes. All the things we’ve been through this year.” [championship] The teams are special in many different ways. You have different memories depending on what part of it [specific] Personnel, but that euphoric feeling never goes away.”
