Highlights of the semi-finals of NCAA 2025 gymnastics – Blogging Sole

Highlights of the semi-finals of NCAA 2025 gymnastics – Blogging Sole

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April 18, 2025, 12:54 p.m.

Fort Worth, Texas – Eight teams participated NCAA gymnastics semi-finals Thursday at Dickies Arena with a chance to go to the final on Saturday.

After a day which included an amazing upheaval of the defending champion LSU, four teams remain. And now, the scene is planned for a convincing conclusion in the 2025 season featuring the favorite Oklahoma, the historic powers of UTAH and UCLA and a first finalist in Missouri.

LSU, The 2024 champion This ended the regular season classified n ° 1 and won the title of the SEC last month, was amazed during the second well -contested session of the day, beaten by the UCLA in second place by 0.2125 points. The team seemed devastated while the final scores flashed on the screens of the arena, sealing its fate. The tigers were 0.2,375 points behind Utah, the winner of the session.

“Tonight’s competition was absolutely everything you can hope for in a national championship,” said UCLA coach Janelle McDonald. “It was so elbow and neck and just such a fight for each event and each routine. It was an incredible competition to be part.”

The Florida, which finished the regular season classified n ° 3, was also sent home early, when the Gators finished in third place in the first session.

Jordan Bowers of Oklahoma won the versatile title with a 39,7125, barely beating Grace McCallum from Utah, his compatriot Faith Torrez and Jade Carey de l’Oregon State.

Who else seduced Thursday? And who else has won event titles at home? In case you have missed one of the actions, we have covered you.

Return of Sooners

The Oklahoma Sooners knew that all the eyes were on them in the first semi-final on Thursday and for a good reason. During the semi-finals of last year, the team arrived as the favorite seeking to win its third consecutive title from the NCAA team.

But after the team recorded three important landing errors during their first rotation on Vault, the dreams of the Sooners were destroyed and they were given one of the most shocking upheavals of recent memory. Since then, coach KJ Kindler said she had 364 long days to think about what happened and had been bombed to see images of the competition over and over again.

By coincidence, and perhaps poetically, the Sooners had to finish the meeting on Thursday on Vault, but Torrez and Bowers – the two versatile teams who both had difficulties in the event last year – insisted that the journalists did not let them confuse me.

And this confidence worked. No one fell during the event, and Oklahoma recorded a 49,2750 session record on Vault to win the first semi-final with a 197,5500. Bowers, a senior and the anchor of the event, had a summit of the 9.8875 team, the second highest score in the first semi-final.

Bowers and Torrez also scored 9.95 on their routines on the ground – well enough for second place – to raise the team and continue the quest for a seventh national championship.

Kindler could not help spending last year in his opening comments to journalists on Thursday after the session.

“I never want to see Oklahoma television images fall back into the safe,” said Kindler. “This dragon is killed and we have exceeded it.”

Kindler added that she was proud of the team, but admitted that it was far from her best performance and knew that the Sooners could do better.

“We were certainly not our best,” said Kindler. “It was as if we were a little rivaled with a little weight on our shoulders. We must therefore compete with more freedom, more faith. ”

Missouri History

Upon entering the competition, the Missouri had never qualified for the final, and its best result at the NCAA championships was a fifth place. But all this changed behind certain exceptional performance and the efforts of the meeting of Helen Hu.

Fighting by routine in the final rotation with Florida, the Missouri closed the day in the beam. And everything went down to Hu, the last gymnast of Tigers on the event and a specialist in the beam which Back to the team for a fifth year after sitting in the 2024 season.

Driving with a quarter of a tenth of point where she started her routine, Hu was almost impeccable, winning a 9.9875 to secure second place on the team and hit her first ticket for the final. She also won the title of NCAA beam.

The team started to celebrate as soon as Hu’s score was shown on video advice – and once again when the Florida’s final score appeared shortly after. Missouri has ahead of Florida 197.3,000 to 197.2000.

The members of the Missouri team could still be heard shouting and cheers to celebrate long after the end of the competition in the corridors of the arena near the locker room. Hu said she was not aware of the score she needed until she finished participating.

“I’m just going, it’s my bundle routine, we need it or we don’t do it, I’m going to go up and do what I’m still doing,” said Hu. “And so I really had no idea of ​​the situation. And when we surrounded and said:” Whether we do it or not, we can be proud of what we have done today. “And I agree with that, then maybe 10 seconds later, the score appeared and I’m just shocking.

Coach Shannon Welker – who joked by saying that he was late at his press conference because he renegotiated his contract – said he was proud of what his team has accomplished but was not surprised.

“I really felt like it was a special team this year, and we had the opportunity to be the best team in the history of gymnastics at the University of Missouri, and it would therefore have mean that we should be at least fifth. It was the highest,” said Welker. “So, today, we obviously exceeded this, but it’s so pleasant to see what I thought was really materialized. … (I am) really excited to be there on Saturday.”

Battle for night

How tight was the night session on Thursday? The four teams – Utah, UCLA, LSU and Michigan State – were less than 1875 points entering the final rotation. And UTAH, UCLA and LSU were all less than 0.0750. Needless to say, the crowd seemed to live and breathe with each routine and score.

But it was the Utah and the UCLA that came out in the lead behind the valiant effort of the Red Rocks on the bars and the impressive performance of the Bruins on the beam. The two teams were happy when the final scores were shown and they achieved what it meant. McCallum closed it for Utah with a 9.9625 and Emma Malabuyo did the same for the UCLA with a 9.975 giant.

Amelie Morgan of Utah said that everyone was aware of proximity, but neither her nor her teammates, did not let him have an impact on their performances or their confidence.

“I think it’s always one thing in gymnastics,” keep your eyes on your own team and don’t worry about anyone else “, but at some point, you realize that it is quite close,” said Morgan. “But I think that for us and throughout this season, we have really insisted on having no doubt, and I know for me and almost our whole team, there was no doubt in our mind that we were not going to do it. And even if it was so close, I think we knew we could do it. We knew that we are well and I think that was what did.”

Utah, a champion nine times the NCAA, and the UCLA, seven times champion, are now back on a familiar territory and will both seek the ultimate equipment on Saturday. It would take a long time for both, but especially Utah, which has not won since 1995. The UCLA won the title in 2018 for the last time.

Event champions

In addition to Bowers winning the versatile title and the victory of Hu’s Beam, three other gymnasts have become individual champions of the NCAA.

Although it is a disappointing night for LSU as a team, Kailin Chio still managed to close his first year season announced with Place du Podium sur Vault with a 9.975 for its Yurchenko 1.5.

The Chiles of the UCLA, already twice NCAA champion and Olympic gold medalist, won the best honors on unequal bars with an almost perfect 9.975. The delighted reaction of Chiles after having glued its double disc laying showed how much it meant for it.

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Jordan Chiles made tears after stuck to landing on the bar routine

Jordan Chiles sticks the landing on a bar routine and is emotional while tightening his trainer.

And Brooklyn Moors, his chile teammate and an Olympian colleague, caught his first national championship with his sensational floor routine that received praise and raised scores all season. She obtained a 9.9625 at the first UCLA event of the evening. The Moors described the individual honor of “icing on the top”, but said that the real price was to go to the final on Saturday with his team.

“We are here to do so for the team,” said Moors. “And I think I say it every time, (but) this team is something special and when we assembled it, it’s quite incredible.”

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