Who will come out on top in the women's gymnastics final?
The GIST: This season flew by faster than you can say “stick it,” and with last night’s semis officially in the books, the individual trophies have been hoisted and the national final is about to take the mat at 4 p.m. ET tomorrow. Let’s leap into the flips and the flops.
The expected: To the shock of absolutely no one, defending champs No. 1 Oklahoma added big performances to their even bigger brains to advance alongside No. 2 Utah and No. 3 Florida. While Florida's early-meet dip had Gator fans sweating, the girlies chomped back thanks to a two-rotation return of star Trinity Thomas.
- Thomas, who didn’t even train for the last two weeks due to injury, flew to a near-perfect 9.95 uneven bars score as well as landing a stellar 9.90 on vault. Make it or break it, indeed.
The surprises: What no one saw coming was the ousting of No. 4 Cal at the hands of No. 6 LSU. The injury-ridden Tigers overcame an adversity-filled season to claim the fourth spot in the finals, largely thanks to junior Haleigh Bryant’s 9.95 floor performance. Could LSU claim two nattys in as many weeks?
- The sad surprise came from No. 4 UCLA, whose season ended in the evening semifinal despite scoring a 197.9125 — higher than both squads who advanced out of the afternoon session. Heartbreaking for the exceptional Bruins.
The champs: The final teams may still be hunting the ’ship, but the individual competitions concluded with five trophies hoisted last night — all won by gymnasts in the second semifinal. Utah senior Maile O’Keefe led the way with perfection on beam to snag both that event and the all-around crown, while Oklahoma’s Olivia Trautman vaulted to a trophy of her own.
- As for the Bruins, their Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles added to her hardware last night by absolutely slaying the bars to a perfect 10 after flipping to the floor title in UCLA’s second rotation.
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