I can’t believe we’re here, you guys!!! It’s all led to this. The NCAA Regionals. The goal, obviously, is to advance to the NCAA National Championships in Fort Worth in a few weeks, just as they did last year when they shocked the country and ended up in third place, beating out Utah in the national championships.
But first, the Tigers have to get past at least three of the four teams in their Lexington Regional Round 2, Session 1 quad meet (more on them in a bit) on Friday, and then after advancing
to Sunday’s finals, they must again place in the top two in another quad meet to make it to nationals. My palms are sweating just thinking about it. Not because I’m nervous for this team, mind you, but because the anticipation of this time of the season and being in attendance IN Lexington for Karen’s First Regionals is killing me.
Also, I simply can’t wait til this Tiger team proves all them haters wrong, because just like a year ago when people bizarrely picked Georgia to advance over Missouri despite no rhyme or reason as to why that would actually happen, this year the “hot” pick is Arkansas over Mizzou. I simply don’t see it. Not in a delusional way, but in the way that is shown through data that the GymBacks are NOT a good road team; they have ONE good score this season in a road meet, a meet that, per one source, is famously so “notorious for its overscoring they don’t offer a stream.” [editor’s note: this is no hate to Arkansas; I like many people on their team]
But seriously, if the bracket goes chalk, Regional Finals quite literally will be an SEC meet, with the Sooners, Tigers, Razorbacks & Wildcats facing off. I’m not convinced it will end up chalk, however.
“We’re excited to return to obviously NCAA Regionals again. I think it’s really an expectation for us. We’re a two seed for the second year in a row, and so that’s exciting. And you know, I think for a travel standpoint, for our team and for our fans, that’s about as good as we could have asked for… I think our grouping is good. I think that should give us a lot of confidence.”
“We have seen every seeded team in our regional, and we’ve had a lot of success against many of them this year on a couple of occasions, including SEC Championships. So I think that’s good. We were at Kentucky this year. We already competed there and won there, so I’m excited to get back there, and I think that’s going to bode well for our team.”
Meet Info
When: Friday, April 3, 2026
Where: Historic Memorial Coliseum | Lexington, KY
Time: 12:00pm CST
TV: ESPN+
Live Stats: Virtius— https://virti.us/session?s=-yOiSzDV0T
Order of Events: Mizzou will compete on Bars —> Beam —> Floor —> Vault | NC State will start on Vault, Maryland on beam, and Arkansas on floor.
“I feel like we’ve opened the last few weekends pretty strong on bars,” Shannon said at the team’s selection show party. “I would anticipate you’ll see a lot of us starting on bars the next few meets during our regional rounds, and I think that’s been a good event for us to start on. And we just ended really strong at SEC championships on vault. So that really kind of puts those two in play, probably both days.”
Leotard Prediction— The Tigers will debut their fourth leo of the season in this meet, and I honestly can’t recall what this one looks like, ha.
Format: There are four judges at regional meets and the high and low are dropped, counting the middle two scores.
Should the Tigers place in the top two — they should easily be in the top two of their session, barring any gymcastrophes— they’ll then face the top two from the day’s later session, which includes #1 Oklahoma, #16 Kentucky (also the host school), #18 Ohio State, and the winner of the April 1 play-in, #31 Central Michigan and #36 Rutgers. That session is slated to start at 6pm CT on Friday on ESPN+. The Regional Final will be on Sunday, April 5 at 4pm CST on ESPNU.
What To Expect At The Venue
Historic Memorial Coliseum is also the home of women’s hoops and volleyball. The coliseum was recently renovated in 2025 in honor of its 75th anniversary and was considered a massive investment in women’s sports facilities. The Tigers already have familiarity with the location, having just competed there on February 13.
“I think our grouping is good. I think that’s should give us a lot of confidence. You know, obviously, we’ve seen all of it, pretty much all. We have seen every seeded team in our regional, and we’ve had a lot of success against many of them this year on a couple of occasions, including SEC championships last weekend. So So I think that’s good. We were at Kentucky this year. We already competed there and won there, so I’m excited to get back there, and I think that’s that’s going to bode well for our team.”
The Teams
What do the teams the #8 Missouri Tigers will face in Friday’s Round II Session I of the NCAA Regional?
They’re all red teams. SO MUCH RED. You all know I love a team color coordinated chart around here, and that makes it hard when to distinguish when all the teams have the same main color.
#8 Missouri Tigers: Mizzou Gold (#fdb719) | Tiger Paw Black (#000000)
#21 NC State Wolfpack: Wolfpack Red (#cc0000) | Wolfpack Black (#000000) | Wolfpack White (#ffffff)
#9 Arkansas Razorbacks: Razorback Red (#9d2235) | Apple Blossom (#ffffff) — it’s white, you guys, why we getting fancy here?
#27 Maryland Terrapins: Maryland Red (#e21833) | Maryland Gold (#ffd200) | White (#ffffff) | Black (#000000)
Bonus points will be awarded if you know which of the reds belong to which team without looking it up. One of them I think is obvious, but even right now, looking at this after making this graphic a few days ago, I can’t distinguish between the other two.
“If you look at our team scores,” Shannon said before SECs, “our average is really good. If you look at Road to Nationals and if you look at our NQS versus our average score, they are like, almost identical… That tells me that we are competing at a really consistent level right there. Now, I would like to be a little higher on that top range of the score, but you know, you can just do the best you can with the team you have.”
What both of these in-depth charts shows me is how underscored Mizzou has been this season, to be honest. Even with six home meets, Mizzou’s team got no breaks. Additionally, I’ve added a new column to the charts for this meet, cataloguing how the teams did at their respective conference championships. I LOVE DATA.
A Closer Look: Maryland Terrapins
Record: 19-6 (3-6 in Big 10)
Key Additions: Emily DeFrees (freshman, BB/FX)
Key Losses: Layla Hammer (VLT/BB, injury) | Natalie Martin (VLT/BB/FX, transfer to Ohio State) | Tasha Brozowski (UB) | Victoria Gatzendorfer (UB/BB) | Sierra Kondo (UB) | Rhea Leblanc (VLT/UB/FX) | Hailey Merchant (UB) | Maggie Murphy (VLT) | Alexa Rothenbuescher (AA)
Notables:
- Maryland is coming off a tenth place finish at the Big 10 Championships with a 195.300. They scored a 48.825 on vault, 48.55 on bars, 48.70 on beam, and 49.225 on floor.
- Their highest score this season was a 196.675 at Penn State on January 24. They also had five other 196 score this season, as well as six 195 scores and a 194.625.
- Fun Fact: Victoria Gatzendorfer, who was a Terps graduate in 2025, is a former Tiger, having competed her freshman season for the black & gold in 2022.
- Apparatus-wise, the Terps haven’t hit a 49 on vault since late February, and beam has been on a downward slope the past three weeks. Bars also featured a lot of valleys, and at best they hit 49.0-49.1. Floor is definitely Maryland’s strong suit, oftentimes scoring in the 49.3 ranges. Their 49.575 in their third meet was more than 2/10 higher than another other floor score all season.
- 9.9(!) Tally- 16 on the season
- VAULT: Engelmayer (1)
- BARS: Komoroski (1) | Reade (1)
- BEAM: DeFrees (1) | Komoroski (2)
- FLOOR: DeFrees (1) | Kogler (1) | Komoroski (3) | Reade (5)
Honors:
- All-Big 10 Second Team: Maddie Komoroski (Floor, Beam)
A Closer Look: North Carolina State Wolfpack
Record: 15-5 (5-2 in ACC) | Preseason poll: 5th
Key Additions: Emerson Fisk (VT/UB/FX) | Autumn Rardin (VT/BB/FX) | Adasyn Tackett (BB)
Key Losses: Ashley Knight (2x All-ACC Vaulter, shin splints) | Jenna Rusk (UB/FX, unknown injury)
Notables:
- NC State is coming off a fourth place finish (out of six teams) at the ACC Championships with a 196.500. They scored a 49.025 on vault, 49.175 on bars, 49.150 on beam and a 49.150 on floor.
- Their high score this season was a 197.150 set on March 1 in a quad meet with Towson, Ursinus College, and West Virginia. They recorded one other 197 score this season, a 197.125 set at home on February 8. Aside from two 195 scores on January 24 and February 1, all of the Pack’s other scores fall in the 196 range.
- The Pack set their program record, a 49.500 on bars on Senior Night, March 13. Elle Hadrick’s 9.975 matched the highest individual bars score in program history.
- Apparatus-wise, Wolfpack vault typically hovers around 49.0-49.1. Prior to the 49.5 on bars on Senior Night, they hadn’t hit anywhere near that since early February’s 49.45. Beam has featured many valleys, but by the end of February – early March, they were consistently hitting 49.3-49.4. On floor, NC State didn’t receive any scores under 49 on the season, and have scored in the 49.4 range three times.
- NC State only debuts one new leo a year — that’s so sad! — coming out on Senior Day each year, and then they’re likely to wear it once more a week or two later.
- NC State has five freshmen on their roster, but only three have seen action thus far this season, the best of which has been, I would say, Autumn Rardin.
- 9.9(!) Tally- 27 on the season
- VAULT: Knight (1) | Thomas (2)
- BARS: Hadrick (3) | Harper (2) | Reid (1) | Volk (3)
- BEAM: Hall (1) | Rardin (1) | Tackett (1) | Thomas (1)
- FLOOR: Hadrick (3) | Myers (1) | Rardin (2) | Thomas (5)
Honors:
- All-ACC: Elle Hadrick (UB), Syniya Thomas (VLT, FX)
- All-ACC Championship Team: Ava Myers (VLT), Autumn Rardin (VLT)
- ACC Preseason Watch List: Ashley Knight, Syniya Thomas, Autumn Rardin (ACC Newcomer to Watch)
- ACC Weekly Honors: Thomas (1/13 Specialist, 2/10), Hadrick (3/17 Specialist)
A Closer Look: Arkansas Razorbacks
Record: 7-13-1 (2-5-1 SEC) | 10th in WCGA Preseason Poll
Key Additions: Morgan Price (Fisk transfer, AA) | Alison Cucci (freshman, AA) | Avalon Campbell (freshman, UB) | Avery King (freshman)
Five former four- or five-star recruits also make up the Razorbacks’ rookie class, though I’ve only mentioned the ones who’ve seen action this season above. The third-ranked recruit of her class, Allison Cucci enters collegiate gymnastics as the program’s highest-ranked and rated recruit ever.
Key Losses: Dakota Essenpries— transfer to MIZ (VT) | Kaitlyn Ewald (UB, BB) | Kalyxta Gamiao (BB, FX) | Maddie Jones (UB, BB, FX) | Mati Waligora (UB, BB, FX)
Notables:
- #9 Arkansas is coming off a seventh place finish at SECs, earning a 196.975. They earned a 49.150 on vault, 49.125 on bars, 49.350 on beam and 49.350 on floor. They, like Missouri, finished strong, but not so strong to overcome the slower start.
- Arkansas’ high score this season was a 197.700 at February’s Metroplex Challenge. Their next highest was a 197.500 at home against Oklahoma. There is quite of bit of scoring inconsistency in the GymBacks’ results, as they also had a 195.975 at Florida and three 196 scores. In fact, six of their seven lowest scores this season came on the road, ranging from that aforementioned 195.975 to 197.225. Likely what as an astronomically inflated 197.700 aside, the Gymbacks have just two other 197 scores on the road (197.100 & 197.225).
- For the specific apparatuses, the vault squad’s high score, an astonishing 49.625, is more than 0.2 higher than any other rotation score, and they consistently score in the 49.35 range. On bars, they have two sub-49 rotation scores, including in their final regular season meet. Most often, I’d say Arky bars can be found in the 49.2-49.25 range. On beam, they have no sub-49 scores and have three 49.4o-plus scores, mainly falling in the 49.3-49.4 range. Finally, on floor, they have one sub-49 score, with three scores in the 49.5-49.65 scores, including two scores of 49.60-plus. They consistently fall in the 49.4-49.6 range on FX. Like everyone else, I would expect all their scores to be a teensy bit lower in this round with there being more judges.
- The Price (Score) is Right: Morgan Price scored the first ever perfect 10 in Arkansas Gymbacks history last week on vault after previously being the recipient of Fisk’s first ever perfect 10 last season on bars! What can’t this gal do?
- Home Crowd: Arkansas set the SEC gymnastics attendance record on March 6 when they welcomed in 15,512 fans to Bud Walton for the team’s meet against OU. This broke the previous record of 15,162 set by Alabama 20 years ago. The team broke its program record on vault at the Metroplex Challenge on February 8, scoring a 49.675.
- 9.9(!) Tally- 72 on the season
- VAULT: Cucci (4) | Klein (2) | M. Price (7) | Smith (1) | Weaver (2)
- BARS: Campbell (1) | Cucci (2) | M. Price (8) | Roberson (3) | Smith (3)
- BEAM: Cucci (3) | Klein (2) | Park (1) | M. Price (4) | Roberson (9) | Weaver (1)
- FLOOR: Cucci (3) | Klein (1) | F. Price (2) | Roberson (8) | Smith (5)
Honors:
- SEC Newcomer of the Year: Morgan Price
- WCGA Regular Season All-America honors: Morgan Price (First Team, VLT/Second Team, UB) | Joscelyn Roberson (First Team, BB) | Lauren Williams (Second Team, VLT)
- All-SEC: VAULT— Morgan Price | BARS— Leah Smith, Joscelyn Roberson, Allison Cucci | BEAM— Joscelyn Roberson, Allison Cucci | FLOOR— Leah Smith, Joscelyn Roberson, Frankie Price, Allison Cucci | ALL-AROUND: Joscelyn Roberson, Hailey Klein, Allison Cucci
- SEC Weekly Honors: Allison Cucci (Freshman of Week, 3/17) | Lauren Williams (Specialist, 1/20)
Missouri Tigers
Record: 14-9 (4-4 SEC)
Notables:
- SECs Quick Recap: #8 Mizzou is coming off a sixth place finish at the SEC Championships with a 197.025 team score that really came on as a result of a very strong back half of the meet. After opening the meet with a decent bars score (49.275, second highest in session I), they had some oopsies on beam, earning just a 49.00. In the final two events, however, the Tigers shined, finishing with the third highest score of both sessions combined with a 49.450 on a floor rotation that featured four (4!!!) 9.90 scores, as well as a season-high 49.350 on vault which featured a silver medal for Hannah Horton, who earned a 9.95, and a stuck Yurchenko Full for freshman Kimarra Echols that should also have notched a 9.95, if we’re being honest. You can read my recap here (of which I got many quotes)!
- Team Makeup & Roster Construction: “We’re building on consistency. I think this team’s gotten better as we move through the year,” Shannon Welker said. “We have a little bit of a younger team, but they continue to get better. I think also to solidify some options as well. You know, planning on competing two days, we may need some options to sub in, sub out in those areas. So I think that was what we were trying to get done the last couple of days here, and just know who those options are.”
- The Best is Yet to Come: We haven’t seen the best of this team yet, and so the anticipation is killing me for them to get there. Their high scores aren’t quite where they were last season, and some of that I feel like is due to lackluster judging— with six home meets, one would expect an iota of home cooking at some point, but instead, it oftentimes seemed to benefit their opponents (cough, cough LSU).
- The Tigers averaged a 197.155 across five meets (3 home) in January, 197.192 across three meets (2 home) in February, and 197.350 across three regular season meets (2 away) in March.
- The Quest for Group Excellence: After the Oklahoma meet, Shannon said, “We’ve had some really great individual performances, and I think we’re really trying to make this shift to group excellence like in, you know, that event excellence right there on every event. I think that’s something that’s a little bit of a transition we’re pushing towards right now.”
- “Every year gets a little bit better,” Shannon said. “We’re able to lift the bar just a little bit more and a little more, right? If we want to compete for a national title, you’re not going to make these monster strides every year. A lot of years, it’s just little things that start to stack up, because we’re in that last 3-5% of our journey right here. That is the hardest part. That’s way harder, right? That’s way harder than the first 10%, 20%… so you know, it’s just little increments and recognizing where we’re making some gains and celebrating those gains, too.”
- Practice Makes Perfect: As last minute Regionals prep, the Tigers hosted an open practice/intrasquad over the weekend, with multiple run-throughs of beam and bars lineups as they may be in fluctuation. You can read that here. “We have a lot of bodies that have been doing a lot of work for us, and we’re going to need the potential to plug somebody in and be fresh [in a two-day format weekend] …” Shannon said. “We have to have those people available and getting better, so we can have them as options to put our team in the best position to win that day.”
- 9.9(!) Tally- 88 on the season
- VAULT: Echols (2) | Horton (4) | Jackson (2) | Tisler (1)
- BARS: Echols (7) | Green (1) | Horton (6) | Kelly (1) | Lawrence (2) | Macpherson (1) | Terry (4)
- BEAM: Jackson (3) | Kelly (4) | Lawrence (6) | Macpherson (6) | Wier (2)
- FLOOR: Acevedo (3) | Griffin (9) | Horton (10) | Jackson (2) | Tanskanen (7) | Terry (1) | Tisler (4)
Honors:
- SEC Specialist of the Year: Hannah Horton
- A Tiger gymnast has won a Specialist of the Year honor each of the last three seasons (Helen Hu 2025, Jocelyn Moore 2024) and three of the last five years (joining Sienna Schreiber, 2022)
- On winning the Specialist of the Year title, Hannah said, “My goal for myself this season was to get Specialist of the Week, and of course I was like, okay that that didn’t happen. I can do it next season. But know that I got Specialist of the Year, it’s even a bigger and better award… It’s just honestly amazing, a blessing.”
- WCGA Regular Season All-American Honors: Addison Lawrence (First Team, Beam) | Kimarra Echols (Second Team, Bars)
- Per @ PlanetofGym, Mizzou is one of only six teams in the country to have at least two athletes earn regular season All-American honors each of the last five seasons
- All-SEC: VAULT— Hannah Horton, Kimarra Echols | BARS— Kimarra Echols, Maiya Terry, Olivia Kelly, Makayla Green | BEAM— Addi Lawrence, Olivia Kelly | FLOOR— Elise Tisler, Ayla Acevedo, Kennedy Griffin, Kaia Tanskanen, Hannah Horton
- All-SEC Freshman Team: Kimarra Echols
Final Thoughts
On asking if this part of the season, in a sort of win-or-go-home platform, changes the team’s mindset, Shannon was adamant at the team’s open practice on Saturday that this is not the case.
“I think we can be really good,” he said. “And I still think we’re going to have an opportunity to continue to go deep in the season right there. So, you know, I think if you approach it with [that] mindset that you mentioned initially, I think that doesn’t help you. I think you got to go out and compete free and compete aggressive. And you know, if we’re good enough to move on, we’re good enough to move on, which I think we are. But you know, if you leave it out there on the table and you make it through, awesome. If you don’t, it’s not for lack of effort. And I think that’s what we got to try to just keep that mindset right there.”
[go through this gallery while listening to Kool & The Gang’s 80s hit, “Celebration,” please. Photos courtesy of Mizzou Athletics and Rock M Nation photographers]
Mizzou Records To Watch
- Regionals High Score: 197.400 in LA Regionals Second Round, 2023 | 197.600 in LA Regional Finals, 2023
- Vault: 49.500, scored at Illinois Quad, March 17, 2024
- Uneven Bars: 49.600, scored at Mizzou Quad, March 10, 2024
- Balance Beam: 49.575, scored at Arkansas, March 2025 & at SEC Championships, March 2025
- Floor Exercise: 49.725, scored at Zou to the Lou, February 14, 2025
- Overall Score: 198.100, scored vs. Auburn, March 9, 2025
