It’s go time, ladies. Finish in the top two and advance to the team’s second consecutive Elite 8/National Semifinals. Finish outside of that, and the season is over; it’s that simple.
Meet Info
When: Sunday, April 5, 2026
Where: Historic Memorial Coliseum | Lexington, KY
Time: 4pm CST
TV: ESPN+
Live Stats: Virtius— https://virti.us/session?s=tBd8CrXBoV
Leo Prediction: The Tigers have worn all four new leotards this season, and since Nightfall has a similar vibe to Friday’s Supernova and Mirage
debuted at SECs, I’m going with “Giant Tiger Head” for my prediction, whose given name is eluding me at this point, or MIZ (the gold diamond one that will be retired temporarily while it’s remade by the team’s new leo provider, GK). Both options SCREAM Mizzou, and that’s what I want to see.
Order of Events: Similar to SECs and the semifinal round, Mizzou will compete on Bars —> Beam —> Floor —> Vault | Oklahoma will go Olympic order (VLT—>UB—>BB—>FX) | Ohio State will go BB —>FX—>VLT—>UB | Arkansas goes same as the semis: FX—>VLT—>UB—>BB)
Regarding the choice, which Shannon discussed at the team’s pre-Regionals open practice/intrasquad, “I think that’s been a good event for us to start on. And we just ended really strong at SEC championships on vault.”
The Teams & Story Lines
The Feel Good Story: Ohio State Buckeyes
“I am just absolutely thrilled. I’ve never wanted it as much for a team as this team,” head coach Meredith Paulicivic said after Friday’s second session, in which they beat out seeded team and meet host, Kentucky, who started strong but could not overcome a disastrous beam rotation. The meet was absolutely electric and came down to a battle between the Buckeyes and play-in winner, Rutgers.
“We’re really bonded,” Paulicivic said. “We spent nine days in Mallorca, Spain together, and I just feel like it’s a closeness like no other team that I’ve coached has been and they’ve worked so hard and done every single thing day in and day out that I have asked of them. And as a coach, you always want the hard work to pay off. And on in the back of your mind, you’re like, if all this hard work doesn’t pay off, will they buy in the next time?”
An interesting fun fact: Sunday will be a true test of loyalties for Kevin Griffin, Kennedy’s dad, who is tOSU’s Associate Director of Athletics, Business Strategy. Does he wear one of those house divided shirts that’s half Ohio State colors and half Mizzou colors? Or does he wear a Mizzou hat and an OSU shirt, or vice versa? Guess we’ll have to see. After a wardrobe change between sessions on Friday, he switched out his MU gear for OSU and is “very excited for Sunday.”
The Favorites: Oklahoma Sooners
What can you see about the reigning national champs? They’re um… really good, with five-star recruits and All-Americans up and down their lineup. The Sooners, unbeaten in the regular season for ninth time under head coach KJ Kindler, are looking for their 15th consecutive regional championship, which dates back to 2010.
“We never take for granted how difficult this part of the process is,” Kindler said after Friday’s session. “Our starters today were amazing, just to note them. Lizzie Blessey on vault with a 9.925, then Lily on bars with a 9.95 as a starter is a gigantic score. And then balance beam, a 9.875, from Addison Fatta, and then floor, Ella Murphy, with a 9.95. So when you start your lineup with those kinds of scores, it gives everybody who comes afterwards a big chance to continue to build those kind of scores. So really excited about that.”
Since the Tigers and Sooners seem inextricably linked when it comes to the postseason — they keep ending up in the same place — so when Missouri advanced last year to its first Four on the Floor, OU enthusiastically cheered alongside them. Hell, their fans cheered emphatically for Helen Hu. (she really brought the whole gymternet together, guys.)
“I have a very young team,” Kindler said. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores. This is kind of their first taste of postseason and you could see that there was a little bit of pulling back from being aggressive. We want them to loosen up a little bit more for Sunday, be little more free when they’re competing, kind of leave the stress at the hotel.”
Fun Fact: The last time the Sooners lost the SEC Championship they won the national title. They were the runner up at SECs. Does that mean they get another title this year? We’ll find out.
The Heated Rival: Arkansas Razorbacks
It’s rematch time, ladies and gents. Three other times this season, the Gymbacks and Tigers have come face-to-face, and two of those times, Mizzou has emerged victorious. It wasn’t until Friday that Arkansas got the upper hand.
When asked how it felt to knock off the Tigers, head coach Jordyn Wieber said, “It feels good. I mean, we’re just focused on us. We’re in our own world, our own bubble, regardless of the other teams out on the floor on night one and night two. We just want to be the best version of Arkansas that we can possibly be. That’s what I’m focused on. It never hurts to win. It definitely feels good.”
“I’m really, really proud of this team,” she said. “I felt like we had success we needed to have today. Step one was have a great meet today and get to day two, and we did that. We really focused in on consistency, just being normal.”
Your Home Team: Missouri Tigers
What is it with Missouri having to face all red teams? On Friday, Missouri faced a sea of red teams in Arkansas, NC State, and Maryland. Sunday is another meet with all the shades of red with Arkansas (cardinal), Oklahoma (crimson) and Ohio State (scarlet).
The Tigers aren’t coming off a great meet on Friday, but it was practice for the main event, in my eyes, and they undoubtedly know what they need to do to advance. We still haven’t seen their best gymnastics, so there’s no time like the present!!
You can read my recap of Friday’s meet here. Lots of quotes and analysis there.
“Clearly we left some tenths out there on the table,” Shannon said post-meet, “and I think that in some ways, it’s going to motivate us for Sunday, right? We just need to walk in the door and get into that mode right away. We don’t have time to wait, you know, one or two events and then turn it on.”
Quick Comparisons
[updated fourth chart with scores from Friday’s semifinals]
Apparatus Previews
VAULT
Ohio State
I don’t know what was in the water in Columbus leading up to Friday’s vault rotation, but I kindly ask that they share it with the Tigers. On a Lexington Regional-leading 49.550, they quite literally vaulted their way into the Sweet 16.
In case you missed the Friday night session, that rotation was incredible. After a leadoff 9.80 and a dropped 9.775, they pulled out three consecutive 9.95 scores from Cameron Smith (Y 1.5), Natalie Martin (Y 1.5) and Tory Vetter (YF, 9.95 SV) and a 9.90 from JJ Coleman (YF, 9.95 SV). Four routines, four sticks. Best score of the season by 2/10. And per Road to Nationals data, these were all season highs (JJ’s was a tie).
“We’ve been playing all sorts of sticking games in the gym, and it paid off,” Paulicivic said. “Specifically in the past two weeks, we’ve been doing crazy, crazy The Price is Right games for fake money and all these kinds of things. So it’s really fun to see that hard work pay off.”
Oklahoma
Oklahoma earned the second highest vault score of the night session with a 49.450, led by Elizabeth Blessey’s leadoff 9.925 and Addison Fatta’s anchor 9.90. They also counted three 9.875 scores from Keira Wells, Hannah Scheible and Mackenzie Estep in spots two-four. They dropped Elle Mueller’s 9.85 in the five-spot.
For the season, Fatta has a high score of 10, followed by Scheible, Blessey and Mueller’s 9.975 and a 9.95 for Wells. While neither Faith Torrez or Lily Pederson competed on Friday, they hold high scores of 9.925 and 9.90, respectively, so they are really (really) good options.
Missouri
On Friday, the Tigers earned the third highest score of the advancing teams with a 49.275. They were led by 9.90s from both Hannah and Kimarra in the four-five spots, to go along with a 9.85 from Railey in the two-spot, a 9.825 on a surprisingly downgraded Yurchenko Full from the anchor, Elise— her Y1.5 has looked so good recently— and a 9.80 from Kennedy in the third spot. They dropped Kaia’s leadoff 9.70. Ki got the only stick of the rotation — I think it was a stick, anyway — but the remainder of the landings (aside from Kaia) were controlled and minimal in terms of deductions.
This season, the Tigers have four 9.90 or higher vaulters in their lineup, led by Hannah’s 9.975 she earned at Nebraska. Railey has maxed out at a 9.95, which is still remarkable given how her vaults looked last year; she simply could not cleanly land that 1.5! Two Tigers, Kimarra (9.95 SV) and Elise, have both scored 9.90 this season. Kaia and Kennedy have earned a 9.875 and 9.85, respectively.
Arkansas
On Friday, Arkansas, despite being ranked sixth nationally, earned just a 49.250 on vault, which was the lowest of the last teams standing. Their best score came courtesy of Morgan Price’s 9.95 score in the fifth spot, to go along with a 9.90 from leadoff Leah Smith, who tied her season high. They also counted a 9.825 from Allison Cucci in the anchor spot, a 9.80 from Hailey Klien in the three-spot and a 9.775 from Lauren Williams in the four-spot. They dropped Joscelyn Roberson’s 9.70 in the two-spot.
The Gymbacks, of course, are led by Morgan Price’s 10 this season, the first 10 in program history, and they’ve also got a pair of 9.975 high scores from Williams and Klein. Weaver and Cucci both have earned 9.925 scores, Smith has a 9.90 and Roberson’s best on the hardest NCAA vault is a 9.85. This vault team has massive potential; they just have to put it together at a later date (NOT Sunday).
Advantage: Ohio State
BARS
Oklahoma
Kindler was especially impressed with her bars lineup on Friday evening, saying, “I thought bars was one of our best of the year to be honest with you, I mean that you had to earn every score on that event, I believe five out of six landings that is spot on, and something we’re going to want to try to emulate as we move forward.” Their 49.525 led the regional, and was led by a powerful 1-2 punch from Lily Pederson (who won the event on her birthday!) and Ella Murphy, who each earned a 9.95 in the first two slots. Both scores tied their season highs. They also counted a 9.90 from Hannah Scheible in the five spot, a 9.875 from the anchor, Faith Torrez, and 9.85s (one of which was dropped) by Mackenzie Estep and Addison Fatta.
On the season, the Sooners have yet to get a perfect 10, which actually shocks me, but they do have season high 9.95 scores from an astonishing FIVE people in their lineup— Torrez, Fatta, Pederson, Estep, and Murphy. Scheible’s high this season is a 9.925.
Arkansas
Arkansas had a nice bars rotation on Friday, earning a 49.375 which was led by co-event winner, Morgan Price’s 9.925. Hailey Klein and Leah Smith put together back-to-back 9.875 scores in the second and third spots, while both Avalon Campbell in the fourth spot and leadoff Joscelyn Roberson earned 9.85s. They dropped Allison Cucci’s 9.80 in the fifth spot.
On the season, M. Price leads the team with a 9.975, and is followed by four athletes with 9.90 highs this season— Smith, Roberson, Campbell, and Cucci. Klein has a 9.875 this season, which she tied on Friday.
Missouri
The Tigers earned a 49.200 to start the meet and really what was missing was sticks! They had just two of them, courtesy of their highest score recipients, Hannah (9.925) and Maiya (9.90). Olivia and Kimarra earned 9.80 scores in the third and anchor spots, while Makayla and Lauren both earned 9.775 scores in the first two spots. They have to start stronger on Sunday. I believe in them, as both have career 9.90+ scores.
For the season, there are seven Tigers who have earned 9.90 scores or higher if you’re counting Addi Lawrence, who didn’t compete bars on Friday. Hannah and Kimarra hold the highest scores with a 9.95 on the season, followed by Maiya’s 9.925, and then a slew of 9.90s from Olivia, Makayla, and Lauren. I feel like it should be mentioned that this rotation only returns two of last year’s rotation with H2 and Liv. Ki and Maiya are freshmen, Mak is a transfer, and LMac was out with injury last season.
Ohio State
The Buckeyes’ bars lineup has potential, as they have three 9.90 high scores on the season from Vetter, Berry and Coleman. Rader and Payton Harris, who did not compete on bars on Friday, both have been 9.875, while Jackson has a 9.85 and Ponager has a career-high 9.825. They did not really showcase that potential to its full extent on Friday, earning just a 48.850. tOSU was led by JJ Coleman’s anchor 9.85, and they also counted two 9.80 scores from Vetter and Jackson in the fourth and fifth spots, to go along with 9.70 scores from leadoff Jaylyn Ponager and Maisyn Rader in the third spot. Sadie Jane Berry took a tumble in the second slot, earning just an 8.45 that would be dropped.
Advantage: Oklahoma
BEAM
Oklahoma
The Sooners were the only team on Friday with a truly good beam rotation, earning a 49.425. While they did have a fall from anchor Faith Torrez that was dropped, they had a rotation-high 9.925 from Ella Murphy in the third spot, to go along with a 9.90 from Lily Pederson in the fourth slot, two 9.875 scores from the first two people in the lineup, Addison Fatta and Keira Wells, and a 9.85 from Elle Mueller in the fifth spot.
On the season, this is a superior beam team, with a season-high 10 from Torrez, to go along with a 9.975 high score from Murphy, a 9.95 from Scheible, Fatta, Mueller and Wells, and a 9.925 from Pederson.
Arkansas
Friday’s early session featured a lot of balance beam situations, we’ll call them, and Arkansas, normally a beam team, had their own fair share of issues, though they still managed to secure a 49.150. While Joscelyn Roberson clinched the team’s victory with a stellar 9.95 in the anchor spot, the rest of the scores were sub-par by Arkansas’ standards, with a 9.85 from leadoff Priscilla Park, two 9.80 scores from Morgan Price and Hailey Klein in the fifth and second spots, and a 9.75 from Allison Cucci in the fourth spot. They dropped Cami Weaver’s 9.65 in the third spot.
“We’re one of the best in the country,” Wieber said on Friday. “Definitely, some areas we can sharpen up just a little bit, just be a little more trusting of the landings, a little more trusting of the finished positions. But I looked in their eyes, and they know it too. So we’re gonna take that into day two and just be confident, be normal, and do what we do every day in practice, nothing different.”
On the season, Roberson leads the team with a 9.975 high score, along with 9.925s from M. Price and Cucci, and 9.90s from Weaver, Klein and Park.
Ohio State
The Buckeyes started their meet on Friday evening on beam, earning a 48.975, led by three 9.85 scores from anchor Courtney McCann, Tory Vetter in the five-spot, and leadoff Rylee Guevara. They also counted Natalie Martin’s 9.75 and a 9.675 from Cameron Smith in the fourth and third spots. They dropped Ava Jackson’s 8.900 in the second spot.
On the season, Ohio State is much better on beam than what they showcased in the semifinals, with McCann earning a 9.975 high score this season. Four Buckeyes athletes have 9.925 scores this season in Vetter, Martin, Guevara and Jackson. Smith has earned a 9.875.
Missouri
The Tigers’ beam on Friday was their second week in a row of earning subpar scores, following the team’s 49.000 at SEC Championships. It also was the lowest Friday score of the four teams competing on Sunday. This time around, they earned just a 48.950, with the team’s highest scores coming from Olivia in the fourth spot and Railey (in leadoff in place of Amy, who went second) earning 9.85 scores. Kaia earned the next highest score, a 9.775 in the third spot, followed by Lauren’s 9.75 in the fifth spot and Amy’s 9.725. Addi’s unfortunate fall in the anchor spot was dropped (she last fell at Kentucky during the regular season).
On the season, the Tigers have three times earned 49.400 scores, so we know the potential is there. The trio of Addi, Lauren and Railey have all topped out at 9.95 this season, to go along with Olivia and Amy’s 9.90 scores. Kaia has been as high as 9.875 this season.
Advantage: Oklahoma
FLOOR
Oklahoma
OU earned a Lexington Regional leading 49.475 on Friday, but I just don’t find their floor to be nearly as fun as say, the Tigers or even the Razorbacks. It’s just… there. The Sooners earned four 9.90 scores on Friday, led by leadoff Ella Murphy, Elle Mueller in the five-spot and Mackenzie Estep, the latter of whom was crazily overscored (seriously) as the anchor. They also counted a 9.875 from Keira Wells in the fourth — I actually really like her routine and musical accompaniment — and dropped Addison Fatta’s 9.75 in the two spot (she went out of bounds).
On the season, the Sooners have earned countless scores in the 9.90+ range, including a 9.975 from Fatta — I like her routine as well —to go along with four 9.95 season highs from Wells, Mueller, Pawlak (didn’t compete Friday) and Estep. Murphy and Lily Pederson, who didn’t compete floor on Friday, have also earned 9.925 scores this season.
Missouri
The Fab Floor has an entire lineup of 9.925+ scores this season, led by Hannah’s 9.95, while Kennedy, Kaia, Elise, Railey and Ayla have all hit 9.925 scores to go along with a season high 49.575. While they didn’t reach that mark on Friday, they did have a very solid 49.450, which was the second highest scoring team rotation of the regional. Hannah earned a share of the floor title with her 9.925 anchor leg, and the Tigers also got great contributions from Kaia and Kennedy, both of whom scored 9.90s in the four and five-spots, a 9.875 from Elise in the second spot, and a 9.85 from Railey in the leadoff spot. They dropped Ayla’s 9.825 in the three-spot.
Arkansas
On Friday, the Razorbacks was led in scoring by Joscelyn Roberson’s 9.925 in the anchor spot. The Price sisters, Morgan and Frankie, performing back-to-back fourth and fifth, earned 9.90 and 9.875 scores, respectively, while leadoff Hailey Klein and Leah Smith in the third spot earned 9.85 scores. Allison Cucci’s 9.825 was dropped in the two-spot.
Morgan’s 9.90 was a season high for her, while Roberson has earned a 9.975 high score this season. Three Gymbacks have 9.95 high scores— Smith, Lauren Williams (not in Friday’s floor lineup) and Cucci. Frankie’s high score is a 9.925, and Klein has a 9.90.
Ohio State
The Buckeyes earned a 49.150 on floor in Friday’s session, with two solid 9.90 scores by leadoff Rylie Guevara and Tory Vetter in the fifth spot. Anchor JJ Coleman earned a 9.85, followed by a 9.825 from Kaitlyn Grimes in the fourth spot. Cameron Smith earned a 9.700 in the third spot, and they dropped Baylie Belman’s fall in the second spot.
On the season, Coleman has been perfect with a 10, while Grimes and Belman hold high scores of 9.925. Vetter and Smith have earned 9.90. Guevara surpassed her previous season high, 9.875, on Friday.
Advantage: Oklahoma/Missouri draw
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
Again, the objective is clear. Make sure you beat at least two of the remaining three teams to secure your spot in at Nationals in Fort Worth. Should the Tigers advance, this would be their fourth trip to the national championships overall, and their first back-to-back appearance. It’s go time. M-I-Z.
