The Minnesota Golden Gophers gymnastics team’s Cinderella run to the NCAA Final Four ended on Saturday afternoon with a fourth place finish with a final score of 197.3750. #1 seeded Oklahoma placed first with a score of 198.1625 while #2 LSU took second (198.0750) and #3 Florida was third (197.6875). The fourth place finish was the best in school history of the 52 years of the program.
Minnesota opened their meet on Saturday on the uneven bars with a team score of 49.2625. Star freshman Arianna Ostrum
led the group with a 9.9000 on bars, the second-best performance of her career. Emma Slevin was right after Ostrum with a 9.8875, but Minnesota did not get enough high scores from their back end and was in fourth pace after the first rotation. Minnesota closed the gap a bt on beam—their best event scoring 49.4500. Ostrum started out with a 9.8750 before Ava Stewart tallied a 9.9000. After Sarah Moraw went 9.8500, Brooklyn Rowray followed up her NCAA Championship winning performance from Thursday with a 9.9125. Jordyn Lyden anchored the group with another 9.9125 to close out rotation two. Minnesota still remained in fourth place midway hrough the meet.
The Gophers also had a good afternoon on the floor scoring 49.3875. Lyden anchored the team with a 9.9125 while Ostrum and Leah Gonsiorowski went 9.9000. After three rotations, Minnesota (148.1000) was in third behind LSU (148.600) and Oklahoma (148.5250). Florida was in fourth (148.0875).
Unfortunately for the Gophers, their final event was the vault—their weakest and Florida has the bars where they ranked #1 in the country. That would be enough for the Gophers to falter just a bit and the Gators surge back into third place. Minnesota posted a 49.2750 team score on vault to end the day. Gianna Gerdes earned a 9.9000 in the final vault of her career. Teryn Crump was right on her heels at 9.8750 while Slevin went 9.8500.
Gopher head coach Jenny Hansen was proud of her team’s efforts. “I think this experience is going to carry the team forward for so long. Our athletes know what it takes to get here now. You can’t tell anybody that, they have to experience it.”
The Gophers end the season with their best ever finish in the NCAA Tournament and their first ever 30+ win season. They will be back in action next winter.
