FORT WORTH, Texas — Limited all season by injury, Oklahoma senior Faith Torrez was not considered among the front-runners for the NCAA all-around title entering Thursday’s semifinals.
In fact, having not competed in all four events all season and done only uneven bars and balance beam since February, just her participation in the all around seemed unlikely.
But not only did Torrez make her 2026 all-around debut Thursday night in the second session, she defeated Olympic and world champions to claim NCAA gymnastics’ highest individual honor with a 39.7875 total score.
Even Torrez couldn’t hide her surprise at the result.
“If you would have [told] me probably two and a half weeks ago that I would be in this position right now doing four [events], like living out my dream right now, I’d probably laugh at you,” Torrez said after the trophy ceremony. “I had no intentions of doing this at the beginning of the season, middle of the season, but to be here and have everything kind of just play out as it did was really amazing. I’m really grateful for that.”
Coach K.J. Kindler said Torrez asked if she could start training on floor again after the SEC championships at the end of March. She started slowly — and hadn’t even done a full routine until earlier this week.
“She is so talented,” Kindler said. “Great air awareness, great sense of being able to do it when you’ve been off of it for that long. So all the credit goes to the athlete in the arena who made that decision and felt comfortable enough and strong enough with her body to do that.”
Torrez’s strong performance, which helped lead the defending champion Sooners back to Saturday’s championship meet, edged that of LSU’s Kailin Chio. Chio, the nation’s top-ranked all arounder for most of the season, held the highest score (39.6125) after the afternoon session and was runner-up. Florida’s eMjae Frazier finished third.
Torrez’s victory capped an eventful day of gymnastics at Dickies Arena. In the afternoon session, Florida, the reigning SEC champion, won with relative ease (197.7875), but LSU, the 2024 NCAA champion, needed to battle until the last rotation to edge a resurgent Georgia team. Tigers coach Jay Clark said he was proud of his team’s resolve.
“Well, we made it interesting,” Clark said. “It was not our best day by a long shot, but … we learned [in the first week of the season] we were fighters and they could fight through things and not quit and just kind of keep swinging. And that’s what they did.”
In the night session, Oklahoma took control from the first rotation on vault and never relinquished it, earning the day’s top score of 198.3000. But UCLA, the Big Ten champion and No. 4-ranked team, struggled with its first event on bars, including an uncharacteristic fall from senior and Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles. The Bruins clawed their way back and were in second place entering the final event. However, an error-prone vault rotation, and a strong showing from Minnesota on bars, changed both teams’ fortunes.
By the end of the session, Minnesota — which had upset perennial contender Utah in the regional finals earlier this month — punched its ticket to its first NCAA championship meet with a 197.4625, and UCLA (197.2625) found its national championship hopes dashed. As the Gophers celebrated ecstatically once the final scores had been announced, the Bruins looked devastated and tearfully embraced.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” Minnesota coach Jenny Hansen said on ESPN moments later. “They believed we could do this and they just walked in today with that belief and were steady all the way through. I’m just so proud of them. I’m still a little in disbelief. What a night.”
Four other gymnasts claimed individual event titles during the roller-coaster day. Torrez’s teammate Keira Wells was among them after scoring a 9.9750 in the lead-off position on vault.
Florida’s Riley McCusker, a fifth-year senior and former national team standout, earned her first national championship on bars. In her only event of the day and the Gators’ final rotation, McCusker was the last to compete, and her teammates were chanting for a 10 after she stuck her dismount. Four of the six judges gave her just that for a 9.9875.
McCusker was quick to credit her teammates for her success after speaking to the media following the afternoon session.
“I had a bunch of confidence just seeing my teammates go up and do their thing and really being able to build off of their success,” McCusker said. “A win for one is a win for all. And just being able to go up there after seeing my teammates do the best that they can do and just like, ‘OK, all I got to do is my normal.’ And yeah, that’s what happened.”
Capping Minnesota’s historic night, Brooklyn Rowray won the beam title and became just the second Gopher to stand atop the podium.
Chiles concluded her storied collegiate career with the floor title. It marked her fourth individual NCAA championship — but not the one she had desperately wanted.
Speaking to ESPN ahead of nationals, Chiles said a team title “would mean everything.” The Bruins were runners-up in 2025.
UCLA will not have that chance Saturday, but Oklahoma, Minnesota, Florida and LSU will look to do just that. Despite the Sooners’ dominant showing Thursday, Kindler said nothing is guaranteed and work must be done to bring home the program’s eighth NCAA team title since 2014.
“We’re not planning on replicating [Thursday’s performance],” Kindler said. “Saturday is a new day. And so I’m sure it will bring new challenges, new results, all sorts of things. The process is what we’re focusing on right now, recovery is hugely important to our team so that we can feel good physically and mentally. Consistency is key for us and if we can be close to who we are, then we’ll have a great night.”
