CORVALLIS, Ore. — Minnesota punched its ticket to the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships on Sunday, finishing second in the Corvallis regional finals and ending Utah’s 49-season run of reaching nationals. The Gophers will return to the eight-team field in Fort Worth, Texas, for the first time since 2022.
UCLA won the four-team regional finals with a 197.725, just ahead of Minnesota’s 197.625. Utah finished third at 197.5, and Alabama was fourth at 197.175. The top two teams advanced to the national championships, scheduled for April 16-18.
The result carried Minnesota past a field that included two programs with championship histories far beyond its own. Utah and Alabama have 15 NCAA women’s gymnastics team titles between them, while Minnesota is still chasing its first. But on Sunday, the Gophers matched the pressure of the moment better than the schools that had been there longer.
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Arianna Ostrum scored 9.95 on floor and vault in the first two rotations, then finished third in the all-around with a 39.55. Jordyn Lyden added 9.95s on bars and beam, giving Minnesota the steady scores it needed across the lineup. The team finished with the best vault mark in the regional at 49.375 and the best beam score at 49.525.
For UCLA, Jordan Chiles delivered the day’s biggest individual score, landing a 10 on floor and winning the all-around with a 39.75. Her performance helped the Bruins hold off Minnesota by a tenth of a point and secure one of the two qualifying spots.
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Jenny Hansen said, “I’m so proud of this team,” after the Gophers secured their place in Fort Worth. That pride reflected more than one meet. Minnesota entered the regional finals as the lowest-seeded team and still came out with the result it needed.
The berth also restores Minnesota to a stage it had reached only seven times as a team before. The Gophers made back-to-back trips in 2021 and 2022, then fell short until this season. They arrive in Fort Worth with a 13-6 record against top-25 teams and enough scoring depth to make them a factor if they can repeat Sunday’s balance.
They will join Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, UCLA, Georgia, Stanford, Arkansas and Minnesota in Fort Worth. Oklahoma won the NCAA women’s gymnastics title last season and has claimed three of the last four championships, setting up a final field that once again runs through the sport’s most established powers. For Minnesota, though, Sunday was about something simpler: surviving the regional round, and doing it as the last team in the door.
