The 2026 NCAA women's gymnastics semifinals opened Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, with two sessions set for 4:30 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET as eight teams fight for spots in Saturday's national championship. Thursday also crowns champions in the four events and the individual all-around, turning one day into the sport's busiest and most unforgiving stage.
The field was narrowed from 36 teams that qualified by national qualifying score, with Teams 1-16 seeded by the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee and the rest placed at regional sites in Baton Rouge, Corvallis, Lexington and Tempe. From that path came eight teams, four all-around competitors and 16 event specialists, while 12 all-around competitors and 64 individual event specialists from non-qualifying teams also took part in the championships.
After the first rotation, LSU held the lead with a 49.4750 on vault, while Florida scored 49.4625 on beam. Kaliya Lincoln and Kailin Chio each posted 9.625 for LSU on vault, and Florida was lifted by eMjae Frazier's 9.9250 and Skye Blakely's 9.9125 on beam. Georgia's Autumn Reingold led the team on uneven bars with a 9.9250, and Stanford's Anna Roberts led on floor with a 9.9000.
The semifinal format leaves little margin for error. The top two teams in each session move on to Saturday's national championship, while Thursday's individual titles are decided off the same pressure-packed routines that can change a meet in a single landing. The championships began with a regional qualification path built around four sites, where each regional started with two teams in the first round, expanded to eight in the second and finished with four in the regional final before the winners reached Fort Worth.
John Roethlisberger, Aly Raisman, Sam Peszek and Taylor Davis are calling the action on ESPN2, and their booth will spend the day tracking not just who advances, but who leaves Fort Worth with an individual title in hand. For LSU, Florida, Georgia and Stanford, the difference between a Saturday return and a long trip home may already be taking shape in the first few routines.
