Sooners soar late to defend national championship

Story & Photography

By Michael Kinney

It looked like it was over. After taking all competitors during another dominant regular season, the Oklahoma Women’s gymnastics team looked like their run was going to come to an end without the gold hardware they wanted.

The Sooners trailed LSU by .075 of a point heading into the final rotation at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship. All the Tigers had to do was perform at their normal score rate on the balance beam, and they would be in a prime position to claim the 2026 National Title.

However, LSU’s Lexi Zeiss, who performed second, fell off the beam during the routine. That slight mistake opened the door for the Sooners, who were closing out their night with the floor exercises.

That little allowed Ella Murphy, Lily Pederson, Keira Wells, Ella Mueller, and Mackenzie Estep to put the Sooner in position to win the title. But it was senior Faith Torrez who slammed the door shut by posting a 9.95 on the final performance of her college career to earn the Sooners their eighth national championship.

“This is a dream come true,” Torrez said. “Thanks to all the coaching staff for trusting me as much as they do to go out there and do a routine.”

The Sooners posted a 198.1625 to claim the 2026 national title over LSU (198.075), Florida (197.6875) , and Minnesota (197.3750).

“We never take for granted the opportunity to do this, or how difficult it is, and LSU made it extra, extra difficult today, pushing us to our limits, and we were also pushing ourselves,” coach KJ Kindler said. “It was an incredible night. We’ve had tons of adversity.”

Oklahoma has now won four of the last five NCAA championships as they continue to fuel the fire of all dynasty talk.

“We talked about it in our team meeting,” Kindler said. “You can break due to adversity, or you can break records due to adversity. That kind of was our theme as we walked in the door. We talked about that last night, and that’s huge. You do not have to bend.”

The Sooners ended the season with a cumulative 35-1-1 record, an SEC title, a regional championship, and their 12^th trip to the finals in the past 13 years.

Individually, eight Sooners accounted for 15 All-American honors. That includes Torrez taking the All-Around title.

“We just reminded ourselves to go for it, leave it all on the floor,” Torrez said. “As K.J. said, ‘Leave it all on the floor for floor. Just be aggressive, don’t play it safe, and you know what we have to do.’ But we did a good job at staying in our bubble, so we were really laser-focused on us.”

Yet, the entire year will be remembered for how Oklahoma responded when the pressure was on them. Instead of cracking, the Sooners became even stronger, according to Kindler.

“This was a team effort from top to bottom,” Kindler said. “Everybody, obviously, had amazing moments on our team, but it was like a fight to the finish. I said it on Thursday, I really felt it would be, and boy, was it. As we were meeting after our last floor routine, we did not know what position we would end up in, but what I told them was, you did everything you could, and you should be at peace because of that.”