Oklahoma conquers '24 demons, wins NCAA gymnastics title - ESPN

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Oklahoma Sooners had 366 days to stew on their early exit from the 2024 NCAA gymnastics championships and the denial of their quest for a three-peat.

After being inundated with a seemingly never-ending replay of what went wrong and, according to head coach K.J. Kindler, frequent criticism and hate, Oklahoma officially reclaimed its place atop the college gymnastics world by winning the NCAA women's title Saturday with a 198.0125 final score, 0.4 better than runner-up UCLA.

It marked the Sooners' third NCAA team title in four years and their seventh since 2014.

While the disappointment from the 2024 season made the victory even sweeter, Kindler insisted the team wasn't thinking about redemption entering Saturday's final at Dickies Arena — even if everyone else was.

«Our theme wasn't redemption this year at all,» Kindler told reporters just moments after the team hoisted the trophy. «We did our best to put it behind us. It just was following us everywhere and so it was almost impossible. Every time you look in the rearview mirror, it was just there.

»And so does it make it sweet? Yes, but this team was capable of this last year. We just failed. And people fail all the time. They fail every day. And we talk about [it] all the time that the glory is in getting back up again."

Oklahoma opened the meet on balance beam and set the tone for an impressive afternoon. Freshman Lily Pederson, who fell on the event during the semifinals Thursday, had one of the best performances of her college career with a 9.9375 in the third position. With six gymnasts competing on each event and the top five scores counting toward the total, the Sooners didn't have to include a score under 9.90. Their 49.6125 put them in a