After the regional final rounds of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, there were plenty of upsets to discuss.
Some top ten teams, Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri, and UCLA, were knocked out in the regional second rounds and finals due to unprecedented falls and untimely mistakes. I was in attendance at the Ann Arbor regional final, and I couldn’t get over the fact that my favorite team ever—Michigan, of course—didn’t qualify even to the final.
Even so, with the upsets came victories. Many lower-ranked teams achieved Cinderella stories and made it to the Elite Eight in Fort Worth, Texas, with Arkansas and Stanford making unexpected appearances. It was Arkansas’s first time in six years to travel to nationals and Stanford’s first time in eight years. The championships were set to be an unanticipated event worth watching.
However, I could not have predicted a more tumultuous championship than the one that wrapped up shockingly on April 20, 2024.
The Oklahoma Women’s Gymnastics Team is known as the best gymnastics team in the country and has been for many years. In the past two years, they have won the national championship in outright glory, and many gymnastics enthusiasts, such as myself, expected them to repeat their victory once more. The 2024 regular season was their most dominant one yet, shattering the NCAA gymnastics team score record with a score of 198.950 and winning the Big 12 Championship with a 10 on every event.
To put this score into perspective, a perfect women’s college gymnastics team score would be 200. However, this score is impossible to achieve, as during competition, it is inevitable for a gymnast to wobble or fall on an apparatus. A perfect individual score is a 10, which is extremely hard for a gymnast to achieve. She must complete her routine with no errors whatsoever in the trained eye of the judges. Additionally, in each women’s college gymnastics event, a team of six gymnasts competes, but only five scores are counted in case of a fall.
A high, acceptable team score is 197-198 points during the regular season. If a team reaches the 198 checkpoint, it has unofficially crossed a barrier of admiration and accomplishment in the gymnastics world. Therefore, Oklahoma’s dominance was assured and almost guaranteed.
That was until the second semifinal of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships. The top two scoring teams would be sent to Four on the Floor to compete for the national title. The first session’s results were as expected, with No. 2 ranked LSU and No. 3 ranked California advancing to the Final Four, disqualifying No. 7 Arkansas and No. 8 Stanford. But the second semifinal’s results were significantly different.
Unfortunately, in the first rotation, sophomore Faith Torrez sat down her vault, setting off a near chain reaction of falls for Oklahoma by Jordan Bowers and Katherine LeVasseur. With each fall, I had to stand up out of my seat with my hands on my head. This team hadn’t had to count a fall all season; I couldn’t have been more surprised by the turn of events on the live broadcast.
Moreover, my favorite to advance to Four on the Floor, Alabama, had four falls on the beam. I legitimately started crying while watching the extreme sadness flash over the girls’ faces in the corral as their teammates fell off the 4-inch wide apparatus, one by one. Mati Waligora, Shania Adams, Ella Burgess, and star all-arounder Luisa Blanco all stumbled and lost their balance. These are four experienced seniors from Alabama who generally never miss. Evidently, this chaos ended Alabama’s season.
Even with a discouraging turn on vault, the Sooners rallied and had a great final three rotations, especially on floor and bars. They finished with a 196.6625, ending their historic season to Utah and Florida.
With the No. 1 seed out of the tournament, the LSU Tigers surged ahead in the final, ending with a season-best 49.7625 on the beam with a clutch performance from Aleah Finnegan to clinch the national championship for the first time. However, the controversy is this: multiple experts have claimed that LSU was overscored on their routines, and California underscored. I also believe that this is true, but LSU has worked tirelessly to make their way to the top of the podium, so even if that wasn’t my preferred result, they honestly deserved the win.
The California Golden Bears rose to the occasion by getting national runner-up in their best finish in program history. Just last year, they were disqualified from the Elite Eight after having to count a fall on bars, but this season, they stayed in the moment and completed their best work. California was my favorite to win; however, I am so proud of their dedication and am still happy for LSU.
Now for the unsung heroes of the meet: the individuals. A gymnast whose team didn’t qualify for the semifinals was placed at the end of every rotation. My favorite routines out of all were from Raena Worley and Sierra Brooks on the floor. Both were fifth-year graduate students at their universities—Kentucky and Michigan, respectively—and those routines were the last of their careers. Worley finished spectacularly with her Michael Jackson-themed routine, complete with the most sublime full-twisting double tuck ever. Brooks succeeded similarly, sticking her tumbling passes with joy and pride. Additionally, they both scored 9.9500, a crowning achievement in their illustrious careers. I am so proud of them and cannot wait to see what they do next.
This championship was the most chaotic and challenging meet to watch out of all the gymnastics meets I’ve seen. Overall, I am so happy for all the teams that competed and broke records with style. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to round out the 2024 women’s gymnastics season. Until next January, I will constantly be revisiting these routines on YouTube with glee as I wait for the next Cinderella story team in gymnastics.
