After falling short of the Four on the Floor in 2025, Skylar Draser had the idea for the Florida gymnastics team to create their own version of Tim Tebow’s “The Promise” heading into the 2026 season.
It read: “Our team will hold ourselves and each other responsible to embrace the hard, show up 100% and unite together. We have a team mentality and resiliently step up to any challenge. We are unbreakable and we won’t back down. A win for one is a win for all.”
With those words motivating Florida to a Southeastern Conference Championship in March, the Gators had a chance to complete that promise Saturday afternoon at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. However, it was not to be.
Ultimately, Florida fell short its fourth NCAA Women’s Gymnastics National Championship and its first since 2015, finishing 0.4750 behind eventual champions Oklahoma and 0.3875 behind second-place Louisiana State. Minnesota finished behind the Gators, posting a 197.3750 total in its first-ever Four on Floor appearance.
The victory is the fourth national crown in five years for the Sooners, and their eighth in the last 12 years.
From the very start of the meet, it was evident that Florida had work to do if it wanted to claim its first national crown under head coach Jenny Rowland.
Draser kicked off the day’s proceedings, sticking her beam routine for a 9.8375 score. Skye Blakely scored a 9.9125, Kayla DiCello grabbed a 9.9000 and Selena Harris-Miranda finished with a team-best 9.9375, earning a 10.0000 score from one of the six judges.
However, a stumble and fall from Alyssa Arana forced Florida to count eMjae Frazier’s 9.8000 total. Ultimately, that cost the Gators, who posted a season-low 49.3875 on an event they ranked No. 1 nationally.
Meanwhile, both Oklahoma and LSU were excellent in their opening events. The Sooners stormed to an early lead with a 49.6000 on the vault, highlighted by a 9.9875 by Lily Pederson and a 9.9625 from Hannah Scheible. Meanwhile, LSU posted a 49.5125 on the floor exercise, with both Amari Drayton and Kaliya Lincoln scoring 9.9375.
Trailing second position by more than a tenth of a point and first place by more than two tenths, the Gators then headed over to the floor exercise.
There, Florida was extremely consistent, but not exceptional. Blakely led the way with a 9.9125, while Harris-Miranda posted a 9.9000. Florida dropped a 9.8625 score from Gabby Disidore to finish with a 49.4500 on the event.
As DiCello finished her routine, LSU standout Kailin Chio stole the show and the headlines in LSU’s vault anchor position. All six judges awarded her 10.0000 scores, earning her the first perfect mark at the national championship since Gator great Trinity Thomas’ flawless vault in 2023.
Chio’s stunning performance helped rescue a Tiger rotation in which no other gymnast scored a 9.9000 or better, and kept LSU in second-place. It also marked her 14th perfect-10.0000 of the season, putting her second in NCAA single-season history.
Simultaneously, Oklahoma kept its grip on the lead with a 49.4875 on the uneven bars. Three Sooners scored 9.9000 or better, paced by Mackenzie Estep’s 9.9375. Minnesota, meanwhile, also had three gymnasts score 9.9000 or better on the balance beam, with 2026 NCAA balance beam champion Brooklyn Rowray posting a 9.9125.
If Florida wanted to mount a comeback, it needed to do so on its lowest-ranked event, the vault. And it became evident that it wasn’t the Gators’ day. No UF gymnast scored better than 9.8750 on the event as Florida stumbled behind the rest of the competition. Even the Golden Gophers, who had been comfortably behind the Gators through the halfway point of the meet, overtook Florida with a 49.3875 on the floor exercise.
But the real story on the third rotation was Oklahoma’s balance beam struggles. Addison Fatta opened with a 9.7375 score after mismanaging her landing, and Kiera Walls fell on her routine thereafter, scoring a 9.0500 that forced the Sooners to count Fatta’s season-low mark.
That opened the door for LSU, which rebounded from a season-low 49.1850 on the event Thursday to score a 49.6125. No score lower than a 9.9000 was counted for the Tigers, as their anchor, Konnor McClain, nailed her routine and earned a 9.9500.
Concurrently, OU’s Ella Murphy totalled a 9.9375, while Pederson and NCAA all-around champion Faith Torrez both scored 9.9500. However, Ellie Mueller had a slight stumble and scored a 9.8625, which put the Tigers slightly out in front heading into the fourth rotation.
In the ultimate rotation, Florida put together its best performance of the day with a strong performance on the uneven bars.
Frazier kicked off with a 9.9125, followed by Pilgrim’s 9.9000 mark. Blakely and Harris-Miranda were excellent, earning 9.9500 scores, which tied them with the aforementioned McClain for the day’s bars crown. Ultimately, the Gators finished the event with a 49.6000 to pull them more than three-tenths ahead of Minnesota for third place.
However, all eyes were fully on LSU on the balance beam and Oklahoma on the floor exercise. With only 0.0750 separating the two sides heading into the final performances, it came down to the wire.
LSU’s margin for error was immediately erased when Lexi Zeiss fell of the balance beam and scored a 9.2375. The Tigers had to be flawless from that point forward, especially as Pederson scored a 9.9375 for the Sooners to push OU back into pole position.
The margin furthered when Drayton scored a 9.8750 and Lincoln stumbled to a 9.8375 for the Tigers. Simultaneously, OU's Mueller and Kiera Wells scored 9.9375 and 9.9000 on the floor, respectively.
LSU answered back with a 9.9500 by McClain, while OU's Estep ended with a 9.9125 on the floor. That led to the final two performances of the night by Chio and Torrez, two of the top performers in the country this season.
Chio was solid, but could not reach perfection again on the beam. She scored a 9.9000. Meanwhile, Torrez excelled, earning a 9.9500 on floor to capture the crown. Ultimately, the margin of victory was 0.0875 for the Sooners.
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.
Max is a junior sports journalism student in his seventh semester at The Alligator. He serves as The Alligator's assistant sports editor and football beat coordinator. He previously served as The Alligator's sports editor and as a reporter for football, women's tennis, volleyball, lacrosse and sports enterprise. He also has made multiple appearances on the Paul Finebaum Show. Max wants to shoutout his cats, Scooter and Zoe, and niche former Florida Panthers players (shoutout Maxim Mamin).
