Oklahoma wins NCAA women's gymnastics championship; Suni Lee helps Auburn to 4th

At the beginning of the season, the spotlight fell on Suni Lee. The Auburn freshman brought something new and fresh to women's college gymnastics, becoming the first Olympic all-around champion to compete at the NCAA level.

Lee sparkled all the way to the end. But there wasn't anything novel about the way the season concluded, as longtime powerhouse Oklahoma won the NCAA championship Saturday. The top-ranked Sooners regrouped after a poor start at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, surging past Florida, Utah and Auburn to claim their fifth national crown.

An unprecedented influx of Olympians brought more widespread attention to women's college gymnastics this year. Though Saturday's team final featured two medalists from the Tokyo Summer Games — Lee of St. Paul and Utah's Grace McCallum, an Isanti native — the meet was decided by upperclassmen who were well-schooled in the perfect execution the NCAA level demands.

The final rotation became a can-you-top-this contest between Oklahoma and No. 2 Florida, separated by the tiniest of details. After the Gators' Trinity Thomas threw down a perfect 10.0 on floor exercise, with all six judges concurring, Oklahoma's Ragan Smith needed a 9.9625 on balance beam in the Sooners' last routine. She got it, delivering the title to the Sooners by 0.1125 of a point.

Oklahoma finished with a team score of 198.200, followed by Florida (198.0875), Utah (197.750) and Auburn (197.350).

"I can't say enough about how great this team was today,'' Oklahoma coach K.J. Kindler said. "Fighters to the end.

"What heart they had, to fight back after floor. They didn't count themselves out, and they pushed on every single event after that.''

Oklahoma was in last place after its first rotation, floor exercise. After logging their worst score on that event this season, the Sooners scored 9.9 or better on 14 of their final 18 routines.

Three of those marks came from Olivia Trautman of Champlin, who ended an injury-marred senior year with a brilliant performance at the NCAA championships. Trautman's 9.9625 on vault helped revitalize the Sooners after their slow start.

Lee, who finished second to Thomas in the individual all-around competition Thursday, ended up in the same position Saturday. Two days after winning the NCAA title on balance beam, she delivered Auburn's top marks on beam (9.9) and floor (9.95), and her all-around score of 39.6250 trailed only the 39.8625 earned by Thomas.

The Tigers, who began the season ranked No. 14, earned their best finish ever at the NCAA championships. Lee became only the second Auburn gymnast to win an NCAA individual crown.

"I think we left it all out there, and I'm really proud of them,'' coach Jeff Graba said. "There are 18 national championships among those other three teams, and this was our third final appearance in history. We knew we had an uphill battle, and we just needed to fight.''

Utah started the meet with an outstanding performance on beam, holding the lead through the first two rotations. Junior Abby Paulson of Anoka scored a 9.9 in each of those events, beam and floor exercise. But the Red Rocks fell short on vault, dropping into third place as Oklahoma surged to the lead with the day's highest team score on bars.

McCallum, a freshman, topped the Red Rocks on bars (9.95) and added a 9.9 on floor exercise.

The NCAA's new name, image and likeness (NIL) rules paved the way for Olympians to compete in college, since they now can make money while remaining NCAA-eligible. Four Tokyo Olympians competed in Fort Worth, with UCLA's Jordan Chiles and Oregon State's Jade Carey qualifying as individuals alongside Lee and McCallum. Utah coach Tom Farden was excited to see them, and he's eager to see the impact Olympians could have on college gymnastics going forward.

Yet they did not dominate at the NCAA championships. McCallum noted that college gymnastics requires less difficult skills than the elite level, but more precise execution. Meets are scored differently. Athletes compete every weekend for 3 ½ months, instead of a few times a year, and practice hours are limited.

All of that made for a challenging season, McCallum said, but an ultimately fulfilling one.

"It's not physically harder, but it's mentally harder,'' she said. "The skills might be easier, but you have to make them look as good as they can possibly be. That was something I had to work on.

"But coming to college, where you have 15 other girls training with you and supporting you all the time, it's just amazing. It's been a fun year.''

The Star Tribune did not travel for this event. This article was written using the television broadcast and video interviews before and/or after the meet.