FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Oklahoma Sooners gymnastics team stood huddled in a circle, staring only at one another, as the crowd at Dickies Arena was transfixed on the balance beam.
The Sooners' day was over, capped off by yet another high-scoring floor routine by senior Faith Torrez, and the national championship all came down to LSU sophomore Kailin Chio on balance beam.
While the rest of the arena cheered and gasped, no one from the Oklahoma huddle seemed to even steal a glance. The Sooners remained with their arms around one another for the next several moments. Head coach K.J. Kindler later said she told her gymnasts how proud she was of them but admitted she didn't know what would happen next.
"Boy, as we were meeting after our last floor routine, I did not know," Kindler said. "We did not know what position we would end up in, but what I told them was, 'You did everything you could.'"
That everything was enough.
And when Chio's beam score -- a 9.90 -- flashed on the screen, the Sooners' fate was sealed and the reality seemed to sink in.
Oklahoma had won its eighth national title -- all since 2014 and under the helm of Kindler -- with a 198.1625 total score. It was .0875 of a point better than LSU, and nearly a half point better than third-place Florida.
Minnesota, making its championship meet debut after playing spoiler against Utah in the regional finals and UCLA in the semifinals, finished in fourth. Soon after the final scores had been announced, there were "Boomer Sooner" chants with the crowd, long hugs and tears of joy, confetti tosses as "We Are the Champions" played over the loudspeaker and balloons featuring the No. 8 in the stands and on the floor.
Winning national titles has become synonymous with the Oklahoma program in the past decade, but Saturday's title was hardly guaranteed. The Sooners were narrowly edged out for the SEC championship title last month by Florida and had to reconfigure their lineup this week after sophomore Addison Fatta, an all-around staple for the team all season, injured her hand and was restricted to only beam. And on Saturday, the Sooners had a challenging beam rotation -- which saw a fall from Keira Wells and had to count a 9.735 from Fatta -- and trailed LSU entering the day's final rotation after having held the lead for the rest of the meet.
But after beam, which ended with strong showings from freshman Ella Murphy, who Kindler later said called it "the most nervous" experience of her life, Lily Pederson and Torrez, the Sooners came together and regrouped.
"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."
Pederson added she was able to relax, despite the pressure, because she knew it was somewhat out of their hands.
"None of us were really paying attention to the score because at the end of the day, if we do our best gymnastics, that's all we can ask for," Pederson said. "We can't control the score. And I think that's what we all did."
On floor, an event Kindler and her staff chose to end on, the Sooners dominated. Anchored by Torrez's 9.95, and not needing to count a score under 9.90, Oklahoma left little to chance.
Meanwhile, the Tigers, the 2024 champions, had a fall of their own from Lexi Zeiss on beam and simply couldn't make up the difference with their rest of their lineup.
Kindler credited LSU for "making it extra, extra difficult" and "pushing us to our limit."
For Torrez, who had been limited throughout the season with injury, the weekend was a fairy-tale ending to a storied collegiate career. After not being able to compete in the all-around during the season, Torrez was able to do all four events for the first time in Thursday's semifinal. Despite her lack of experience this year, she won the individual national title, stunning Chio and a slew of other talented gymnasts, and helped give the Sooners the highest score entering the championship.
"It's a dream come true," Torrez said about her final two meets as a college gymnast.
With Saturday's victory, the Sooners passed UCLA in the all-time standings for sole possession of third place. Georgia still owns the record with 10 national titles, and Utah has nine. The mark also ties the team with Oklahoma's legendary softball team for the most championships among women's programs at the school.
Kindler told reporters she would have never believed it if someone had told her when she took the job in 2006 how successful she would be -- but insisted she did not take the feeling of winning a national championship for granted.
"I mean, I was in disbelief today," Kindler said. "We were just on the edge of our seats. I honestly could not believe it. So, they're all different. They're all unique, and they're all incredibly special. You don't get immune to the feeling of having an accomplishment like this.
"And all the credit goes to the athletes. The things that we have been through this year ... all those [championship] teams are special in very different ways. You have different memories based on who's part of that [specific] personnel, but that euphoric feeling never goes away."
