Oklahoma women's gymnastics begins quest for national title repeat

Oklahoma women's gymnastics begins the penultimate leg in its quest for a second consecutive national championship on Friday at the Lexington Regional, hosted by Kentucky.

The Sooners rank third all-time in NCAA annals with seven national championships to their credit. Twice previously, OU has won back-to-back championships in 2016-17 and 2022-23.

Oklahoma will begin the regional leg of the NCAA Championship in the second session on Friday against No. 16 Kentucky and No. 18 Ohio State, and the Round 1 winner between Central Michigan and Rutgers. The top half of the bracket will feature No. 8 Missouri and No. 9 Arkansas out of the SEC, along with North Carolina State and Maryland.

Sooners begin NCAA regional after falling short in SEC Championships

OU has faced three of the teams competing in the Lexington Regional a total of seven times this season and is 7-0 in those matchups. The Sooners have faced Missouri and Kentucky twice this season and competed against Arkansas three times during the regular season.

The Sooners take a 23-1-1 season record into the 2026 NCAA Regional competition and own the top national qualifying score (NQS) of 197.980, which earned them the No. 1 overall seed.

Oklahoma's one loss this season came in the SEC Championship with the Sooners finishing second to Florida. The Sooners were also the SEC runner-up last season, losing out to LSU, before going on to win the NCAA championship.

Under head coach K.J. Kindler, who is in her 20th season leading the OU women's gymnastics program, Oklahoma has won 17 conference championships, 15 NCAA regional titles and seven national championships.

The Lexington Regional is one of four regional sites that will feed into the NCAA Championships. The other three are Baton Rouge (LSU), Corvallis (Oregon State) and Tempe (Arizona State). Nine teams will compete at each of the regional locations. The top two teams and top all-around competitor (who is not on a competing team) will advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 16-18.

The finals of the Lexington Regional will be on Sunday and will include the top two teams from each of the Friday sessions competing for the two NCAA Championship automatic qualifier spots.