OU's Torrez stuns by taking NCAA all-around title

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Limited all season by injury, Oklahoma senior Faith Torrez was not considered among the front-runners for the NCAA all-around title entering Thursday's semifinals.

In fact, having not competed all four events all season and done only uneven bars and balance beam since February, just her participation in the all around seemed unlikely.

But not only did Torrez make her 2026 all-around debut Thursday night in the second session, she defeated Olympic and world champions to claim NCAA gymnastics' highest individual honor with a 39.7875 total score.

Even Torrez couldn't hide her surprise at the result.

"If you would have [told] me probably two and a half weeks ago that I would be in this position right now doing four [events], like living out my dream right now, I'd probably laugh at you," Torrez said after Thursday's trophy ceremony. "I had no intentions of doing this at the beginning of the season, middle of the season, but to be here and have everything kind of just play out as it did was really amazing. I'm really grateful for that."

Coach K.J. Kindler said Torrez asked if she could start training on floor again after the SEC championships at the end of March. She started slowly -- and hadn't even done a full routine until earlier this week.

"She is so talented," Kindler said. "Great air awareness, great sense of being able to do it when you've been off of it for that long. So all the credit goes to the athlete in the arena who made that decision and felt comfortable enough and strong enough with her body to do that."

Torrez's strong performance, which helped lead the defending champion Sooners back to Saturday's championship meet, edged out that of LSU's Kailin Chio. Chio, the nation's top-ranked all arounder for most of the season, held the highest score (39.6125) after the afternoon session and was ultimately the runner-up. Florida's eMjae Frazier finished in third.

Torrez's victory capped an eventful day of gymnastics at Dickies Arena. In the afternoon session, Florida, the reigning SEC champion, won with relative ease (197.7875), but LSU, the 2024 NCAA champion, needed to battle until the last rotation to edge out a resurgent Georgia team. Tigers coach Jay Clark said he was proud of his team's resolve.

"Well, we made it interesting," Clark said. "It was not our best day by a long shot, but ... we learned [in the first week of the season] we were fighters and they could fight through things and not quit and just kind of keep swinging. And that's what they did."

In the night session, Oklahoma took control from the first rotation on vault and never relinquished it, earning the day's top score of 198.3000. But UCLA, the Big Ten champion and No. 4-ranked team, struggled with its first event on bars, including an uncharacteristic fall from senior and Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles. The Bruins clawed their way back and were in second place entering the final event. However, an error-prone vault rotation, and a strong showing from Minnesota on bars, changed both teams' fortunes.