After advancing to the national championship, Oklahoma head coach K.J. Kindler said her team would need to compete freely to win the title. The weight of the world was off the Sooners’ shoulders—now, it was time to enjoy the moment.
One year later, the Sooners can permanently put the disappointment of 2024 behind them as they claimed their seventh national team title in program history with a 198.0125 at the 2025 NCAA national championships. The win ties Oklahoma with this year’s runner-up, UCLA, for the third-most team titles in NCAA history. A last-second inquiry on Amy Wier’s beam score put Missouri in third, marking its best finish ever for a women’s program at the school, while Utah finished fourth.
Fifth-year Audrey Davis secured the title with Oklahoma’s top score on bars, a 9.925. She acknowledged that she wasn’t at her best during Thursday’s semifinal but returned with a new mindset for the final.
“I was not free on Thursday,” Davis said after the meet. “But today, I came in and said, ‘You’ve got nothing to lose.’ Today is the day to do your best gymnastics. I was a lot more joyful and present in the moment.”
Oklahoma opened on beam, an event that gave the Sooners trouble in the semifinal. Freshman Lily Pederson, described by teammates as a perfectionist, had fallen for only the second time all season—and the first on beam. But Kindler knew she’d bounce back with what she called “angry beam.” Pederson delivered one of three 9.9375s in the rotation, helping tie Oklahoma with UCLA after one event.
“I had no doubt in my mind she was going to nail that routine today,” senior Danielle Sievers said. “We all have so much faith in each other. We’re just beyond proud of her and happy that she went out and redeemed herself.”
Through two rotations, Oklahoma pulled ahead by three-tenths and never looked back. Heading into the final rotation, Kindler said she wanted to see the 49.600-caliber bars team she knew it could be. While the Sooners didn’t quite reach that mark, their performance was enough to seal the win.
Claiming a national title once is difficult. Doing it seven times is rare. When asked how the program continues to build championship-caliber teams, Kindler was quick to credit her athletes.
“They know one of their duties is to build the people underneath them, like they did with the freshmen,” she said. “They buy into the process, the difficulty, the sacrifices we ask them to make, and the work we ask them to do. Without buy-in, you have nothing.”
Kindler also credited the team’s senior leadership, saying they were focused on leaving a legacy.
“We wanted to leave it better than we found it and try to be the best teammates possible, in and out of the gym,” said senior Jordan Bowers, who capped her career as the NCAA all-around champion on Thursday.
While Bowers, Davis, and Sievers have officially retired, Danae Fletcher will return to the Sooners next season alongside seniors Ava Siegfeldt and Faith Torrez. After recovering from two torn ACLs, Fletcher hopes to contribute on vault, bars, and floor—with beam a “maybe,” according to Kindler. As she prepares for a 2026 return, Fletcher wants her legacy to be about resilience.
“I’ve been inspired by this class,” Fletcher said. “I think the biggest thing everyone can take from us is that we can do anything we put our minds to. It’s really amazing to pass that down.”
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Article by Savanna Wellman
