The University of Oklahoma officially joined the Southeastern Conference on July 1, 2024. This created plenty of anticipation for the 2025 NCAA gymnastics season, where the Sooners were bound to enter a talented conference with multiple title contenders. LSU did win the conference title this year, but Oklahoma would go on to dethrone the reigning Tigers and capture the national title. While a national title is certainly a big enough statement to show how the Sooners will fare against their SEC counterparts, the College Gym News data team examined all the statistics on how Oklahoma performed compared to its SEC counterparts.
Data editor Emma Hammerstrom used Road to Nationals data and a database of all 2025 scores to highlight how competitive Oklahoma was in its first SEC season. She chose to highlight average scores instead of NQS to give a more complete picture of how individual gymnasts and schools stacked up against each other. She also omitted postseason data to focus solely on Oklahoma’s first regular season in the SEC, instead of postseason meets against non-conference foes.
All-around
In the individual all-around, Oklahoma boasts the top two gymnasts by average. It has four of the top ten all-arounders in the SEC, featuring Audrey Davis at No. 5 and Lily Pederson at No. 8 in addition to top all-arounders Jordan Bowers and Faith Torrez. No other school has more than two all-arounders in the top ten. While Haleigh Bryant of LSU would go on to win the conference all-around title, Bowers won the national title in April with a massive 39.7125.
Oklahoma also had the best average score of the SEC conference, almost two tenths higher than second-place LSU. While Oklahoma only had the third-best maximum score of the conference (Florida with a 198.625, LSU with a 198.575, and Oklahoma with a 198.475), only Oklahoma and Missouri advanced to the Final Four in April.
Vault
Oklahoma only has one vaulter, Faith Torrez, among the top ten in the SEC. Kailin Chio of LSU captured the national title on vault, while Selena Harris-Miranda of Florida won the conference title on that event. LSU had the top two vaulters by average, with Florida filling out ranks 3 through 5. We see a similar trend when comparing each program’s vault averages. LSU sits on top of the conference with Florida in a close second. Vault was the only event where Oklahoma was not ranked first by NQS nationally, despite putting up six 10.0 start values in their lineup in every meet.
Bars
Oklahoma showed more dominance on the uneven bars, where the Sooners boasted the highest event average by almost a tenth. Audrey Davis was the conference’s top uneven bars worker. The conference title ended up in a three-way tie between Mara Titarsolej, Leanne Wong, and Riley McCusker. Despite this, Oklahoma was consistently excellent on bars in 2025 compared to their conference foes. The Sooners were ranked No. 1 on the event nationally at the end of the season. While Florida had the highest event score of the season (49.850), the Sooners had a higher average and NQS on bars.
Beam
Oklahoma’s Faith Torrez was the SEC national champion on beam, albeit in a four-way tie with Helen Hu, Aleah Finnegan, and Haleigh Bryant. The Sooners had two gymnasts with top ten conference averages on beam. Oklahoma also boasted the highest event average on beam, earning them a No. 1 ranking on the event nationally. While Florida had the highest event total on this event (49.700), the Sooners were extremely close behind with a 49.675 of their own.
Floor
Oklahoma excelled on floor in 2025, with the conference’s top two floor workers by average both being Sooners. Faith Torrez went on to win the conference title outright. Torrez and Bowers placed second at the national championships in this event, the highest placement out of any SEC gymnast on floor. The Sooners also had the highest average on this event out of any SEC team. Just like bars and beam, the Sooners ranked No. 1 nationally on floor in 2025. They scored a maximum total of 49.775 on floor in 2025, the highest in the SEC.
Attendance
Oklahoma was middle of the pack in 2025 when it came to attendance. Despite having the largest metropolitan area (est. 2024) of any SEC team, it had the fifth-highest average and total attendance counts. LSU routinely pulled in larger crowds, with around 4,400 more attendees on average than Oklahoma. Florida and Oklahoma had comparable attendance turnouts.
What’s next in 2026?
Oklahoma is a young team that also just lost two of its top all-around gymnasts. While this would be a concerning statement for any other team, KJ Kindler has proved time and time again that she can keep nearly any Oklahoma team competitive amongst its conference and national foes. Incoming sophomores Lily Pederson and Addison Fatta are accustomed to competing in the all-around, and their scores will likely benefit from the added experience and later lineup spots. Additionally, their incoming freshman class is ranked No. 1 in the nation. The Sooners will have more depth in 2026, but can’t get too comfortable when foes Arkansas, Florida, and LSU have top-five recruiting classes as well. To make things even more competitive… three of those programs brought in transfers who can regularly compete in the all-around. Oklahoma had no transfer portal additions this year. Despite this, it would be foolish to say that Oklahoma could not easily compete for a conference and national title in 2026. Faith Torrez gets better with every season, and Hannah Scheible and Danae Fletcher are returning from injury to add depth on vault, bars, and floor.
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Article by Emma Hammerstrom
