The Minnesota Golden Gophers made history at the second semifinal of the national championships, advancing to Saturday’s final for the first time alongside Oklahoma, LSU, and Florida.
Minnesota has had a spectacular season, and getting to represent the program on the biggest stage is a dream come true for the Gophers. Head coach Jenny Hansen, in her eleventh season with the program, shared, “We are ecstatic about the way the team performed really from start to finish. They were so focused, but yet so relaxed, and this was really a history-making moment.”
Starting the night off on beam, the Gophers’ performance here set Minnesota up for success from the start with a solid 49.3875 event total that put it in second place after the first rotation. Beam has been the strongest event for the Gophers this season, and this strength was something Hansen identified early on in the year. “We have tremendous beam workers. They have such confidence and they train with confidence. We identified [that beam] was one of our best events early on in [preseason].” Senior Brooklyn Rowray, the 2026 national beam champion, added, “We continue to push each other in the gym, we want to get better and we want the best for each other…We are always fighting for a lineup spot, and you know you have to put in the work, so you take that and run with it and [we] continue to push each other and do our best.”
The first national champion since 1990 for the Gophers, Rowray is one who has been such a major part of the team’s success this year, especially on this event. “I think I’m still in shock [from winning the title] but all the glory to God, I wouldn’t be here without that and the support of my team and my coaches. Being able to come out here and trust them and relax and do my job, I am so grateful to represent the University of Minnesota. It has been such a blessing,” she said.
Throughout the competition, the Gophers were fighting to stay in the top two spots, and heading into the fourth rotation, Hansen emphasized the mentality the team had coming in that has carried it throughout the season. “One thing we told the team was that we can’t go into this meet trying to be perfect,” said Hansen. “We just need to do us, and when we do that, we have performances like we did tonight…This team is so close; we have persevered as a team through tough times, we have each other’s backs through it, and that really helped us here [tonight].”
With the Gophers ending on bars and needing one of their best performances to solidify their place in the top two, freshman Lacie Saltzmann scored a career high of a 9.925 to help the team pull ahead and advance, and shared how special this experience and her entire first year has been. “[I wasn’t even supposed to be here this year], but it was my dream to be here. It really is a dream come true and it is so special to be here with this team,” said Saltzmann.
Minnesota has quickly become a fan favorite this postseason, and having the support of the fans has meant so much to the team. “It is so heartwarming to see so many people want us to do well,” said Hansen. Rowray added to that sentiment, saying, “Something so neat about gymnastics is that we all want everyone to do our best, and to see people want that for us, I’m incredibly grateful.”
The Gophers have had a historic run this season, and it’s not over yet. Heading into Saturday, the goal is as clear as it has been since the beginning of the season and the mindset has never wavered for team 52. “We set our sights on getting to nationals on our team retreat in September,” shared Saltzmann. “We do our best at the meets when we forget about the other teams and it was just us versus us. We came in [to this weekend] with the mindset of ‘We are not the underdogs, we are the team to beat.’”
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Article by Julianna Roland
