Women's gymnastics celebration

Women's gymnastics NCAA championship win celebration on April 21, 2026.

 Zsophia Towson/OU Daily

New OU athletic director Roger Denny and university president Joseph Harroz Jr. praised the team's dedication and consistent efforts.

Here are key takeaways:

Overcoming obstacles 

The Sooners captured their eighth national championship in Fort Worth over the weekend, but the path to the title was not easy. Throughout the season, OU faced multiple adversities, including injuries at inopportune times. 

One challenge the team faced was a hand injury to sophomore Addison Fatta, which limited her to the balance beam through the NCAA tournament. Prior to her injury, Fatta was ranked No. 3 in the all-around and was one of the highest scorers for OU on floor and beam. 

Head coach K.J. Kindler explained that she had never seen a team handle challenges like this one. 

“We were handed adversity in unfair amounts,” Kindler said. “It was unlike anything I've ever seen.”

Kindler was proud of how the team was able to work together and navigate through the challenges. 

“They handled adversity like I've never seen,” Kindler said. “I'm just super proud of the job they did.”

Despite her coaching success, Kindler credited the athletes rather than herself. In her 20 years at OU, Kindler has led the Sooners into 13 top three national finishes and 15 straight regional titles.

“Personally, I think the athletes are what make the coach, not vice versa,” Kindler said.

Senior sendoff for Torrez

After four years in the program, senior Faith Torrez closed her career by earning All-American honors in all four events. 

Torrez started as a freshman and said that the relationships she built over her four years at OU defined her experience.

“It's amazing. These are my people forever,” Torrez said. “I was really happy to do it with them. I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.” 

Kindler said that she was proud of Torrez for performing her floor routine after limited practice following an injury.

“I am absolutely amazed with what Faith did. Floor is the hardest event to prepare in the preseason; your endurance takes a long time to build,” Kindler said. “It takes a long time to be able to execute a floor routine at that high (of) a level. Faith was able to do it.”

In the final floor routine of her career, Torrez scored a 9.95. Torrez finished with a 39.7875 all-around score, tying with athletes from UCLA, Stanford and LSU.

Freshman rise to the moment in title run

Freshman Ella Murphy and Mackenzie Estep stepped up for OU in their championship run. Murphy earned first-team All-America honors on beam, while Estep earned first-team All-America honors on bars.

Murphy made her debut on uneven bars and stuck her landing, earning a score of 9.9125. Estep led the team on bars with a score of 9.9375.  

Murphy said that the championship win was inspiring and fueled her motivation going into next season.

“That was definitely inspiring and motivating to keep going and keep getting more,” Murphy said.

Estep said that winning a championship in her first year was a dream come true.  

“It's been so incredible,” Estep said. “I'm so grateful to be here. That was so cool to end my freshman year that way, it makes us even more hungry to continue improving and hopefully get more (championships) throughout our time here.”

This story was edited by Charlie DiVincenzo.

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