When the University of Minnesota gymnastics team scored a woeful 195.075 in a loss at Nebraska in January, there wasn’t one person who would think what had happened over the last month would come to fruition. The Gophers continued to claw their way back through the rest of the Big Ten not falling again to a team not named UCLA the rest of the conference slate. The Gophers would take third place at the Big Ten Championships, decent but not exceptional. They were awarded the #13 seed in the NCAA Championships—again good, but a team that was likely to bow out in the Region Finals and say it was a good season. But, the women on this team thought otherwise. The Gophers have been on a tear in the NCAA Championships knocking out higher seeded teams left and right. Minnesota eliminated #5 Alabama and #12 Utah in the Corvallis Region Final to get to the NCAA National Semifinal on Thursday night. There they would see #1 Oklahoma, those pesky #4 ranked UCLA Bruins and #9 Arkansas in their way. Another nice run to the Final 8 right? Not this time. Minnesota finally slayed the Bruins and defeated Arkansas as well to advance to the first Final Four in program history on Saturday afternoon. The lowest ever seed to make the finals at #13 will try and keep their Cinderella run going for one more meet against the top three teams in the nation—all from the SEC. Can the Gophers find a way to dig deep one more time and come out with the performances of their lives?
The Gophers got a lot of those performances on Thursday night. Senior Brooklyn Rowray started it off with a 9.9625 on the beam that would be good enough to earn her the NCAA Championship in the event. Minnesota next moved to the floor where they didn;t have a contributor score lower than 9.8375 and were anchored by junior Jordyn Lyden’s 9.9375 to put the Gophers in second place through two rotations. Gopher star freshman Ariana Ostrom led the way on the vault for the Gophers putting up a 9.9250, but Minnesota fell into third position after three rotations. Only the bars were left. UCLA was on the vault. And the Bruins faltered with a pair of poor scores. Minnesota just needed to hot their routines and they were on their way. In stepped freshman Lacie Saltzmann. She accelerated a year to get here. She should be a senior in high school right now. In the most pressure packed routine of her life what does she do? Nails an almost perfect routine for a career high 9.9625 and punched the Gophers ticket to the Final Four.
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With the most decorated Minnesota gymnast male or female on the call in John Roethlisberger you could hear the emotion in his voice as he said that Minnesota was in the Final for the first time ever. It just seemed like fate.
Now the Gophers need to see if they can put on those glass slippers one last time. Minnesota steps into their first ever national final and is welcomes by the #1 ranked team in the nation in Oklahoma, the #2 ranked team in Florida and the #3 ranked team in Georgia. SEC vs Big Ten for all the marbles. To say that the odds are stacked against the Gophers would be putting it way too lightly. While the Gophers are picking up fan support left and right, helped by their absolutely stellar social media work during this run, nobody other than those in the maroon and gold think Minnesota actually has a chance on Saturday.
But this Gopher team’s mantra this entire run has been one that was echoed by another team who just needed to find in themselves what nobody thought they had.
As Gopher head coach Jenny Hansen said after the Gophers advanced Thursday night, They Believed. I’m still in a little disbelief. But THEY BELIEVED.
Now the Gophers just need to take that belief into one final meet and lay it all on the line. They have nothing to lose. Everyone expects them to finish fourth against a murder’s row of tough opponents. It is the best season in the program’s 52 year history. Nobody would be disappointed. But these women believe. And that confidence and that belief can go a LONG way towards making even more history.
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The Gophers will rotate Bars-Beam-Floor-Vault on Saturday afternoon. Arguably their top three events finished by their lowest scoring one. So Minnesota will need to be absolutely elite form the top to the bottom. On Thursday night the Gophers scored 49.2500 on vault, 49.3875 on bars, 49.3875 on beam and 49.4375 on floor. Roethlisberger will be back on the call of the meet at 3 PM on ABC. Don’t think that he wouldn’t love to describe his alma mater shock the world. Now, it’s just up to the Gophers to make everyone else believe.