Gophers gymnasts advance to NCAA meet again

The No. 8 Gophers gymnastics team will be going to the NCAA meet for the second year in a row.

Minnesota finished second to No. 1 Oklahoma on Saturday in the Norman (Okla.) Regional. Both teams advance to the eight-team NCAA meet April 14 and 16 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Sooners won their 12th straight regional title with a score of 198.250, meaning the team's seniors finish unbeaten at home.

The Gophers (197.725) outbattled No. 9 California (197.300) for second while Arkansas (196.675) was fourth. Minnesota was fourth in the Big Ten meet, but performed much better in the regional semifinals on Thursday. They had the best team score (197.825) in their session — the fourth-best in program history — and nearly duplicated it in the team regional finals.

Fifth-year seniors Ona Loper and Lexy Ramler of the Gophers finished 1-2 in the all-around (39.700, 39.600) while sophomore Mya Hooten took first in floor exercise (9.875) and redshirt junior Maddie Quarles tied for first in vault (9.975) with Oklahoma's Olivia Trautman, a senior from Champlin.

Oklahoma was the national runner-up to Michigan at the NCAA meet last year. The Gophers did not make the team finals, but had three individuals who placed high: Loper was third in vault and fourth in all-around, Hooten was fourth in floor exercise and Ramler fifth on beam.

The Gophers strong showing in Norman stemmed from their start — a 49.550 in vault, their first event, which was the third highest score in that event in program history. Quarles' score was career high for her.

"We are just thrilled," Gophers coach Jenny Hansen said. "We started off fantastic on the vault. I was told that was our highest vaulting score in postseason history, so to start the meet that way, you can't ask for a better start.

"Bars was really solid all the way through with solid routines and everyone was hitting. Same with beam. I think that was huge as they were calm and aggressive all the way through. Then we got to end on our best event and bring it home on the floor.

"We went into our last event knowing that if they do their job then we are going to go [to nationals]. We have so much confidence knowing we end on floor. We were behind going into that last event, but we knew we ended on floor and realized it would be hard to catch us.

"We knew that and I think that gave us confidence knowing that there are very few teams that can match the kind of scores we can on floor exercise."

This will be the Gophers' sixth national meet. They also earned spots in 1997 (10th-place finish), 2002 (ninth), 2013 (eighth), 2016 (12th) and 2021 (eighth).

Other state ties

Auburn, with Olympic all-around gold medalist Suni Lee, a freshman from St. Paul, also will be in the NCAA meet. The Tigers finished second in their own regional, helped by Lee's perfect 10 on beam.

Utah won the Seattle Regional with a big lift from Grace McCallum, a freshman from Isanti, Minn. She tied for first on bars (9.950) and in floor exercise (9.950). McCallum was a teammate of Lee's on the U.S. Olympic team in the Beijing Games. It earned a silver medal in the team competition.

Natalie DenHartog, Sydney Strelow and Lauren Espalin each hit two-run homers as the Gophers softball team routed Illinois 14-6 in five innings at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.

DenHartog, who now had 14 homers this season, also had a two-run double for Minnesota (16-3-1, 3-2 Big Ten). It was 13-0 before the Illinois (16-13, 2-2) scored three runs in the fourth.

In the opener, Minnesota (8-18, 0-3 Big Ten) scored on Chase Stanke's RBI single in the sixth inning and Brady Counsell's homer in the eighth. The Scarlet Knights (21-6, 5-1) scored seven runs in the fourth inning.

Rutgers also had a big inning in the second game, scoring six runs in the fourth. Andrew Wilhite hit a two-run homer for the Gophers' runs.