Utah advances to 5th straight NCAA women's gymnastics Final Four, joining UCLA, Oklahoma, Missouri
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Utah clinched its fifth straight Final Four appearance at the NCAA women's gymnastics championships, joining Thursday's other semifinal winners UCLA, Oklahoma and Missouri.
The Utes, who posted a top score of 197.7625, are seeking to add to their NCAA-leading nine championship titles on Saturday — with their first win since 1995. UCLA (197.7375) is going for its eighth national title.
LSU, the No. 1 overall seed and defending champion, was denied a chance at a repeat. The Tigers moved into second after the third rotation when Amari Drayton, Aleah Finnegan and Haleigh Bryant each notched scores of 9.9 or better on floor.
Emma Malabuyo secured UCLA's bid to the championship after posting a 9.9750 on beam. The Bruins turned three straight 9.9s to close the rotation.
Utah's bar rotation counted scores were all above 9.9.
Jordan Chiles followed UCLA teammate Frida Esparza's 9.9250 on uneven bars with a 9.9750 to take the top spot. Chiles joined teammate Brooklyn Moors (floor) as individual champions.
Jordan Bowers' all-around score of 39.7125 from the afternoon session held up to become a champion for Oklahoma.
Oregon State's Jade Carey needed 9.9375 on the vault to tie Bowers for the all-around title but had a hop on the landing.
LSU freshman Kailin Chio claimed the vault championship with a 9.975 to become the 19th individual champion by a Tiger and the eighth in the vault competition.
Semifinal No. 1
Oklahoma (197.550) is headed to the finals for the 11th time in the last 12 years — searching for a seventh national title. Missouri (197.3000) earned a spot in the NCAA final for the first time in program history, with their previous best finish of fifth in 2022.
A 49.275 on vault secured the victory for the Sooners.
Helen Hu posted a 9.9875 on beam to clinch the Tigers' spot in dramatic fashion.
Florida was in second place behind Oklahoma entering the third rotation. But the Gators turned in a season-low vault score of 49.0750, allowing Missouri to move into second heading to the final rotation.
___
AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Michigan State's Aidan Chiles Is Left off Josh Pate's Big Ten Top 10 Quarterback List
Michigan State's Aidan Chiles Is Left off Josh Pate's Big Ten Top 10 Quarterback List originally appeared on Athlon Sports. CBS Sports' Josh Pate revealed his Big Ten Preseason Quarterback Rankings with Penn State's Drew Allar, Ohio State's Julian Sayin, and Oregon's Dante Moore taking the top three spots, respectively. Advertisement Former Michigan State play caller Brian Lewerke noted one name absent from the remaining seven spots: current Spartans' quarterback Aidan Chiles. Michigan State Spartans quarterback Aidan King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images "Josh, with all due respect, this is not very good. And not just because you decided to not list the QB with the most talented arm in the B10," Lewerke commented under Pate's ranking on X. Chiles is entering his third NCAA season and second with the Michigan State Spartans. Including his time at Oregon State, he completed 60 percent of his passes for 2,724 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions over 21 games. He also rushed for 304 yards over 114 attempts. Advertisement When comparing to other quarterbacks on the list, Chiles statistically is either even with or surpassing them. Nebraska's Dylan Raiola, who's ranked at No. 6 on Pate's list, has similar stats to Chiles. As a freshman in 2024, he completed 67 percent of his passes for 2,819 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. On the rushing end, he attempted 50 carries with a net negative of 65 yards. Passing-wise, Raiola is similar to Chiles, yet the Spartan could not break into the top 10 whereas the Husker with net negative rushing yards could land at No. 6. Michigan's Bryce Underwood has yet to play an NCAA game. While ranked the No. 1 overall player, quarterback, and player out of Michigan in his recruitment class, judging Underwood's nonexistent collegiate career as equivalent to a No. 8 spot in the Big Ten is questionable. A case that can be made is the mere potential for and expectations on the incoming freshman. However, putting Underwood in the top 10, never mind also above two quarterbacks with NCAA experience, is not justifiable. Even in a rebuilding phase that Michigan State is going through with head coach Jonathan Smith, Chiles has grown in the offseason and is more comfortable with the Spartans. Confidence and limiting interceptions will need to be his main focus. Especially with the addition of former Oregon State quarterbacks coach Jon Boyer, the cards are falling in Chiles' favor to be at least a top 10 quarterback in the Big Ten. Advertisement Related: Michigan State Football Offers 4-Star Defensive Lineman With NFL Ties Related: Michigan State Football Beats Out Big 10 Rivals for Top 2026 WR Target This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 16, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Men's College World Series: Louisville outlasts Oregon State in homer-themed, roller coaster elimination game
The action started early on Day 5 of the Men's College World Series. Following Monday's suspension due to bad weather, LSU defeated UCLA in a game that was supposed to finish on Day 4. The loss pushed UCLA into a loser's bracket matchup with Arkansas, which will take place Tuesday night. Advertisement Prior to that, however, Louisville outlasted Oregon State 7-6 in a thrilling elimination game that featured four home runs and an epic ninth inning. Louisville 7, Oregon State 6 Louisville flipped the script on Oregon State Tuesday. Four days after the Cardinals watched the Beavers render a ninth-inning comeback obsolete with a walk-off win, Louisville gave Oregon State a taste of its own medicine in a memorable rematch. Oregon State came back from three runs down to tie the game at 6-6 in the top of the ninth, only for Louisville right fielder Eddie King Jr. to hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the frame. Advertisement "This team is special," King said afterward, via the ESPN broadcast. "We get knocked down, but we get right back up. "We just got to keep continuing to do that." King batted in the game's final run as well as its first. While both starting pitchers worked through trouble early, Oregon State junior Nelson Keljo was the first to crack. After an infield single and a walk, Keljo allowed an RBI single to King, who staked Louisville a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Cardinals nearly gave it back immediately. Though Louisville starter Brennyn Cutts had an excellent first inning, striking out the side, the senior fumbled with his control in the top of the second. Cutts walked the first two batters he faced in the inning before coming back and striking out two of the next three batters to get out of trouble. Through two innings, Cutts had five strikeouts. Advertisement Cutts dealt with traffic on the bases again in the third inning, but two more strikeouts helped him escape unscathed. Louisville gave him more run support in the bottom of the frame. With a man on second, third baseman Jake Munroe hit a two-run homer to left field to extend Louisville's lead to 3-0. King then followed that up with a ground-rule double off Keljo. With Louisville threatening to break the game open, first baseman Tague Davis hit a line drive to right but directly at Oregon State right fielder Easton Talt, who made the out and ended the inning. Oregon State answered back with a no doubter of its own. After Cutts walked designated hitter Tyce Peterson, he was chased by first baseman Jacob Krieg. Advertisement The 6-foot-5 junior hammered the first 400-foot dinger of the MCWS, depositing a long ball — his 14th of the season — well over the left field fence and cutting the Beavers' deficit to 3-2. The mid-game home run derby continued in the bottom of the fourth inning, thanks to Zion Rose, who went from watching Krieg's blast fly over his head in left field to ripping a solo shot there the next frame. Rose took advantage of a pitch from righty AJ Hutcheson that ended up over the heart of the plate. With that smash into the Louisville bullpen, Rose's 13th homer of the year, the Cardinals regained some breathing room, up 4-2. Left-handed Cardinals pitcher Justin West, who replaced Cutts in the fourth, put out six straight Oregon State batters between the fourth and fifth innings, recording a pair of strikeouts along the way. Advertisement That streak came to an end in the top of the sixth. After issuing a walk, West saw a perfectly-placed bunt from Peterson bounce past his reach. Then West drilled Krieg in the left leg. All of a sudden, Oregon State had the bases loaded with no outs. Although West fanned pinch hitter Carson McEntire, he didn't get out of the frame unscathed. Louisville couldn't turn two on the ensuing grounder from Beavers center fielder Canon Reeder. In the process, second baseman AJ Singer raced home from third to make it a 4-3 game. A flyout from third baseman Trent Caraway ended Oregon State's sixth-inning scoring bid. Garret Pike pinch hit for Bayram Hot at Louisville's designated hitter spot and delivered a two-out double to left-center. Pike scored after Cardinals second baseman Kamau Neighbors scorched a single to right, and after McEntire's throw home was both off the line and not cut off. As a result of the error, Neighbors advanced to second. Neighbors didn't get farther than that, but Louisville headed into the seventh inning with a 5-3 lead. Advertisement Oregon State missed an opportunity to chip away at its deficit when Peterson lined out to center with two men on in the top of the seventh. Louisville restored its three-run advantage from earlier with the first of King's two sac flies in the bottom of the frame. This time, he brought home catcher Matt Klein, who previously reached base with an infield single. Oregon State found itself in that same three-run hole entering the ninth inning. That's when shortstop and highly-regarded MLB prospect Aiva Arquette injected some hope into the veins of Beavers faithful with a lead-off home run, this one a 418-foot bomb. It was only the third homer given up by Louisville lefty Wyatt Danilowicz this season. He got the boot soon after, following a single to right from left fielder Gavin Turley, plus a wild pitch. Advertisement Right-handed pitcher Tucker Biven came in to relieve Danilowicz, except he immediately allowed a four-pitch walk. Singer loaded the bases with a single to right. The Beavers, who struggled mightily with runners in scoring position up to this point of the MCWS, finally came through with their backs against the wall — that is, with the help of the ball bouncing the right way. Peterson's grounder arrived at shortstop the same time catcher Wilson Weber was crossing the line of sight of the normally sure-handed Alex Alicea. Alicea failed to field the ball, and it trickled into the outfield. Weber and Turley scored to tie the game at 6-6. Biven dug deep for back-to-back strikeouts before inducing a popup for the third out. Advertisement Alicea instantly got a chance at redemption, leading off the bottom of the ninth. He drew a walk and trotted to first as the game-winning run. After five straight foul balls, the first two of which were from bunts, Louisville center fielder Lucas Moore reached first because of catcher's interference. That moved Alicea to second. Klein laid down a sacrifice bunt, except it didn't turn out to be sacrificial, as Oregon State pitcher Kellan Oakes couldn't field it properly. The sacrifice happened two batters later when King dialed up his clutch fly ball to center field. It was plenty deep enough to score a relieved Alicea as soon as he tagged up. Advertisement Louisville, which rallied to beat Arizona this past Sunday, will now play Coastal Carolina Wednesday at 2 p.m. LSU continues to dominate the competition. After pulling out a win and advancing Tuesday, its team's lead in the Jell-O shot challenge is not in question. Whether LSU can break the all-time Jell-O shot record, however, seems like a tall ask. The school is currently lagging behind record pace, but perhaps fans will be inspired after Tuesday's win. No other school has come close to matching LSU this year. Murray State sits in second with 7,421 Jell-O shots consumed. Arkansas — which is still alive as of Tuesday morning — sits at 6,801. LSU holds the record with 68,888 Jell-O shots consumed in 2023. Fans would really need to up their consumption to beat that record, but the school could rally as long as the team keeps winning games.
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Patrick Mahomes' future blindside protector? Chiefs have high expectations for rookie Josh Simmons
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andy Reid likes to point out that his star quarterback doesn't merely pay attention to the NFL Draft each spring but studies it intently, scouring the class of college prospects so he can identity a handful of players whom he believes might one day help the Kansas City Chiefs win another world championship. Advertisement Mahomes, his coach believes, pores through enough film to put his own draft board together. So when the Chiefs traded back one spot at the end of the first round in April, then took Ohio State left tackle Josh Simmons with the 32nd pick, Reid had a sense of what his quarterback's response was going to be. 'He knew about this kid,' Reid said. Mahomes wasted little time, posting an emoji on X that shared his sentiment. 😎 — Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) April 25, 2025 In other words, the QB approved. The Chiefs might've found the blindside protector for the second half of Mahomes' career. Truth told, it was an easy call for Kansas City, now four months removed from a 40-22 shellacking in Super Bowl LIX. The Eagles didn't just rout them that night in New Orleans, they forced the Chiefs — the league's gold standard for years — to confront some hard truths about the state of their roster and what the next few years for Mahomes could look like if the issues exposed weren't addressed, and addressed promptly. Same as the franchise's Super Bowl LV loss to the Bucs four years prior, this humbling served as a referendum for a leaky offensive line. Mahomes spent three hours running for his life (he was sacked six times and hit 11) and played his worst game as a pro. To get back on track — and have a shot at a fourth Super Bowl triumph in the Mahomes era — it starts in the trenches. 'It's on me to fix it, to get it where it should be,' Reid told The Athletic's Mike Silver last week. Kansas City had camouflaged the problem for months late in the season, shuffling the lineup and chasing some semblance of consistency. At the same time, Reid, Mahomes and Steve Spagnuolo's defense carried the team to a third consecutive Super Bowl berth. But internally, Reid knew. They were living from week to week, and it wasn't sustainable. Eventually, it grew so dire that he had to shift All-Pro guard Joe Thuney out to left tackle, his fourth different starter at that spot since the season opener. Advertisement Patchworking the position that safeguards Mahomes' blindside wasn't going to cut it. It was enough of a worry, Reid later admitted, that 'we thought we'd spend a first-round pick on it.' Enter Simmons. The Chiefs were originally picking 31st in April, but when Eagles general manager Howie Roseman called while Kansas City was on the clock, wanting to trade up a spot, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach's response was succinct: 'You don't have to tell me the player. Just tell me offense or defense.' 'Defense,' Roseman told him. Veach gave the go-ahead on the trade, which netted him an additional fifth-rounder. He knew Roseman would keep his word, and that Simmons would be available. The 6-foot-5, 317-pound Ohio State product initially hit the team's radar early last fall, before a torn patella tendon in his right knee ended his 2024 season. 'Hopefully we're not in a position to take him,' Veach remembers telling himself during the scouting process, 'because he's going to go pretty high.' Both Veach and Reid believed that without the injury, Simmons would've gone inside the top 10. The Chiefs haven't drafted inside the top 10 since trading up for Mahomes in 2017. 'We felt like he was a true left tackle,' Reid said, noting that a big part of Simmons' tool kit that sold them was his ability to anchor in the passing game. The Chiefs' offense, once the most electric unit in the league, has stalled considerably the last two seasons; somehow, Kansas City was 27th in passing plays of 20 yards or more in 2024. The downfield threat has all but disappeared. Part of that was a rash of injuries to the wide receiver room. Another reason was a line that couldn't give Mahomes enough time. The Eagles just happened to expose it stunningly in front of 127.7 million viewers. 'He's the best player in the game,' Veach said of the two-time MVP. 'When Pat is upright, we have some pretty talented weapons (around him).' Advertisement Simmons, Veach said, looks like 'a future starter and difference-maker at left tackle.' What has encouraged the team thus far is his swift recovery from surgery: Simmons is on schedule to be ready for training camp and was participating in 11-on-11 work during Tuesday's first mandatory minicamp practice. 'I wanna be available,' Simmons said after Tuesday's practice. One veteran the Chiefs were thrilled to welcome back was guard Trey Smith, who was on the field Tuesday for the first time this spring. Smith, who was franchise-tagged in March, skipped all of OTAs and is seeking a new deal. 'It's good Trey didn't take my approach,' said teammate Chris Jones, the All-Pro defensive end who held out two years ago all the way into the regular season before signing a five-year, $158 million contract. 'Trey's doing the right thing, man. I think the future plans of the Chiefs is to have Trey around.' Smith is expected to report to training camp in July, and the Chiefs have said they want to get a deal done. Simmons' arrival offers the Chiefs valuable depth at a position of glaring need: The team signed former 49ers reserve Jaylon Moore in the offseason to a two-year, $30 million deal. At this point, Moore is the projected starter at left tackle, which will allow Simmons time to acclimate to the pro game while he continues to strengthen his knee. Simmons said every stage of his rehab has gone to plan, and that he felt 'good straight off the (operating) table' because he had the operation done by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, one of the leading surgeons in the field. For their sake, the Chiefs examined Simmons' knee closely during the draft process and felt confident there would be no lingering effects. So far, so good. On the field, Simmons said the learning curve hasn't been as severe as he'd imagined, something he credits his time at Ohio State for. 'I know what to anticipate,' he said. Another layer to his education is the persistent presence of Mitchell Schwartz, the Chiefs' former right tackle who retired after the 2020 season and remains a sounding board for the team's linemen. Schwartz was on hand Tuesday, watching intently from the sideline. 'He'll give me tips and tricks that'll help me on this play, or what Pat might do on this play that can set me up for a different angle,' Simmons said. Advertisement All that's left are the final stages of Simmons' war with patience — 'I want to be able to throw the pads on ASAP,' he said Tuesday. That won't come until training camp, and the Chiefs have said they won't rush him. Reid has gone out of his way to counsel the rookie, Simmons said, after most practices, stressing the long game. The Chiefs and Mahomes don't need Simmons just yet. In time, they will. (Top photo of Josh Simmons: Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)
