No Regrets”: 21-Year-Old Gymnastics Star Silences Critics After Leading Oklahoma Sooners to 7th NCAA Championship

Imagine being just 21, in your sophomore year at the University of Oklahoma, and helping your team win its 7th NCAA Championship. Well, if you think that’s impossible, then that’s exactly what one young gymnastics star just did. While the Sooners took home the 2025 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics title, scoring 198.0125 points and beating top teams like UCLA, Missouri, and Utah. Not bad for a young gymnast who made her collegiate debut just a year ago at the Super 16 Invitational. But who is she?

Well, she is none other than Faith Torez. Already an Olympic gymnast, she is no stranger to the big stage. She earned titles like 2025 NCAA Team Champion, Floor Exercise Silver Medalist, and All-Around & Balance Beam Bronze Medalist. But while her trophy case was filling up, Torrez recently opened up about the reality of this win and what it took to get there.

In a recent video shared by AllThingsGymPod on Instagram, she gave us an honest look at the highs and lows of the season, and in doing so, she silenced the critics who questioned them last year when they didn’t win the NCAA national championship. “By the end of the season, everybody kind of wanted to tiptoe around what happened,” Torrez said, reflecting on the team’s earlier struggles, especially when they didn’t win last year.

“But I think it was great for us as a team to address it and just heal. It helped us go into the season with a mindset of not taking anything for granted.” For Torrez, facing those challenges head-on made all the difference. “Even the freshmen, who weren’t there for that struggle, wanted it just as much as we did when they came in,” she shared. “We built off of it, and it fueled the fire.”

When it came time for the finals, Torrez says the energy was unmatched. “There were no regrets, nothing in our way stopping us,” she said. “We just competed freely.” Reflecting on the victory, she admitted that it felt like a huge weight had been lifted. “It was so relieving thinking about all the hard work we’d put in together as a team. We had a lot of ups and downs, but it made it all worth it.”

And it wasn’t just about the wins for Torrez—she knows that the losses taught them just as much. “Obviously, you want to win, but I think it’s so important to really feel the losses as well,” she said. “You’ve got to feel them just as much as you feel the wins.” For this gymnastics star, it’s that balance of learning from the tough moments and pushing forward together that led to Oklahoma’s big win.

Oklahoma Sooners Women’s Gymnastics clinch seventh national title

The Oklahoma Sooners women’s gymnastics team pulled off an epic win at the ‘Four on the Floor’ finals. In doing so, they claimed the national championship. They narrowly edged out UCLA, with Missouri and Utah rounding out the top four. This victory marks Oklahoma’s seventh national title, all under the leadership of Head Coach K.J. Kindler, tying them with UCLA for the third-most NCAA championships in history.

From the jump, it was clear the Sooners weren’t messing around. In the first rotation, they were tied with UCLA. Freshman Lily Pederson was “competing angry,” as Coach Kindler put it, and she nailed a redemptive routine, giving the team the confidence boost they needed. Pederson’s routine was a huge moment of redemption for her, as she bounced back from earlier mistakes and delivered when it mattered most.

That spark spread through the whole team, and Oklahoma just kept getting stronger. Even when UCLA’s Jordan Chiles posted a monster 9.975 on floor, the Sooners didn’t flinch—they matched the energy and kept their focus. With each routine, you could feel their belief in winning growing. By rotation two, Oklahoma gymnastics was in full beast mode.

They hit the floor, where they’re always tough to beat, and Faith Torrez capped off the performance with a near-perfect 9.965. Meanwhile, UCLA struggled a bit on vault, one of their weaker events, and Utah ran into trouble on beam. But Oklahoma? They stayed steady, showing off not just their skill but their mental toughness. As the competition went on, they built up momentum.

When it came down to the final rotation, Oklahoma had a slim lead, but UCLA wasn’t backing down. That’s when Audrey Davis stepped up with a near-perfect routine on bars, scoring a 9.925, and Jordan Bowers sealed the deal with her routine. At that point, it was clear the title was headed back to Norman. This win was all about the team’s senior leadership, faith in each other, and belief in their training. It wasn’t just a championship—it was a redemption story.

Let’s not forget that this victory wasn’t just about perfect routines—it was about how the team bounced back after their tough loss in 2024. After the disappointment of last season, Oklahoma gymnastics came back stronger than ever, honing their skills and, as Coach Kindler had asked, competing “freely.” And that’s exactly what they did. The Sooners showed that faith in each other, paired with hard work, could bring them back to the top.

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