Fueled By Faith, Gymnastics “Super Bowl” Features the No.1 Sooners at No.2 LSU

14 Feb Fueled By Faith, Gymnastics “Super Bowl” Features the No.1 Sooners at No.2 LSU

Posted at 10:12h in 2025 NCAA Headquarters, 2025 Women's NCAA News, News & Features by Christy Sandmaier 0 Comments

By Christy Sandmaier

Vice President & Co-Publisher

Showtime

If you listen closely, you can hear the crowd noise already. You can feel the energy rising. You can see the sea of purple all around the arena in huge waves, along with flashes of sequined crimson and cream on the floor under the lights. It’s showtime. In primetime.

In gymnastics circles, tonight is the real Super Bowl. And everyone knows it, including the current No.1-ranked, six-time National Champion Oklahoma Sooners, who will face the current No.2 team, the reigning National Champion LSU on the Tigers’ home floor in the PMAC. With both teams building fast on consistency, difficulty, and details, and just flat out competing stellar gymnastics week after week, what happens tonight could very well be a preview of what happens in April in Fort Worth at the National Championships. This is the one we’ll still be talking about on Monday morning.

But first, there’s business to do, and a lot of gymnastics to come in between Friday and Fort Worth.

Fueled By Faith

Speaking with Oklahoma junior Faith Torrez this week, the Sooners are focused on one meet at a time, their bubble, and being at their best for each other. While winning against LSU in the PMAC, and capturing the National Championship in April is definitely on her mind, what fuels Torrez most right now is being present for her team every time she competes, every day in training, and anytime they need something, on or off the floor. It’s how she stays grounded and how her gymnastics, pun very intended, stays balanced.

“I’m doing it for my team,” she said. “These girls are really special, and we’re all so close. Competing for each other has really driven us. We’re really focused on living in the present and where our feet are. Obviously, you have the future goal that everybody thinks about every so often, but just being really present, just really focusing on the now and what I can do to better myself is what I’m focused on.”

By definition, Torrez is casually calm and relaxed – she said her teammates would describe her first as nonchalant, while simultaneously outgoing and cheerful. In this season’s campaign, along with her incredible gymnastics, she’s also brought quiet leadership to the team. It’s something she’s embracing more, especially as everything at times, she said, seems to be on fast-forward. With every leadership opportunity, there’s also a bit of a surprise she didn’t see coming.

“I definitely do think I’m growing into it,” she said. “Which is crazy to say because I still feel like I’m a freshman sometimes! Everybody always said, ‘Oh, it’s going to go so fast.’ You never really believe them, because you didn’t really want to believe them because it’s just such a crazy part of your life. I think, honestly, some of the upperclassmen also look up to our freshmen. They’re really great people in and outside of the gym. I really think we all follow each other, look up to each other, which is a really great thing to have.”

Ranked No.1 for the sixth week in a row, with an average score of 197.746 and the team hitting on all strides, Torrez is feeling great about the possibilities she sees for this team, particularly with their phenomenal mix of upperclassmen experience and freshman talent.

“We’ve done these routines millions of times. We’re really just focusing on the little details and trying to stay as consistent as possible. We also have so many freshmen, and they’re amazing freshmen! Guiding them, and them being able to lean on the upperclassmen – they’re great at that. They always come to us for advice. Having the connection between all of us has really helped us so far as well.”

Torrez herself is also hitting on all cylinders. For the second week in a row, she claimed three individual titles, as she helped lead OU to a 197.825-197.225 victory over Kentucky last Friday. She also claimed the all-around, vault and floor titles to bring her season total to a team-best 13. She looks so great in fact, I had to ask what she thought she could still improve on heading towards postseason. She’s definitely not ready to say she’s doing her best gymnastics ever when I mentioned it.

“There’s always something more that we could do. Just like with the little details, trying to keep my feet super, super glued on my double layout or just little things like that is what we’re really focusing on, but I do feel really great. I feel at a great pace right now, and we just want to peak at the right time.”

Let’s Talk About 2024

Oklahoma’s extra drive this year is, in part, inspired by a disappointing – some would say shocking – finish to their 2024 season. The Sooners, ranked No.1 the entire season and known for their almost unbeatable consistency, collapsed with three major landing mistakes on vault in the first rotation of the second national semifinal. They rallied on bars, only to have two falls on beam one rotation later, ending any chance of advancing and competing for their seventh national title.

When asked how she and the team overcame that disappointment, Torrez, who won the 2024 National Championship on beam, wasn’t afraid at all to tiptoe around the answer.

“I’ve always believed everything happens for a reason. After Nationals, a lot of people found a new drive in them. Things aren’t always going to go your way. You live, you learn from that. Moving forward throughout this preseason, we did reflect on it, obviously. A lot of people outside of our bubble like to tiptoe around the fact, but we always talk about it. We looked back and asked, ‘alright, how are we going to move forward? It’s a good thing to talk about. This preseason, everybody really used that as motivation. Knowing that we can do so much better than that, it’s really driven us this season.”

on repeat all weekend 🔁#BoomerSooner | @TorrezFaith pic.twitter.com/ixyrIIO9yX
— Oklahoma Women's Gym (@OU_WGymnastics) February 9, 2025

SEC Loading

Having the Sooners in the Southeastern Conference has pushed the SEC to even further greatness. Currently, all nine teams are ranked in the top 15. And all nine teams know that someone will be left out of the SEC Championships March 22 in Birmingham, Alabama, where only eight will compete. It’s added an extra layer of pressure in a conference that already was ultra-competitive to its core.

Torrez said the adjustment took just a minute, and that the Sooners have settled right in since leaving the Big 12. She loves the louder crowds and the competitiveness.

“At home, I think it’s been a little bit different, especially on the road, it’s been a bit different. I’ve never been to some of the SEC schools that we’re going to. I’ve never been to Alabama, either. Their crowd was amazing!

“We want to go out and put our best gymnastics forward. Everybody deserves to go against each other with the best gymnastics that they have and see what happens, because there’s just so many great teams. Everybody’s just really great this year, and I think it’s really exciting. It makes the meets more exciting, and we just thrive off of that.”

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Always OU

OU has always felt like home for Torrez, and she credits that to her teammates and the coaching staff surrounding them. Her inspiration comes daily in the gym.

“Their work drive is out of this roof! It’s so amazing to see them and see how bad they want it,” she said. “You look around, you see the people from last year, and they’re working just as hard because of everything that happened. They work hard regardless, but you just see that extra drive in them. Then the freshmen come in here with that same drive as everybody else. It’s really great to see and a really great thing to have because we’re all on the same page.

“Just talking to KJ (head coach KJ Kindler) for the first time, it was so easy to connect with her. I really like how she takes the time to build a relationship, a very unique relationship, with each and every athlete. I really prioritize that. It’s a great thing to have, especially inside the gym, outside the gym. Everybody says she looks so scary, but it’s totally the opposite! I was just talking to somebody about that today, and they’re like, ‘She just seems so scary and intimidating.’ And I was like, ‘Well, yesterday, she’s dancing on the floor during practice!’ It’s crazy to see everybody’s perspective, but she’s great. She was definitely a really big part in me coming here.”

Notably, it’s well-known that if you sit in a press conference with KJ Kindler or sit down for an interview with her, she’s often quick to label the Sooners as the underdogs, despite their No.1 ranking and strong team totals week after week in any given season. Torrez said that approach pays off in the gym by keeping the Sooners hungry and chasing what’s next.

“She always makes it known. Ever since my freshman year, we’re always chasing after something. You could be ranked number one, two, three, it doesn’t matter, but you’re always going to be chasing after something. She wants us to keep that drive going, no matter what we’re ranked or anything like that. She has used the term underdogs a couple of times, but it’s just you always train like you’re number two is what we’ve said. We really live off of that, and it really helps us just work extra hard.”

Best of Both Worlds

For Torrez, every opportunity to get out on the floor and compete is a privilege, no matter the opponent. This season’s Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad was something she really enjoyed and believes will pay dividends as the season moves past the halfway mark.

“One of the meets that really stuck out was the Sprouts meet. It gave Nationals vibes, just being on podium, and it was so much fun! It’s really great for our freshmen to feel that energy right away and compete against those teams. They did amazing! And the energy was phenomenal.

“I think we have three podium meets, which is a privilege. We always do our best to get people out there no matter what, just to feel the equipment, because there’s some people who come off club who have never competed on a podium, and it’s different. The floor is a little bouncier. Getting everybody out there on training day and getting to them to do as much as they can, is really good. It just sets us up really nicely for Nationals. And, just knowing that it’s not your first time on a podium at Nationals is also a nice thing. It’s a really great privilege to have that.”

She also loves being in the anchor position when she gets the call, especially on floor.

“It’s so exciting. I get to enjoy everybody’s floor routine. It’s my favorite thing. Everybody always says how nonchalant I am on floor because I just dance with everybody’s routines, and it keeps me warm. So, it’s the best of both worlds.”

Are You Ready For It?

Heading into the PMAC at LSU, Torrez feels more than ready to meet up with the Tigers and see what the Sooners can accomplish against the defending National Champs. It’s a big week. Fans and media made plans for this the moment the matchup became official. There’s huge hype and so much excitement. Social media has been buzzing for weeks. It’s a win-win for the fans, the schools and the teams. And for gymnastics.

With close to 13,000 fans or more expected – LSU’s’ 2025 season opener was the largest in program history, with 12,324 people – the Sooners know it’s about to be Game ON. To Torrez, that’s the exciting part.

“We love having a crowd, no matter if it’s ours or not,” she said. “We’re really good about staying focused in our bubble, but we also use the crowd to our advantage because it just makes us so excited to go out there and compete no matter what.”

The Sooners are ready to take care of business, Torrez said. Nothing changes, the focus stays the same. The bubble stays intact.

“We go into every meet with the same mentality, no matter what school, what ranking, you never know what can happen. You always want to put your best foot out there, your best gymnastics, no matter what. It’s business as usual. I see it all over Twitter. Everybody’s like, ‘well, this is the real Super Bowl’ and this and that. It makes me excited because they’re a great team. LSU’s atmosphere is really great! Their fans are crazy, but we feed off of that energy no matter if it’s ours or not. So I’m really excited to go back there.”

So bring on the noise. The louder the better. Bring on the best gymnastics. It’s about to be a party in the PMAC. And the Sooners are as ready as ever to blow the roof right off.

How To Watch: Friday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2

Look for Nate’s NCAA Notes each week and stay tuned to InsideGym.com and Inside Gymnastics magazine for spotlight features and interviews throughout the 2025 season!

Nate Salsman, Della Fowler, Megan Roth and Christy Sandmaier provide NCAA coverage for Inside Gymnastics.

Photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics magazine.