This weekend’s Super Six team finals at the 2015 NCAA Championships was the first time I’d been to the event live, and nothing could have prepared me for the screaming – oh, the screaming! – that occurred from the second I walked in for warmups until the moment I left after awards.

Being there live was actually so draining, even as a spectator in the media section. The beam corral (the holding area where the gymnasts have to stand when they’re not competing) was right in front of me, and I felt like I was part of the action.

I got to overhear some great reactions to routines, including Bridget Sloan announcing “I’m sweating profusely” and Kayla Williams – who fell as the leadoff and anxiously watched the next five gymnasts go up, praying no one else would fall – break down into tears and say “thank you, thank you, thank you” to fellow senior Kaitlyn Clark, whose hit anchor performance insured a fall-free score.

Then, yes, the screaming. I don’t know how Kennedy Baker or Claire Boyce have vocal cords. At least Baker was yelling “you got this” and other supportive mantras; Boyce just simply screams loud and lengthy shrieks over and over, sounding possessed and terrifying, but hey – whatever helps the team.

It was a unique vantage point, especially in the final rotations, watching Utah in their holding area by vault explode into excitement when they saw their 197.8 show up at the top of the scoreboard and then moments later, break down into defeat when Florida edged ahead with their own 197.85. Seniors Corrie Lothrop and Becky Tutka both sobbed, but more for the end of their careers than for the narrow title loss. There was also the Oklahoma beam huddle after they finished up, led by the tearful senior – and spiritual leader – Rebecca Clark, who gave a brief speech before they turned to their supportive crowd for a “Boomer!” “Sooner!” rally cry.

And though I was all the way across the arena from bars, Florida’s joy at becoming back-to-back-to-back national champions was unmistakable. (The Utah fans in the crowd responded to the defeat by slowly waving their flags, like some sort of

I don’t think it was a flawless performance from the Gators – their beam was underwhelming, and they had a fall on vault, with Bridgey Caquatto unable to stand up her FTY. Finishing up on bars, I had no doubt that they could pull ahead of Utah, as it’s one of their best events, but numerous steps on landings and other small issues – like Bridget Sloan fighting for her bail.

But really, even with these issues, they were still only one of two teams who could legitimately contend by the end, and they and Utah were so close in their performances, it truly could have gone either way. Alex McMurtry’s 9.95 was perhaps a little fishy; it was a good routine, though probably would have been a 9.85 routine had anyone else competed it.

Still, coach Rhonda Faehn’s strategy on pretty much everything but vault is to put the “decent” routines at the end of the lineup and hope score building will get them what they need – and that’s exactly how they won this title.

I really felt for Utah, whose senior class was collectively one of the best groups I’ve seen come through that program. I still remember the impact Georgia Dabritz, Tory Wilson, Becky Tutka, and Kassandra Lopez made as freshmen, so when this team almost missed out on a nationals berth after making mistakes at regionals, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Wilson’s injuries at Pac 12s – a ruptured Achilles on one foot, lis franc fracture on the other – were bad enough.

Now that the season is over, they’ve lost everyone in that group but Lopez, who red-shirted after an Achilles injury last year. They’ll also lose Corrie Lothrop, a fifth-year senior who also red-shirted due to injury. It’s a lot of incredible talent to see go in a single year, so I was glad that they were able to have such a fantastic meet, even if perhaps a lackluster beam was their downfall in the end.

What’s especially sad to think about is that had Wilson – who was there in a wheelchair decorated with Utah flags and what would have been her competition number pinned to the back – not been injured, they probably would have won. As an all-arounder, coach Greg Marsden had to scramble to throw in a replacement athlete on all four of her events; while the replacements did some great work under a tremendous amount of pressure, it just couldn’t compare to having Wilson actually there.

Terrible luck, as it would have been great to see Marsden – who announced his retirement yesterday after 40 years as the winningest coach in NCAA gymnastics history – walk away with one last title. But while they fought hard and were so deserving of the win, in the end the powers that be thought Florida was just a teeny tiny bit more deserving. With the scores five hundredths apart from one another, it’s hard to say one team was ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than the other, or that any one routine or event was what caused Utah to lose it. But title or no title, it was a fantastic meet for them and a great way for their awesome seniors to go out.

In the case of Oklahoma, I think they just showed up a little too late. It was truly gutting to watch them go undefeated all season – including postseason – and then miss out on the big prize. Every team has a rough day, and theirs just happened to be on the day that mattered. Unfortunate, though it shouldn’t take away from the incredible season they’ve had.

Their only real problem was floor, where a couple of out-of-control passes and OOBs from freshmen Brenna Dowell and Ali Jackson – normally two of their best tumblers – caused them to count a 9.75. Everyone else hit, but Chayse Capps and Natalie Brown – while absolutely beautiful in their performances – just aren’t high scorers, leaving the 9.9+ scores to Kara Lovan and Haley Scaman.

Vault and bars were fine, but not at the level they needed to be in terms of hitting every mark, and a shocking fall from Scaman on the latter was basically a metaphor for how their day was going. It’s unfortunate, because by the time they got to beam, they were able to show that fire that has defined them as a team all season long, hitting mark after mark and looking gorgeous while doing it. The Sooners had the best beam score of the meet with a massive 49.575, but by this point it was unfortunately too little too late.

If anything, coming third will only fuel their fight next year. After their second place finish in 2013, coach KJ Kindler got them shirts reading “#2” as motivation; months later, they were able to secure their place in history as national champions for the first time ever. There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll see them rally back from this with an epic fight next year.

Alabama was good, but it was clear that they just weren’t on the same level as the other teams there this weekend. They have the talent but just couldn’t put up the performances they needed to contend, even though they didn’t count any major mistakes in their team total.

I think coach Dana Duckworth, who inherited the reins from legend Sarah Patterson last summer, did a fabulous job this season, and it’s clear they’re an incredibly close team with a lot of pride for what they do. They just happened to have a few miscues, making them unable to pull in the higher scores they’re capable of, and like Oklahoma, had one of their rougher meets on the day it counted.

The true surprise for me was Stanford. Remember, they started off this season earning multiple scores in the 193 range, and losing to programs like San Jose State and UC Davis. They were barely ranked in the top 20 in the first few weeks, and yet slowly managed to build and climb right up to what could have been a legitimate title challenge had their floor been as good as the rest of their events.

This team is a stone cold bunch of weirdos, and it was great seeing them really shine on bars and beam, where they looked truly exceptional. Elizabeth Price is an NCAA superstar already. Who else can show up at the Super Six and compete beam for the first time all season, casually getting a 9.9 and nailing a double pike?! Taylor Rice brings endless amounts of energy and personality to the program, Ivana Hong is as gorgeous as ever in all of her work, and really, everyone showed up and did the job they were meant to do.

Though floor is an obvious weakness overall, their ability to fight back from that first event to do what they did elsewhere was incredible and no one looked happier than they did to be in the Super Six, even if they “only” placed 5th.

Finally, Auburn. It was incredible that they made it to nationals for the first time in 12 years, and then even more incredible that they beat a top 4-ranked team like LSU to make it into the Super Six, their second team finals appearance in program history.

I think they had to know going in how unlikely a top finish was going to be, and they seemed like they were more there to have fun than to win. Counting a fall on beam and then pulling Caitlin Atkinson on floor (presumably so she could rest for event finals the next day) didn’t seem to phase them, and they still managed to pull out some beautiful performances, like Megan Walker’s 9.925 on bars. I’ve had my eye on this program for a few years now, mostly thanks to Atkinson and Bri Guy, so it was great to see them come so far and really prove that they could hang with the big dogs both in their conference and in the nation this season.

This Super Six was definitely one of the more exciting ones, especially knowing that going in, four teams were super close to being on equal ground in terms of their scoring potential. How it unfolded was a bummer for me as a die-hard Oklahoma fan, but if they were to have another team final on Sunday, the results could have been 100% different. That’s how close those top teams were, and title or no title, they all put up a great fight.

Article by Lauren Hopkins