University of Missouri
#10 Georgia
Gymnastics Set to Compete in NCAA Championship Second Round
4/3/2025 4:00:00 PM | Gymnastics
Seventh-ranked Mizzou begins NCAA Championship competition as the two seed in its region.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — No. 7 University of Missouri gymnastics begins its quest for a national title with its NCAA Championship Second Round meet against No. 10 Georgia, No. 21 Arizona and No. 26 Arizona State in Session One of the Seattle Regional on Friday, April 4 at 3 p.m. CT at Alaska Airlines Arena.
All regional meets will be live streamed on ESPN+ and called by John Roethlisberger and Samantha Peszek.
The top two teams from each session advance to the NCAA Seattle Regional Final on Sunday, April 6 at 7 p.m. From there, the top two finishers receive an automatic berth to the national championship in Fort Worth, Texas.
The second quad consists of No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 15 Auburn, No. 20 Nebraska and the winner of the dual meet between No. 29 Illinois and No. 35 UC Davis.
THE MATCHUP
-The Tigers take on No. 10 Georgia, No. 21 Arizona and No. 26 Arizona St. in the NCAA Championship Second Round at the Seattle Regional.
-Mizzou holds a postseason record of 5-13 against Georgia and 1-2 against Arizona and Arizona State.
-The Tigers hold three wins over the Bulldogs in 2025, with Georgia scoring an average of 196.425.
-Georgia is featured twice in the rankings in the NQS top 25 of an individual event - Lily Smith on bars (12) and floor (14). Neither Arizona nor Arizona St. have a top-25 gymnast in an event. Missouri is featured seven times in the top 25 of the four individual event rankings.
-This season marks the 10th consecutive season that MU qualified for the NCAA Regional competition and the 23rd time in school history.
-This is also the fourth straight year that the Tigers have earned a top-16 seed in the NCAA Gymnastics Championship.
-Missouri looks to make the NCAA Championship Regional Final for the fifth-straight season.
-The top all-around competitor and top event specialist from round two at each regional (who is not on a team advancing to nationals) advance to the national championship. Event specialist qualifiers only compete in the events they qualify for.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
-The Tigers were named the two seed of the NCAA Seattle Regional, the highest in program history.
-Mizzou is seeking its fourth trip to the NCAA Championship Semifinal. The other three came in 1981, 2010 and 2022.
-The program's highest NCAA Regional team score came in 2023 at the Los Angeles Regional, where it finished with 197.600. Mizzou has exceeded that score in two of its last three meets.
-After reaching the NCAA Gainesville Regional Final in 2024, Mizzou became one of seven programs to reach a regional final in each of the last four seasons.
-In each of the previous four NCAA Second Round meets, Missouri has scored at least 197.100.
-Jocelyn Moore's 9.975 on vault during the 2023 NCAA Los Angeles Regional Final is the highest individual postseason score in program history.
HISTORIC SEASON FOR THE TIGERS
-Missouri gymnastics is in the midst of one of its best seasons in program history, breaking numerous records throughout 2025.
-Mizzou set its highest team score (198.100 vs Auburn), beam score (49.575 at Arkansas) and floor score in program history (49.725 at Zou to the Lou) during the season.
-The team's current national qualifying score (NQS) of 197.510 is the highest in program history.
-The Tigers totaled five conference wins, the most single-season victories since becoming a member of the Southeastern Conference, and finished in fourth in the conference standings, their highest regular season finish since joining the SEC.
-Missouri's No. 7 national ranking is the best in the history of the program. The team's two seed in the NCAA Seattle Regional is also its best NCAA Championship seed ever.
-With a 5-0 record in Columbia, Mizzou went undefeated at home for the first time in program history.
-Three Missouri gymnasts totaled four 10s in 2025 (Kennedy Griffin, Helen Hu twice and Mara Titarsolej), the most in school history. This ranks as the third-most of any team in 2025.
-Mizzou's 197.400 at the 2025 SEC Championship on March 22 marked its highest score in a conference championship meet.
-The bars and floor squads ranked fourth in NQS nationally, the best of any final event ranking in program history.
-Mizzou reached its best NQS ranking on floor in program history, ranking third in week 10. This tops its previous record of No. 7 in week seven in 2024.
-Head coach Shannon Welker was named the 2025 SEC Coach of the Year for the second time in his career (2022).
-Hu won the SEC Specialist of the Year award, marking the third time in the last four years the recognition was given to a Mizzou gymnast.
-Between Griffin and Hu, the two combine for six SEC Specialist of the Week awards, making it the first time in conference history that one school has earned six such honors in the same season. Hu's five are the most by a single gymnast in a season in the award's history.
-Hu is ranked second in beam NQS, which is the second-highest a Mizzou gymnast has ever been ranked in an event.
TIGERS DOMINATE INDIVIDUAL ACCOLADES
-With successful seasons come national awards and Mizzou gymnasts have received plenty thus far.
-Mizzou saw a total of six All-America recognitions: Amari Celestine (Wildomar, Calif.) (Floor, All-Around Second Team All-American, Griffin (Floor Second Team All-American), Hu (Beam First Team All-American), Moore (Floor Second Team All-American) and Titarsolej (Bars First Team All-American).
-Welker earned his second SEC Coach of the Year recognition of his career. This marked the fifth time that a Mizzou gymnastics head coach has earned a conference Coach of the Year accolade. In addition, Welker's award is the ninth time a Missouri coach received SEC Coach of the Year and just the third coach to earn it twice in their career.
-Four Tigers earned All-SEC honors: Celestine, Hu, Moore and Titarsolej. This is now the third-straight season that Mizzou's had at least four gymnasts receive a spot on the All-SEC team.
-Hu and Titarsolej won the SEC Beam Championship and SEC Bars Championship, respectively.
TITARSOLEJ DEFINES PERFECTION
-Titarsolej earned the third perfect 10 of her career at the SEC Championship, claiming a share of the SEC Bars title. She has won the award in back-to-back years.
-The graduate student has scored at least 9.900 on bars in nine meets this season, the most in a single event by a Mizzou gymnast this season.
-She is the only gymnast in program history to score a 10 on bars, doing so twice (Zou to the Lou, Feb. 16, 2024, and SEC Championship, March 22, 2025).
-Titarsolej has scored 9.950 or better on bars in the last four meets.
-She has anchored the bars lineup in every meet this season.
THE CELESTANDARD
-In her final season of competition, Celestine has continued to impress in each meet of the year. She set a new personal-best all-around score of 39.650 against Auburn on March 9, which is the sixth-best score in program history.
-In the all-around, Celestine's NQS 39.515 ranks 15th. She holds the 17th-highest score nationally at 39.650.
-With her result against Georgia on bars, Celestine became the only Tiger since 1999 to record five-straight scores of at least 9.900 in the event. The streak went through six-straight meets after a 9.900 at Florida. Only two gymnasts have done so four times in a row - Titarsolej in 2024 and Jodie Heinicka in 2006.
-The redshirt senior has scored 9.900 or better on floor in the team's last seven meets.
-During the team's season opener, Celestine competed in the all-around for the first time, taking the event title with a score of 39.350. She holds 12 event titles in 2025.
GRIFFIN ETCHES NAME IN RECORD BOOKS
-Griffin's performance at Zou to the Lou is the second 10.000 on floor a Mizzou gymnast has received, joining teammate Moore who achieved the feat at the Illinois Quad on March 17, 2024.
-Griffin led the team to a score of 49.275 at Zou to the Lou, the best floor score in program history.
-Her NQS of 9.920 ranks 14th nationally in the event.
-The sophomore earned SEC Specialist of the Week honors on Feb. 18, marking her second weekly conference award. She also won Freshman of the Week on Jan. 30, 2024, following her previous career-best of 9.975 in the team's win over No. 3 LSU.
WANT SOME MO'(ORE)
-Moore, a senior, has had a fantastic 2025 campaign, highlighted by scoring 9.975 on vault at Oklahoma, holding the highest score in the nation through week five. This marked the fourth time in her career to score or exceed a 9.975.
-She has recorded a 9.950 on floor four times this season. Her most notable came against Auburn on senior day, where she clinched the team's first-ever 198.000+.
-She holds the program's lone perfect 10 on vault and two additional scores of 9.975.
-Moore has earned a 9.900 or better in an event in eight of the team's 11 meets this season.
-Across her 53 collegiate meets throughout her career, Moore has scored 9.900 in one of the three events she competes in all but seven of them. She has scored 9.900 an impressive 21 times on vault and 36 times on floor.
HU DID THAT? SHE DID
-Hu earned her first score of 10 while on balance beam at Oklahoma on Jan. 17, marking the first routine to achieve perfection in the 2025 season.
-She earned another 10 on beam during the team's meet against Arkansas, helping lead the Tigers to their best score in program history (49.575).
-She is the only gymnast in the country with multiple 10s on beam this season and second in program history to record multiple 10s in the same season.
-The redshirt senior was named a 2025 First Team All-American, to the All-SEC Team and was the co-SEC beam champion.
-Hu was named SEC Specialist of the Week for the fifth time this season on Tuesday, March 18, becoming the only gymnast in conference history to earn the honor five times in a season.
-The Chicago, native made the national spotlight since then, even being featured at No. 5 on the SportsCenter Top-10 the day after the team's meet against OU.
-Hu became just the second gymnast in program history to score a perfect 10 twice in a season, joining Lauren Schwartzman who did so on beam in 2004.
-She stands second nationally in beam NQS at 9.965, first in the conference and third in the country in beam scoring an average of 9.918.
-Hu spent the past year backpacking in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Italy and Finland with her sister Elaine.
-In her most recent season of competition, the 2023 campaign, Hu competed in all 13 meets and posted a 9.900 or better on beam in 10. She earned second-team All-America status in the event and was on the end-of-season All-SEC team.
THE BEST OF THE BEST
-Road to Nationals switched over to NQS to determine its rankings following the seventh week of meets.
-NQS is calculated by taking a team or individual's top six scores, three of which come from away meets, dropping the highest score and averaging the remaining five.
-The team's No. 7 ranking and 197.510 NQS score are the highest in program history.
-Missouri claims a top 11 spot in all four events - fourth in the nation on bars and floor and, 11th on vault and beam.
-The Tigers' highest-ranked individual is Hu, who is second nationally on beam. Her No. 2 ranking in the ties for the second-highest in program history, which is only surpassed by Schwartzman who was ranked No. 1 on beam in 2006.
-In total, Mizzou is represented in the NQS top 25 of an event eight times - Hannah Horton (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) (18) on vault, Celestine (24) and Titarsolej (4) on bars, Hu (2) on beam, Celestine (11), Griffin (14) and Moore (10) on floor and Celestine (15) in the all-around.
-All nine SEC programs earned a national seed in the NCAA Championship.
100 CAREER WINS
-Coach Shannon Welker captured his 100th career win in the team's victory over Arkansas on March 14, 2025.
-In his tenure, the Black & Gold have competed in 10 NCAA Regionals, four NCAA Finals and one NCAA National Championship appearance.
-Mizzou gymnastics continues to be a rising power under Welker's leadership, leading the Tigers to the highest score in program history (198.100) coming after the Black & Gold beat Auburn in March.
-Welker has spent all 12 of his seasons as a collegiate head coach at Mizzou.
-Director of Athletics Laird Veatch announced on Thursday, Jan. 2 that Welker signed a contract extension to remain at the helm of the program through 2029.
-Since taking over Mizzou's program in May of 2013, Welker transformed the Tigers into a consistent contender on the national stage.
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Players Mentioned
