These Tigers will not be denied.

And now they head to their first national championship.

As I watched the National Semifinals on Thursday and listened to Sam Peszek, my nemesis John Roethlisberger, and Aly Raisman talk up Oklahoma and Florida and their destiny to make it to Four on the Floor for the umpteenth time and how Mizzou’s scores just weren’t going to cut it to beat those programs— they seemed legitimately surprised they were holding firm and yes, actually gaining ground on Florida — a song popped into my head. You know it. Or, rather, you should know it because I used it last year in a Mizzou softball post as the Tigers made their way to the SEC Tourney Semis to the surprise of quite literally everyone but them.

I thought about a song from Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poets album, as it talks about being lesser known but just as dangerous. “The ‘Who’s Who’, of ‘Who’s That?’ is poised for an attack…” Sounds a lot like our scrappy Tigers, huh?

But it’s a few lines later, as her words pierce through the haunting background music, that she screams,

“Who’s afraid of little old me?”

Followed by this jab, sung in a low register, almost like a threat.

“You should be.”

It’s haunting, it’s menacing, it’s beautiful, and you know what, it perfectly encapsulates this team. The ones who were counted out — despite making the evening session of SECs. Despite eclipsing the 198 mark. Despite having two events ranked in the top four nationally. Despite having Helen Hu scoring 10s left and right and back-to-back SEC champion Mara Titarsolej in their bars lineup. They’re the unknowns, as they don’t have a team full of national team members or Olympians. They’re the forgotten-abouts. They’re the “They should just be happy to be in the conversations.” They got nary a mention in the NCAA selection show outside of “Oh, there’s Missouri… blah blah blah Georgia.” (Editor’s note: Where’s Georgia? Oh wait, they’re not here?!) The commentators this season have loved to talk about their personalities — I mean, how can you NOT? Have you watched Hannah Horton? Amari Celestine? Jocelyn Moore? — but don’t much mention them in the way that they are any sort of real threat to the blue blood teams.

But here they are, advancing to the program’s first National Championship. It’s almost like.. [dramatic gasp] they belong here. They’re, as Mizzou head coach Shannon Welker has said, undeniable. And while we’re at it, give that man a lifetime extension. (He joked he was late to the presser because he “renegotiating his contract.”)

So underestimate these Tigers at your own peril. As I mentioned in my preview, Sam Peszek told Inside Gymnastics that teams should pay attention to the Tigers. “I’m scared of them,” she said, “Because they’re one of those teams that has nothing to lose at NCAA championships,” she said, referencing their high-flying gymnastics and their difficulty.

Even after the night session of the second semi wrapped up and the Sports Center anchor asked Sam to choose a favorite for the national title, she talked about all the teams… but Missouri. Haven’t they learned anything?

Listen to Amari below talking with ESPN Andscape’s Ari Chambers.

Let’s recap.

But first… a shoutout to the one with ice in her f’ing veins.

Helen Hu, you beautiful unicorn

I cannot be more effusive of my praise of the Tigers’ beam anchor. The un-retired globe trotter. The SEC Specialist of the Year. The only five-time SEC Specialist of the Week in a single season in conference history. She’s truly magnificent and has taken it to a whole other level in the postseason. Twice it’s been up to her to continue the Tigers’ storied season. And twice she got it done. Absolute nails.

When Mara Titarsolej was asked post-meet about having someone like Helen in the anchor spot, she said, “We didn’t know what was going on up until like a couple routines in, and then the crowd started to get a little more intense, and I was like, ‘Okay, we got this,’ And then the rest of the lineup hit and then Liv [freshman Olivia Kelly] went and I was like, ‘Okay, well, I think Florida is a little bit ahead of us. But we’ve got our secret weapon, so we’re good.’ So it just gives us a lot of confidence that obviously, you know she’s gonna hit it every time.”

So cheers to the Queen of the Beam. With her 9.9875 (4×10.0, 9.95, 9.90 scores), Helen took sole possession of the national title on beam, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the gymternet more excited or united. Helen Hu brings the world together, guys. You heard it here first.

Hu becomes Mizzou’s first ever individual gymnastics champion, and joins triple jumper Jonathan Seremes as the second individual national champ for Mizzou Athletics this year. (Fun Fact: The two teams share an SID, one Ryan Cullinane. Coincidence? I think not; Ryan brings titles.)

When talking with Helen on Friday morning for a “not in Fort Worth” zoom call with the media (#blessed), she was asked if it ever crossed her mind that this — being a national champion, competing at FOTF — would be the end result.

“No, when I decided to come back,” she said, “I did not have it in my mind to accomplish so much that I did this year. It was really quite a shock, and it was super exciting… I think if I tried to tell a year ago Helen any of this, I would have believed it myself. I really don’t know what I would even tell myself. I think everything that happened was meant to be in its own weird way.”

Now, onto the recap. The Tigers kept their exact same rotations from Regionals, and I also expect this for FOTF.

ROTATION ONE: MIZ- Floor | BAMA- Vault | OU- Bars | FLA- Beam

I will start off by saying, I dislike starting on Floor. It’s Mizzou’s best event, and they get low-balled by the judges starting on it. It’s like they don’t know quite how to judge the Tigers’ awesomeness and for some reason seem to think something better is to come? The Tigers can’t help the draw they received. Now, did they make some mistakes? Yes. But so did everyone else, and you’d have to go back to the Beauty & the Beast meet to see a score lower than this. (Reminder: there are six judges at Nationals and the middle four are averaged so scores are naturally a bit lower… and we would find in some cases, alllll over the map.)

Rayna got the Tigers off to a solid-ish start, with scores ranging from a lower 9.9 SV 9.60 (no idea where they got that) to a 9.75, 3x 9.80, and a 9.85 for a 9.7875 final score that they would ultimately drop (thank god). Hannah (9.9, 2×9.85, 2×9.80, 9.75?), Kaia (3x 9.8, 3×9.85), AND Amari (9.9, 3×9.85, 2×9.75) followed, each earning a 9.825 before the big guns, Kennedy (4×9.9, 2×9.8) and Joci (9.95, 2×9.9, 3×9.85), finished it off with twin 9.875 scores… which seemed too low for what I saw. This meant that for the first time in what feels like forever, not a single Tiger earned a 9.90+. Coming from a team that scores 9.90+ FX in their sleep, this was surprising.

“I don’t want to get a fine,” Shannon told us on Friday morning, chuckling, “so I won’t bad mouth the judges too much, but that floor rotation was better than a 49.2, right? We were better than that, and so I get a little bit bugged by it now… but we had to keep proving it all the way to the end, right? I felt like that was a 49.4-plus at least over there compared to what else was happening. But you have to be able to weather those storms and again, be undeniable.”

The theme for the other teams, just as it was for Missouri on FX, was lower scores, whether it was from tighter scoring— IDK what they were looking for on vault, but at least they were consistent — or from having so many judges. Oklahoma earned a 49.400 on bars in the first rotation. They counted just two scores in the 9.90s from freshman Lily Pederson (9.9125) and fifth year Jordan Bowers (9.9375) and dropped a 9.825 from Audrey Davis. Florida earned a 49.300 on beam and had just one 9.90+ score in Selena Harris-Miranda’s 9.95 — it was realllly good — and dropped a 9.80 from Leanne Wong. Alabama kicked off its first rotation on vault, an event that would haunt good vault teams throughout semis.

Whewwww-weeeee, this was shaping up to be a battle early on.

AFTER ONE: Oklahoma 49.40 | Florida 49.300 (+0.075) | Mizzou 49.225 | Alabama 49.125

ROTATION TWO: MIZ- Vault | BAMA- Bars | OU- Beam | FLA- Floor

A funny thing occurred to me after I watched Mizzou’s vault. While these other vault teams were clearly sweating these scores — like, the no. 2 vault team in the nation scoring a 49.0 on vault?!? GASP! — the Tigers really vaulted just like any other meet. In fact, I’d argue that it helped them to finish the meet strong, because this vault team is what it is, and the scores didn’t come as that much of a surprise. They know who they are in a vault team at this point (though please stick some landings at FOTF, thank you) and so they weren’t left to overcompensate in other areas. I strongly believe this helped them to score the second highest vault score in their semifinal. Hannah’s sitting vault aside — we’ve never seen her sit a vault like this — the rest of the rotation did pretty well. Kennedy led off with a 9.775 on her Yurchenko Full, earning anywhere from a 9.75 x3 to a 9.85. It looked great in the air, but she had slight bent elbows on the block and a small hop on the landing. Kaia followed with a solid, though maybe not the highest, Tsuk Full and had a small step on the landing. For that, the judges unanimously awarded her a 9.80.

Elise followed with a season-high tying (3×9.90, 3×9.85) 9.875 that earned her First Team WCGA All-American honors (top 4 finishers in each semi)… and should have scored higher IMHO, as she stuck the landing cold. After Hannah’s whoopsie (which was dropped), Joci followed with a 9.8625 (2×9.90, 4×9.85) on her Yurchenko 1 ¹⁄₂ with a small hop, and Amari closed it out with a 9.8125 (2×9.85, 4×9.80) on hers. She had a big step forward, but other than that, she had tons of height and distance, so it’s just reining in that power. For her score, Joci earned Second Team WCGA All-American (places 5-8 in each semi). The Tigers’ 49.125 was a decent score as we’d find out as the meet went on.

“We’ve gotten better on vault as the season goes on and the scoring, I felt like we actually did pretty well on vault last night,” Shannon said. “Other than Hannah had a mistake there, but the rest of them were pretty solid in over there.”

He continued. “Elise, man, she really stepped up for us last night and drilled that vault. And so, I think we’ve gotten better. And then you look at it at the end of that session, and we actually tied for second on that event and we were only a 0.15 behind Oklahoma. We beat Florida on vault, too, so it really was better than I think people might think if they just looked at the scores.”

As for the other teams on rotation 2, the Sooners went to beam and scored a 49.350, led by Faith Torrez’s 9.95 anchor leg and Jordan Bower’s 9.9375. They dropped a fall from Lily Pederson. The Gators went to floor next, and also earned a 49.350, earning no scores in the 9.90 range. They were led by twin 9.8875 scores of Gabby Disidore and Selena Harris-Miranda, and dropped a 9.6625 from Leanne Wong (she went wayy out of bounds). The Tide headed to bars, scoring a 49.1625, led by two 9.90+ scores from Ryan Fuller (9.925) and Chloe LaCoursiere (9.90). Unfortunately, all their other scores were 9.80 or under, and they dropped a 9.6875 from Lilly Hudson.

After a decent vault rotation, combined with a better Gators rotation, Florida opened up it’s lead over Missouri a little bit more. I’m not really mentioning how close the Tigers and Bama were because sorry, I didn’t consider them to be a threat, stupid CGN simulators be damned.

AFTER TWO: Oklahoma 98.750 | Florida 98.650 (+0.30) | Mizzou 98.350 | Alabama 98.2875

ROTATION THREE: MIZ- Bars | BAMA- Beam | OU- Floor | FLA- Vault

With the Tigers down three-tenths to Florida and on the outside looking in regarding their National Championship hopes & dreams, “Life is tough. This is tough,” Shannon said. “That’s why only four teams make it, because it is so hard and so I think it’s just a great story.”

On bars, the Tigers put up an incredible 49.450 (and it should have been higher). Kyra led off with a solid 9.8375 (9.90, 3x 9.85, 2x 9.80) with one shorter handstand, and Hannah bounced right back from the vault fall with a stellar – yet underscored – 9.8875 (9.95, 3×9.90, 2×9.85) which would earn her Second Team All-American honors. Joci, performing her signature highest in the sky Tkachev, might have shuffled her feet a little bit on her landing, earning a 9.8625 (2×9.90, 3×9.85, 9.80). Olivia followed with an incredible stuck 9.8875 (9.95, 3×9.90, 9.85, 9.75?!), also earning her Second Team All-American honors as just a freshman, before Amari’s 9.875. And then came Mara, who would end up earning a third place trophy with a 9.9375 (4×9.95, 2×9.90 that I’m side-eyeing). Finishing third overall of course earned her First Team All-American honors.

As for the other teams, it got REAL interesting as Florida, the no. 2 vault team this season, owners of an astronomical (though I contend, not possible) 49.700 score this season, earned JUST a 49.075, which was the lowest of the entire session. In fact, it was the Gators’ lowest score in FIVE YEARS. You really hate to see it?! I can’t even say that with a straight face; I’m sorry. While Danie Ferris led the Gators with a 9.90, only two others even scored a 9.80+ (Ly Bui 9.825, Leanne Wong, 9.8375). They dropped Anya Pilgrim’s leadoff 9.7125. Oklahoma headed to floor next, and got some significantly higher scores that resembled what Missouri should have attained, as they scored a 49.525. The final two competitors, Torrez & Bowers, earned team-high 9.95 scores, while no other Sooner earned lower than a 9.8625, despite the leadoff, Audrey Davis, under-rotating her first pass. I’m a novice viewer and even I saw it; her score or the other 9.8625 courtesy of Elle Mueller was dropped. Alabama headed to beam, and I have bow down to Gabby Gladieux, who clearly was injured and limping, put up a team-high 9.90 routine for her team. They dropped Lilly Hudson’s 9.7625.

AFTER THREE: Oklahoma 148.275 | Mizzou 147.800 (+0.075) | Florida 147.725 | Alabama 147.4875

ROTATION FOUR: MIZ- Beam | BAMA- Floor | OU- Vault | FLA- Bars

With the Tigers in the lead for the second spot over the slimmest of margins (0.075) despite the commentators not seeming to understand how this could happen, Missouri headed to beam with confidence, and my god, did they KILL IT. This rotation should be talked about for years to come in Mizzou lore. Amy Wier led off with a gutsy 9.8625 after repeating her connection series (2x 9.90). It was pro’s work to just have that additional series just at the ready to use if needed. Amari followed with a 9.8125, and my colleague Nate said she had an issue with her landing as well as her leaps (My amateur recording cut off her feet and CGN’s live blog thought it was all gorgeous). Railey was amazing, not a bobble in sight until a small step back on the landing, earning a 9.850 (1×9.90, 1×9.80) before Addi killed it in the four spot, scoring a 9.9125 (2×9.95, 4×9.90).

Olivia nailed it, scoring a 9.8875, but her double wolf turn strikes fear in Tiger fans everywhere because it’s so damn hard and a wrong move would be catastrophic. She earned a 9.95, 3×9.90, and 2×9.85 from the judges, and was good enough to earn Second Team All-American honors on her SECOND event. And then came The Helenator, who as we know already, earned four judges’ 10s, a 9.95, and an absurd 9.90 to earn a 9.9875 that would ultimately win her the national beam title, award her First Team All-America honors, AND secure the remaining slot to move on to Four on the Floor.

As for the other teams, who cares, lol, but we’ll start with Florida, who took to their best event, the uneven bars, where just a few weeks ago they broke the NCAA RECORD with two tens, basically all the rest 9.95s, and a truly astonishing 49.850 rotation score. I was scared but I knew that the Tigers would do whatever they could to hold on. We’ll go matchup by matchup here to show just how crazy close it was, and then drop the low scores. Anya Turner vs Amy both earned 9.8625 scores, so the distance between them was kept at 0.075. Skye Blakely vs Amari lessened Mizzou’s lead to 0.025 before Leanne Wong vs Railey gave Florida a 0.0625 lead. Selena Harris vs Addi lessened the Gator lead to 0.025 before Alyssa Arana vs Liv strengthened it to 0.08. With Florida leading, 197.200 to Mizzou’s 197.120 with one each to go and Amari’s 9.8125 to drop (compared to a 9.8625 for UF), it looked like Mizzou could do it. But Riley scored a 10 at SECs, just like Helen scored a 10 at SECs. Who would prevail? JK, we know who prevailed. Helen got the 9.9875 and Riley tied for what was the dropped score, 9.8625, meaning Florida’s score stayed the same and Mizzou’s score went up to 197.300 with Amari’s dropped score. (side note: my brain hurts; too much mathing)

When talking about the similar situation of Regional Finals to Thursday’s semis, Helen was quick to point out that it wasn’t the same to her. “Actually, it was a world of difference for me,” she said, “because following that fall in Regionals was really scary, and I think that that was definitely a different type of pressure situation that we hadn’t dealt with yet this year. Whereas this time, you know, everyone hit such a great routine, they really set me up to just go out and have as much fun as possible. And so this time, I’d say, I didn’t have a lot of stress going in, and I wasn’t looking at the scores either, so I didn’t know how close we were.”

“It takes 23 routines to put Helen in the position that she’s in to really showcase the impressiveness of her gymnastics, right?” Shannon said. “You know, we had to have a lot of right people in right places. And, you know, we had a lot of additions moving into this year, and we had to get all those pieces in place. And obviously Helen was an important person in what we’re doing… But we had to have a lot of other people step up and do those things, but by the time we started the season, and I knew the level of experience and talent and commitment that we had, I really felt like we could get to this point.”

Oklahoma ended on vault with just a 49.275 — seriously, what were the judges’ problems on this event? — with no 9.90 scores. The highest came courtesy of Jordan Bowers, who scored a 9.8875 which would ultimately give her the all-around title. They dropped a 9.825 from Keira Wells. Alabama ended its night on floor, where they had a solid 49.3375. They were led in scoring by Lilly Hudson’s 9.925 and I’ll again point out the effort of Bama’s anchor, Gabby G, as she earned a 9.8875 with a limp. Like, how?!?

AFTER FOUR: Oklahoma (197.550) and Mizzou (197.300) advance to the National Championships, with Florida finishing in third with a 197.200 and Alabama earning a 196.825.

After the meet, Shannon said to assembled media in Fort Worth, “I’m just really proud of our team. I really feel like this is a special team. This year, we had an opportunity to be the best team at the University of Missouri history. And so that would have been, we had to have been at least fifth. That was the last time. That was our highest.”

He continued. “So today, we obviously exceeded that. But it’s just so nice to see what I thought could be actually come to fruition. And I’m really proud of these young ladies over here [gesturing to Helen Hu and Mara Titarsolej]. I appreciate that they’ve come back for a super senior year, and I can’t say too much more, but I’m just really excited to be there on Saturday.”

And on Friday morning he added, “I’m not surprised we’ve done it, you know. I really, I just felt like this was a special team, and this was an opportunity for us and I know we’ve used this word, but they were not going to be denied the opportunity to at least have a shot at getting to this point. So, you know, I’m just thrilled for them.”

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Final Thoughts

So there you have it. Mizzou advanced to its first Four on the Floor and will compete for the title of NCAA National Gymnastics Champion on Saturday at 3pm on ABC (2:30 preview). In their way? Oklahoma, who we know will always be a tough competitor and they are out for blood after self-destructing in the semis last year, and the winners of the second semifinal, #4 Utah and #5 UCLA, who sent reigning national champ LSU home with their final beam performer. (#justlikeus)

As expected, the scores were a little more loose in the evening session, leaving those two qualifiers to outscore both Mizzou and Oklahoma.

While she mentioned it in reference to Thursday’s meet, it will also apply to the finals, as Helen, as well as many others — Amari, Mara, Kyra, Jocelyn — will be officially competing in their last collegiate gymnastics meet. She described how knowing that time could be her last, she felt loose.

“And so I was just going, you know, this might be my last routine, so I’m gonna go out and put my whole heart out on that routine and act like that might be my last chance. And so that’s also why I jumped and did the worm afterwards. I was like, I’m just gonna have as much fun as I can, because this might be the last time I’m up on the stage.”

Shannon interjected later that he’s glad that the team didn’t get a fine for said worm, ha.

“We didn’t go in thinking that there’s a lot of pressure on us,” Helen said. “I think we went in doing our normal, and we still have room to grow. We keep breaking these records and doing amazing things, and we thinking, ‘Man, we didn’t have, like, our best day on every event. You know, we still have room to grow, but we’re just going out and doing what we do every day in the gym,” Helen said.

So I ask again on behalf of the Tigers…

Who’s afraid of little old me?

You should be.