COLUMBIA, Mo. 鈥 They call themselves The Ambush because they鈥檙e a different kind of beast. Or maybe it鈥檚 that they鈥檙e capable of grappling with different beasts.
Regardless, Missouri gymnastics has clawed its way to one of the best seasons in program history and earned its first berth in the NCAA Championships since 2022.
The Tigers, ranked No. 7 in the nation, will compete in a semifinal at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas. The meet will be televised on ESPN2.
Mizzou will be up against No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida and No. 12 Alabama in the semis, with the two highest-scoring teams from that group advancing to Saturday鈥檚 championship final.
This weekend is the pinnacle of collegiate gymnastics, and MU earned its spot there.
鈥淭here are times where we project, as coaches, on what we feel like could happen in a season,鈥 coach Shannon Welker said. 鈥淭his is definitely playing out, from an outcome standpoint, exactly as we鈥檇 hoped.鈥
People are also reading…
Though making it to this particular stage was perhaps a little more stressful than the Tigers envisioned.
Their spot in the NCAA Championships came down to the last rotation of the regional final a couple of weekends ago. Missouri ended that meet on the balance beam, leading Auburn for a spot in the national championships by a slim margin.
A fall early in the rotation meant that MU needed to be mistake-free on the beam to advance, and the Tigers pulled it off 鈥 edging past Auburn by one-tenth of a point.
Helen Hu, the beam specialist who returned to Mizzou after a year away from the sport to compete in exactly this kind of competition, anchored that rotation to send her team to the championships. But it was all-arounder Amari Celestine鈥檚 turn on the beam, immediately following up the fall, that might have been more important.
Celestine was named a regional co-gymnast of the year last week by the Women鈥檚 College Gymnastics Association, a reflection of the leap she鈥檚 taken in the all-around role during her senior year. She earned All-Southeastern Conference honors on the floor exercise and won the vault title at MU鈥檚 regional 鈥 plus the all-around title.
But after Amy Wier, the first Mizzou gymnast to take to the beam, fell, the Tigers needed Celestine there. Celestine delivered with a composed 9.825 score, which righted the ship.
鈥淭hat was a huge routine for Amari to get up,鈥 Welker said. 鈥淲e really praise those moments in practice, kind of privately. Like, 鈥楬ey, who can step up after a mistake and really get us back on track quickly?鈥 鈥
Celestine is also a key figure on the team because she鈥檚 been to the NCAA Championships before. In 2022, the last time Missouri made it this far, Celestine was a freshman, alongside current seniors Jocelyn Moore 鈥 who competes on vault, uneven bars and floor 鈥 and Grace Anne Davis.
There, MU finished fifth in the nation, bowing out after landing third in its semifinal. Celestine earned national runner-up honors for her vault performance in that year鈥檚 nationals.
Now, she and the rest of the senior class will compete for Mizzou for the final time with the same kind of stakes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 awesome,鈥 Welker said. 鈥淭hey get to bookend their careers with trips to nationals.鈥
Hu was also on that 2022 team. And bars specialist Mara Titarsolej, who qualified for the NCAA Championships as an individual last season, has experience with this point in the postseason, too.
But she鈥檚 excited to have her own team competing alongside her after going solo in Fort Worth a year ago.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not the same,鈥 Titarsolej said. 鈥淵ou see all the other teams with the rest of the team (there).鈥
Mizzou will enter its semifinal as something of an underdog with the Sooners and Gators both ahead of the Tigers in the rankings. That shouldn鈥檛, however, come off as MU just being happy to have made it this far. Welker and his program knew the talent they had inside the gym this season, something reinforced by Hu鈥檚 three perfect 10s and the program scoring above 198.000 in a meet for the first time ever.
鈥淚n 2022, three seasons ago, we went as a team,鈥 Welker said. 鈥淚 think that we were a little bit of a surprise that season. This season, it was a little bit of an expectation. And that鈥檚 a different animal.鈥
That鈥檚 been the takeaway for gymnasts from the class of Celestine, Moore and Davis, who have been here before.
鈥淲e can get to this level,鈥 said redshirt junior Elise Tisler. 鈥淲e will not be denied.鈥
Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz speaks with the media on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. about the NCAA House settlement lawsuit. (Video by Mizzou Network, used with permission of Mizzou Athletics)
