FORT WORTH, Texas — For the first time since 2012, the Oklahoma women’s gymnastics team will not be competing in the NCAA championship meet.

The two-time defending champion Sooners, who spent the entirety of the season ranked No. 1, did not advance to Saturday’s final after finishing third during Thursday’s second semifinal session at Dickies Arena.

The Sooners finished with a final score of 196.6625. Utah won the session with a score of 197.9375 followed by Florida (197.8750). They will be joined in Saturday’s championship by LSU (198.1125) and California (197.7125), who were victorious in the first semifinal Thursday.

The favorites to win their seventh NCAA championship, the Sooners got off to an uncharacteristic nervy start during their first rotation on vault as three gymnasts had major landing errors. Needing to count two of those scores (as the lowest score is dropped), Oklahoma recorded a 48.3250 — more than a full point below its average on the event this season and its lowest vault score since 2008.

The team entered the second rotation in a surprising fourth place — all but silencing its normally vocal fans in attendance — and, despite strong showings on bars and floor, never were able to fully close the deficit.

When the final scores flashed, confirming their reign at the top was officially over, the Sooners appeared sullen and wrapped their arms around one another as the Red Rocks and Gators jovially celebrated across the floor.

“It wasn’t as we scripted it, but we’ve taken great pride in winning and we’ll take great pride in losing,” Oklahoma coach K.J. Kindler said on the broadcast moments later. “This was character-building for this team — they fought back hard — and it was emotional, and I give them all the credit for gutting it out through the whole end of it. It was tough.”

Florida junior Leanne Wong said she was aware of Oklahoma’s struggles throughout the competition but said the team did its best to tune it out.

“I did kind of hear the crowd and could tell that mistakes were happening, but [head coach] Jenny [Rowland] always tells us to control the controllable, so we stayed focused on the Gators and kept going until the end,” Wong told ESPN after the meet.

Despite the early exit, Oklahoma didn’t leave Fort Worth completely empty-handed. Faith Torrez and Audrey Davis earned conational champion honors on beam, with Davis also earning a share of the title on bars.

LSU’s Haleigh Bryant, who ended the regular season as the nation’s top-ranked all arounder, won the top individual prize with a final score of 39.7125.

Wong, a two-time world champion, and Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey (Oregon State) tied for second. Wong also shared the bars title with Davis.

Bryant’s LSU teammate Aleah Finnegan earned the title on floor and Stanford’s Anna Roberts won vault.

On Saturday, LSU, Utah, Florida and California will have the chance to make history for their respective programs. It would be the first team title for both LSU and California, while this marks the Golden Bears’ first trip to the championship.

The team had come close to reaching the milestone in 2023 but narrowly missed out finishing in third place in its semifinal session. Junior Mya Lauzon said that heartache had motivated them ever since.

“I think that really taking in everything that happened last year especially, and the growth from that moment, not looking at it as something negative and instead looking at that moment as an opportunity to analyze what we did well, what we loved about that moment, what we can learn from that moment,” Lauzon said Thursday. “And I felt like from then on, everything about what we’ve done to this point has been different.”

Florida is in search of its fourth national championship, and first since 2015. It would also be the first under Rowland.

Utah has the most NCAA titles in the sport’s history with nine but hasn’t won since 1995. The Red Rocks are in their first season with head coach Carly Dockendorf, who took over the program in November after former head coach Tom Farden stepped down following allegations of abuse.

Fifth-year senior Maile O’Keefe said she was excited for the challenge and knew all four teams have a legitimate chance to win.

“At this point it’s anybody’s race going into Saturday,” O’Keefe said Thursday. “Obviously it’s going to come down to little details like sticking landings, 180 [degree] splits and that kind of thing.”

The championship will be held at 4 p.m. ET at Dickies Arena.

TEMPE, AZ — The domino effect of the Arizona Coyotes’ departure from the desert comes with some silver lining for hockey fans. There will still be hockey in the Valley as the Tucson Roadrunners are reportedly moving to Tempe to play at Mullett Arena. Alex Meruelo, who still owns the minor league hockey team, confirmed the move to Arizona Sports Thursday.

The NHL confirmed Thursday that Meruelo has sold the Arizona Coyotes and the team is moving to Salt Lake City, Utah.

However, there’s also still a chance that in five years, Meruelo and his group of partners could be granted an NHL expansion team that would bring the Coyotes name back to Arizona.

Meruelo says he remains committed to winning the north Phoenix public land auction in June to build a new stadium as part of a massive entertainment complex.

While Meruelo sold the right to the NHL franchise, he keeps the intellectual rights to the Coyotes name. He also retains ownership of the Roadrunners, who have played in Tucson in recent years. Meruelo tells Arizona Sports that he intends to move the Roadrunners to Tempe and have them play at Mullett Arena, where the Coyotes had recently played.

The Roadrunners’ move to Tempe is part of an effort to keep Valley youth hockey programs alive until an expansion NHL franchise could hopefully return to Phoenix.

The Roadrunners bring their own line of history to the Valley as many natives will remember the Phoenix Roadrunners. The team played on and off in Phoenix from 1967 to 2009 in different league levels before ceasing operations.

In 2016, the Coyotes announced it purchased its American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate that played in Springfield, Illinois, and moved the team to Tucson.

The team picked up the Roadrunners nickname and has played in Tucson since then.

On Wednesday night, during the Coyotes’ last game of the season, ABC15 was there when the team received a standing ovation following their win against the Oilers. Watch the emotional moment in the player below.

Emotional standing ovation for the Arizona Coyotes last game

The Coyotes started playing at Mullett Arena last season after the City of Glendale did not renew its agreement with the team for them to play at what is now Desert Diamond Arena.

At least nine beavers and a vole have been found dead across Utah after an unusual outbreak of tularemia, a disease that can also infect and kill humans, cats and dogs. Local wildlife experts are concerned by the unprecedented spread of the disease and have warned people to take precautions.

Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is a bacterial disease that most commonly affects rabbits, hares, beavers, as well as other rodents, mammals and livestock. However, the bacteria, Francisella tularensis, has also been reported in fish, cats and dogs, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The disease has a high mortality rate, especially among wild animals.

Tularemia is also a zoonotic disease, meaning that it can jump between animals and humans. People can be infected with tularemia through several different pathways, including tick and deerfly bites, physical contact with infected animals, eating undercooked meat and by drinking contaminated water. Humans can die from the disease if the infection is not treated promptly with antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Symptoms of tularemia across species include fever, swollen glands, lethargy, and poor appetite. 

11 (sometimes) deadly diseases that hopped across species

Between March 23 and April 10, nine otherwise healthy-looking North American beavers (Castor canadensis) and a vole from an unnamed species were found dead, according to a statement by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR). 

The first five beavers were found at Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter near Park City and are all believed to have shared the same den. The other animals were subsequently found at three other locations: near Midway, near the Jordanelle Dam and in the Birdseye area of Utah County.

Four of the beaver carcasses from three separate locations — Swaner preserve, Midway and Birdseye — were sent for testing at Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and the Utah Public Health Lab, and three of the specimens (one from each location) tested positive for tularemia, according to UDWR. There is therefore a high chance that the others also died from the disease.

Cases of tularemia are occasionally reported in animals and in humans across the U.S. but are normally isolated to a single animal or location. The last reported case of the disease killing wildlife in Utah was in 2017, when a single rabbit was found dead.

“It is unusual to see this many animals die from it at once,” UDWR veterinarian Ginger Stout, said in the statement.

It is unclear why the disease has spread so quickly and widely but it may be linked to the start of the tick season, which normally begins in April.

The CDC recommends that people use insect repellent, frequently check themselves and their pets for tick or insect bites and try to avoid mowing over dead animals with lawnmowers, which can disperse the bacteria into the air. UDWR representatives also warned people to not pick up any dead animals they find and instead report them to the nearest UDWR office.