The postseason is officially upon us, meaning a new group of gymnasts will get the opportunity to write their names in the record book at the 2026 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.

Throughout the first week of April, the 36 top-ranked teams in the nation duked it out to determine who would be punching their ticket to Fort Worth.

While much of the focus was on which eight teams would get the chance to compete for a national title, the battle for individual spots was just as fierce. As a reminder, individual spots are given to the top performers on each event and in the all-around during the regional semifinals. The qualifiers are determined after the conclusion of regional finals and are not on a qualifying team.This year’s list of qualifiers can be found here. 

The individual qualification system allows gymnasts excelling at smaller programs – like Air Force’s Maggie Slife – a chance to get to nationals, even if their team doesn’t advance. But the system also has the unfortunate consequence of leaving some of the nation’s top gymnasts at home.

Seven gymnasts ended the regular season ranked in the top 10 on an event, only to leave regionals without an individual berth to nationals. While these gymnasts may not be eligible for medals in Fort Worth, their dominance throughout the season deserves the utmost recognition.

The eighth gymnast is in Fort Worth, but she’s not expected to compete due to injury. We included her as an honorable mention/wild card.

Azaraya Ra-Akbar (Alabama) – Vault/Bars

A U.S. junior elite turned Canadian senior phenom, Azaraya Ra-Akbar made a mark on college gymnastics in her first year of competition, ending the regular season ranked seventh on vault and second on bars.

After scoring 9.9 or higher on seven of her first 10 bars routines this season, Ra-Akbar made history as the first Crimson Tide freshman to receive a perfect 10 on bars since Andree Pickens in 1999.

Along with her success on bars, Ra-Akbar has consistently been Alabama’s best gymnast on vault, scoring 9.975 twice during the regular season. 

Chloe Cho (Illinois) – Bars

Illinois sophomore Chloe Cho was primed to be the sole individual at nationals representing a team that failed to make regionals, but Arkansas’ nail-biter upset of Missouri led to the Tigers’ Hannah Horton advancing on bars instead.

Even as the Illini have faced a down year overall, Cho has been on the rise. She scored a career-high 39.575 at the Big 4 meet, which tied for the sixth-best score in program history. She also surpassed 1,000 points in her career earlier in the season.

During her short tenure as a senior elite, Cho’s best event was bars. This has been the case in college as well. She finished the regular season ranked tied for eighth on the event. 

Gabby Gladieux (Alabama) – Floor

Gabby Gladieux started her time in Tuscaloosa as a three-event specialist, but over the past two seasons, she has competed in the all-around in all but one of the Crimson Tide’s meets. 

Similar to Cho, Gladieux was in line for an individual spot in the all-around, but Minnesota’s upset of both Alabama and Utah gave the spot to Red Rocks’ standout Avery Neff. 

The event fans will miss most from Gladieux at nationals is undoubtedly floor, where she finished the regular season ranked tied for fifth. She’s gone 9.975 eight times throughout her career, including three times this season. 

Chloe LaCoursiere (Alabama) – Bars

While Ra-Akbar may have been ranked second in the nation on bars, she did not have the highest NQS of the Crimson Tide’s second-ranked bars lineup. That honor belongs to Chloe LaCoursiere, the best gymnast in the nation on the event, with an NQS of 9.965.

LaCoursiere, along with Gladieux and Ra-Akbar, made up the core of an Alabama squad that experienced great success throughout the regular season. While a rocky performance at regionals left the Crimson Tide with no nationals representation, the team’s fifth-place regular season finish is tied with 2022 for the best of the last decade. 

LaCoursiere is the first gymnast since Boise State’s Krystine Jacobsen in 2016 to completely miss nationals after ending the regular season ranked first on an event. 

Tonya Paulsson (Cal) – Bars

Before coming to Berkeley, Tonya Paulsson embarked on a world tour of elite gymnastics, complete with stops on the Swedish and Taiwanese national teams. 

In 2025, Paulsson matched up against top college athletes from across the globe at the World University Games, winning bronze in the all-around and silver on beam in one of her first international assignments for Chinese Taipei.

Unsurprisingly, this success quickly carried over once she hit the NCAA competition floor. Paulsson has been a key contributor for a new-look Golden Bears squad after head coaches Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell left for Clemson last year.

Paulsson headed into the postseason ranked fifth nationally and first in the ACC on bars, marking the fourth season in a row Cal has had a gymnast finish the season ranked top six in the nation on the event. 

Addison Lawrence (Missouri) – Beam

Addison Lawrence started her career in Columbia as a contributor on vault, bars, and beam before running into a hip issue that caused her to miss her sophomore season in its entirety.

Lawrence came back in 2025, now primarily as a beam specialist, doing some of the best gymnastics of her career. NCAA beam champion Helen Hu graduating after the 2025 season was a big loss for the Tigers, but it allowed Lawrence to slide into the anchor spot with ease.

Now in her redshirt junior year, Lawrence has become one of the top beam workers in the country, hitting the 9.95 mark in five of her first six routines this year. While a fall against Kentucky started a trend of scores in the 9.8 range, Lawrence bounced back at the SEC Championship with a 9.925, good for third in her session. 

Sydney Seabrooks (UNC) – Floor

North Carolina has quietly been having a great season after missing regionals entirely only two years ago. A big reason for this bounce back has been freshman Sydney Seabrooks, who competed all-around in almost all of the Tar Heels’ meets.

Seabrooks’ biggest contributions have come on floor, where she never scored below 9.85 throughout her freshman campaign. She joins Lali Dekanoidze (bars) and Elizabeth Culton (beam) as the only UNC gymnasts to end the regular season ranked top ten on any event in the last decade. 

Wild card: Lily Smith (Georgia) – Floor

Before breaking her foot in warmups at Kentucky on February 27, Georgia junior Lily Smith had established herself as one of the top gymnasts in the country on floor. 

Despite not competing since her injury, Smith finished the regular season ranked second in the nation, a sizable jump from her 14th-place finish at the end of last season.

Smith may be best known for bars, but her floor routine exhibits much of the same stellar technique that’s made her a fan favorite elsewhere. Gymnastics fans always speculate what it would have looked like if Nastia Liukin had competed in college gymnastics; Lily Smith might just be the next closest thing. 

While Smith has floated the possibility of a return to competition at nationals, it would likely only be on bars, meaning we have almost certainly seen the last of her on floor for this season. 

The current qualification system seems to haphazardly award nationals berths to athletes based on their performance at one meet versus awarding consistency throughout the season. The solution could be a provision reserving a nationals spot for the top-ranked, non-qualifying gymnast on each event, although that could take away some regionals drama in the process.

Individual national champions will be determined during the national semifinals on April 16. With some key favorites missing nationals entirely, the race to the top may be more open than ever.