Mizzou gym prepares for 2026 slate, following best season in program history

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Over the past few seasons, the Mizzou gymnastics team has become a mainstay on the national stage.

Year-in and year-out, head coach Shannon Welker and his team seem to take another step towards their ultimate goal of winning a national championship. In 2022, it started with the program's previous best finish, ending up fifth in the nation. Then, in the next two seasons, MU continued to take steps forward, setting program records along the way.

That progress all led up to a historic 2025 season, where the Tigers finished third in the nation at the NCAA Championship Final.

Of course, the program is always looking to take its next step forward, however, Coach Welker pointed out that its also important to appreciate the journey.

"I think you have to control a little bit of what the expectation is and then also being pleased with the progress. You know, if it's never good enough, never good enough, then that can get a little defeating at times," Welker said. "We just have to balance that out and definitely acknowledge where we are making progress, but also stay hungry and continue to drive and, you know, get back to where we were last year, if not beyond."

You can watch the full press conference with Welker in the video player below.

The next step this program wants to make will be the most difficult of them all, as Mizzou will look to break into the very top of the collegiate gymnastics world. The only feat that the Tigers have yet to achieve is a second and first place finish in the nation.

Coach Welker believes his team is very close to being able to take that next step and also just as close to becoming one of the team that is consistently in the running for a national championship.

"It's one thing to get there, it's another thing to stay there," he said. "That definitely can be challenging to do it at that level, year-in and year-out. But, I think we're right there. I think we're really close. You know, I see what we're doing recruiting-wise, that's been really good. I think the belief system and the kind of culture that we have. They're operating at a really high level, so we're right there. I feel like [we can] be a team that's NCAA bound every year, if not Final Four bound."

As far as the 2026 season goes, Welker said his team has enjoyed a very productive offseason. They've seen some progress, but now the next step is just trying to get the consistency down.

Following the 2025 campaign, Mizzou graduated a standout group, including Amari Celestine, Jocelyn Moore and national champion Helen Hu. That group produced a lot of high-level scores for the Tigers over the years, something which they'll need to replace in 2026.

"I definitely feel like we have better depth across the board. It's really just, for us, replacing the 9.9+ routines, right? We lost some big ones from the last year, but we've got those in our program. We just need about four or five of those on every event. That way it kind of evens out over the season a little bit. We have the ability to do well, week-in and week-out, so I think the depth is good," Welker said. "Just need some of those high-end routines to be a little more consistent."

Returner Kennedy Griffin said finding that consistency comes down to numbers.

"We've been putting in the numbers, we've been putting in the drills, so as we go and practice through each week we have different warmups that we do. Usually two, sometimes three times a week, one of our main focus is going to be that shaping. So, really working on that consistency in those shapes to help those outcomes to become a bit more consistent. Then, we also do sticks....Really putting pressure on those things to really help us when we get into the season and we start competing and we're doing lesser routines, but we're about to nail down those dismounts easier," Griffin said.

You can watch the full press conference with Griffin in the video player below.

Griffin is a part of a group of returners that Coach Welker is expecting a lot from in the 2026 season.

The Tigers will enter the season with a lot of experience on their side, with four standout juniors, three seniors and a trio of graduate gymnasts. That experience will look to help Mizzou to get a fast start going in the upcoming season.

"We're a great team, like we have the skills. It's just starting out with a bang instead of, you know, the slope to go all the way up," junior Hannah Horton said. "You just got to start good."

You can watch the full press conference with Horton in the video player below.

The team will unofficially kick off the 2026 season with the annual Black and Gold meet at their new home: Mizzou Arena.

"I'm really excited," Griffin said. "Of course, we love Hearnes, it's still an exciting place to compete at, but just to be able to be recognized by Mizzou gym and by Laird [Veatch] and by the donors like, hey, this is a really good program, this is a top nation program, like let's put them in that Arena to really perform...Just really excited to be recognized as such a top program at Mizzou."

After the Black and Gold meet the Tigers will open up the season on Sunday, Jan. 4 against Iowa State at Mizzou Arena. The meet will begin at 2 p.m.