STANFORD, Calif. -- For the second consecutive season, Stanford women’s gymnastics will enter the chase for a national title ranked as a top-16 seed, as the Cardinal earned the No. 7 overall seed for the 2026 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship Tournament, the NCAA announced on ESPNU Monday. Stanford will kick off its run to the NCAA Championships in the second round of the NCAA Regional Championships, taking on No. 3 seed Michigan, No. 22-ranked North Carolina, and No. 26-ranked Utah State April 2 at 11 a.m. PT.
Stanford will be the No. 2 seed in the Baton Rouge (LSU) Regional with No. 2 (No. 1 seed) LSU, No. 10 (No. 3 Seed) Michigan, No. 15 (No. 4 Seed) Clemson, No. 17 (No. 5 seed) Auburn, No. 22 (No. 6 seed) UNC, No. 7 seed Utah State, No. 8 seed Air Force and No. 9 seed Nebraska. Individual competitors on each event and in the all-around competition will also compete for a chance to advance to the national championships.
The top 36 teams based on the national qualifying score were selected for regional competition. The committee named the top 16 teams and seeded them in the bracket. Seeding determined at the time of selections will be maintained throughout the championship.
Teams 17 through 36 were assigned to one of four regional sites. Nine teams will compete at each of those four sites, with the top two at each site advancing to Fort Worth, Texas, for the NCAA Championships held April 16-18. The other three NCAA regional sites are Tempe, Ariz., Corvallis, Ore., and Lexington, Kentucky.
The regional will be held April 1-4 with the Cardinal scheduled to begin its championship run in the second round on Thursday, April 2. The regional will have a recovery day on Friday, April 3, between the second round and finals.
The top two teams and the top all-around competitor (who is not on an advancing team) from each regional will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships. In addition, the top event specialist who is not on an advancing team or an all-around competitor will advance to the national championship in that event.
Stanford's 2026 season continues to rewrite the program’s record books. The Cardinal has been a top-10-ranked team in all but one week of the regular season, and enters the postseason ranked No. 7, its best postseason ranking since 2011. Stanford’s regular-season campaign included the program’s first ACC Regular-Season Championship with a flawless record in conference action (6-0), the program’s first score of 198.000+ since 2004 and a record-setting eight ACC Gymnast of the Week honors for senior Anna Roberts. Roberts became the team’s first AAI Award Finalist since 2022, and her season was highlighted by 23 event titles, top-18 rankings nationally on all four events, and she currently ranks as the fifth-best all-around competitor in the nation with a national qualifying score (NQS) of 39.630. She became just the second Stanford gymnast in school history to earn two 10.000s in a single meet, and the first in over 20 years, a feat first accomplished by Lise Leville in 2004, on Senior Day versus the Boise State Broncos (March 15), and set a new program-record in the all-around competition at Oregon State (Feb. 27), totaling a 2026 NCAA-best 39.875.
The Cardinal's second-round regional championships meet is slated to start at 1 pm CT/11 am PT in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and will be streamed on ESPN+.