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It鈥檚 reasonable for the Missouri gymnastics coach to have let his calendar get lost in the shuffle. His program has officially entered uncharted territory 鈥� a land of twists and sticks and decimal-point margins and national championships.

鈥淚鈥檝e lost track of my days here, but we鈥檙e obviously excited for our team,鈥� he said Friday, speaking over Zoom from Fort Worth, Texas. 鈥淭his has been something we have talked about: We want to be a team competing on the final day of the season. And here we are.鈥�

Mizzou gymnastics has made it to the four-team finals of the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history, qualifying by finishing second in one of Thursday鈥檚 semifinals. The Tigers will face Oklahoma, Utah and UCLA 鈥� all teams ranked higher than MU 鈥� with a title on the line.

The finals will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday and be televised nationally on ABC (KDNL, Channel 30 locally). Missouri will host a free watch party for the event inside Mizzou Arena.

It鈥檚 been 60 years since a University of Missouri sports team won a national championship, with the school鈥檚 only titles coming from its baseball program in 1954 and indoor track and field team in 1965.

Mizzou gymnastics has already produced an individual national champion, its first, with beam specialist Helen Hu taking home the crown through her 9.9875 routine on Thursday.

That performance might not have been her highest-scoring one of the year 鈥� Hu has three perfect 10s to her name this season 鈥� but it was the most important.

One meet after recovering from a teammate鈥檚 fall to ice a beam rotation, Hu was back in crunch time Thursday with the last routine of the day for Missouri. The Tigers hadn鈥檛 had especially stellar rotations on floor exercise and vault. But on the uneven bars, they made up key ground against Florida for the final spot in the finals.

As the Gators took to the bars for their final rotation and Mizzou took its turn on beam, scores were close. The Tigers had a slight lead, but gymnastics scoring 鈥� which allows each team to have six athletes compete on an event but only counts the top five scores 鈥� made the live math complicated.

Hu stepped up to the beam needing roughly a 9.900-level routine for MU to advance, which would be normal for her. And she鈥檇 need more than that to capture the individual title.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know how close we were, so I was just going, this might be my last routine so I鈥檓 gonna go out and put my whole heart out on that routine,鈥� Hu said.

She came back to Missouri after a year away from the sport for exactly this kind of moment, even if the Tigers didn鈥檛 fully expect to make it this far in the postseason. And she delivered, of course, smiling her way through the highest-scoring beam routine of either semifinal.

And then, after sticking her dismount, Hu celebrated by performing the worm.

鈥淎 lot of weird things happen in sports, and especially in subjective ones, that there are times when not the right person wins,鈥� Welker said. 鈥淪he is the best beam-worker in the country. That was the best beam routine of the night. 鈥� It was just great to see that the right person won that event.鈥�

Mizzou will face a stiff test in the finals. It scored a 197.300 in the semis, which was the lowest of the finalists. Oklahoma scored a 197.550, UCLA scored a 197.7375 and Utah scored a 197.7625.

The upside for MU is that it will rotate through the events in 鈥淥lympic order,鈥� starting on vault, then going to bars, beam and ending on floor. Closing the event on floor is considered helpful in gymnastics circles, since the conventional thinking is that judges are looser with handing out higher scores on that event as the meet goes 鈥� and floor has often been the Tigers鈥� best event.

They鈥檝e had to start on floor for their last two meets, which hasn鈥檛 been optimal for scoring.

鈥淭hat鈥檒l be a nice change for us,鈥� Welker said.

And while the stakes are high, Missouri sees real potential for coming away from its best-ever season with hardware. The Tigers have already picked up perfect 10s from three different gymnasts on three different events this season, produced their first national champion and made it to the sport鈥檚 Final Four for the first time.

Now, with the right kind of Saturday, they could be bringing home a title.

鈥淲e keep thinking, man, we didn鈥檛 even have our best day on every event,鈥� Hu said. 鈥淲e still have room to grow.鈥�