Clemson Wins First ACC Gymnastics Championship in Program History at 2026 ACC Championships

Three years. One championship. And a margin of victory so slim it had to be verified twice before anyone dared celebrate.

First Horizon Coliseum • Greensboro, N.C. • March 21, 2026 • ACC Gymnastics Championship

Clemson Tigers | ACC Champions | Photo: The ACC

GREENSBORO, N.C. — When the final scores flashed across the scoreboard at First Horizon Coliseum on Saturday night, it took a moment for the reality to register. Not because anyone doubted this team was capable — but because the margin was almost too small to believe. Two hundredths of a point. A number so tiny it barely registers on the page.

But in gymnastics, 0.025 is the difference between history and heartbreak. And on this Saturday night in Greensboro, 0.025 belonged to Clemson.

The No. 15 Tigers posted a 197.100 — powered by a school-record 49.450 on their final event — to defeat No. 7 Stanford by the slimmest of margins and claim the first ACC Gymnastics Championship in program history. The building erupted. The tears flowed. The Tigers roared. And a program that did not exist three years ago stood at the top of one of college gymnastics' most competitive conferences and claimed what was theirs.

This was not a coronation. This was earned. Every single tenth of it.

FROM NOTHING TO EVERYTHING — THE STORY OF A PROGRAM BUILT IN THREE YEARS

To understand what Saturday night meant, you have to understand where this all started.

On June 17, 2021, Clemson Athletics announced it would be adding women's gymnastics — the third women's sport added by the university in five years as part of a Title IX-driven expansion that also included softball and lacrosse. The announcement came with a $37 million facility investment and the weight of enormous expectations attached to a program that had not yet recruited a single gymnast.

In April 2022, Athletic Director Graham Neff made his first major hire — Amy Smith, a UCLA All-American and National Champion with more than 20 years of collegiate coaching experience at programs including Utah State, North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, and Kentucky. Smith became the first head coach in Clemson gymnastics history and carried the responsibility of building something entirely from the ground up.

"To be given this incredible opportunity to lead Clemson's very first gymnastics team is an absolute dream come true," Smith said at the time. "I hope to leave an impact at Clemson by finding student-athletes that feel just how special Clemson is and want to leave their own impact by building this team into one of the premier programs in the nation as quickly as we can."

Smith delivered on that promise faster than almost anyone anticipated. The program debuted in January 2024 in front of a sold-out Littlejohn Coliseum and quickly climbed into the top 20 nationally. The Tigers qualified for the NCAA Tournament in Year 1 and again in Year 2 — winning their first-ever postseason meet in 2025 by defeating Rutgers in the Tuscaloosa Regional. But the tenure ended abruptly in April 2025 when Clemson parted ways with Smith following a national coaching search, citing a desire to take the program in a new direction amid controversy stemming from prior allegations against Smith at previous coaching stops.

What came next changed everything.

In May 2025, Clemson announced the hiring of Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell — a husband-and-wife coaching duo who had spent 13 seasons building the Cal women's gymnastics program from the brink of extinction into a national championship contender. Justin Howell took over Cal in 2012 and is the winningest coach in Golden Bears history, guiding the program from 49th in the country to a second-place finish at the 2024 NCAA Championships — the largest improvement in NCAA gymnastics history. Liz Crandall-Howell joined as co-head coach in 2018. Together they earned the 2023 WCGA National Co-Coaches of the Year award and the 2024 WCGA West Region Coach of the Year distinction before making the move to South Carolina.

The Howells brought a championship blueprint, an Olympic coaching pedigree — Justin served as a 2016 Olympic coach — and a standard of excellence that Clemson was ready to embrace. The result, in Year 1 of the Howell era, is a program that just won its first ACC Championship title.

In their first season. In the program's third year of existence. The quickest conference championship in Clemson University history.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP MEET: HOW CLEMSON DID IT

Going into Saturday's Session II quad meet, Clemson entered as the No. 3 seed — behind No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 California, both programs with deep roots in the sport and championship pedigrees that stretched well beyond three seasons. The Tigers were ranked 15th nationally heading into Greensboro. Nobody was handing them anything.

And for much of the meet, it looked like it might not go Clemson's way.

The Tigers opened on beam with a steady 49.125, led by a career-high 9.900 from Emma Malewski and 9.850s from Lilly Lippeatt and Brie Clark. It was a solid start — not spectacular, but controlled. Exactly what a team needs in the opening rotation of a championship meet.

Floor was next and it was Clemson at its absolute best. Brie Clark — the program's most decorated gymnast and the floor event's defining performer all season long — anchored the rotation with a 9.925, continuing her historic streak of scoring 9.900 or better in every single meet of the 2026 season. No other floor gymnast in the entire country could make that claim. Maggie Holman, Tara Walsh, and Ella Cesario each added 9.850s as the Tigers posted a 49.275 on the event — loud, clean, and loaded with the energy of a team that believed it could win.

Vault came next and Clemson delivered again. Madison Minner anchored the rotation with a 9.900 that matched her career high, Maggie Holman added a 9.875, and Clark and Cesario each contributed 9.850s. The Tigers posted a 49.250 — the second-highest vault score in program history — and headed into the final rotation with genuine momentum.

Then came the moment that will define this program's history for years.

Heading into the final bars rotation, California led Clemson by 0.150. Stanford was lurking. The math was demanding. Clemson needed a historically great bars rotation — and that is exactly what it got.

Lilly Lippeatt, Hannah Clark, and Emma Malewski opened with back-to-back-to-back career-high-tying 9.900s. Takoda Berry contributed a 9.725. Ella Cesario added a 9.850. And then junior Quinn Kuhl stepped up to the bar in the anchor position and delivered a career-high-tying 9.900 that set off a calculation that changed everything.

With Kuhl's 9.900 in the books, Stanford's final routinist — Ana Barbosu, a 2024 Olympic bronze medalist — needed a 9.975 on floor to tie the Tigers. Barbosu delivered a stunning 9.950 — the highest floor score of the entire night. But it was not enough. By 0.025, Clemson claimed the title.

Final bars rotation: 49.450. A school record. The first ACC Championship in program history. And a celebration that had been three years in the making.

THE SENIORS WHO BUILT THIS

Saturday's championship belonged to the entire roster — but it carried special meaning for the nine seniors who were honored on Senior Day just weeks earlier and who have given everything to this program since its very first day.

Molly Arnold, Trinity Brown, Ella Cesario, Brie Clark, Eve Jackson, Lilly Lippeatt, Madison Minner, Tara Walsh, and manager Alana Couch. Five of them — Arnold, Brown, Clark, Jackson, and Lippeatt — were members of "Team Zero," the inaugural 2024 class that walked into Littlejohn Coliseum with no program history, no tradition, no blueprint. Just belief. Together, this senior class has competed 496 routines in Clemson gymnastics uniforms — 59% of every single routine in program history. They built this with their own hands.

Brie Clark is the most decorated gymnast in program history — and Saturday was her crowning moment. From Daphne, Alabama, Clark trained under Vladimir Novikov, who won gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics before becoming her club coach at Planet Gymnastics. She arrived at Clemson as a transfer from Utah State where she had already been an All-American, and immediately became the foundation upon which the Tigers' floor program was built.

In three seasons at Clemson, Clark has won the floor event 21 times in 35 performances — a staggering win rate on the sport's most expressive event. She holds a career 9.945 NQS on floor that ranks first in the ACC and seventh nationally. She won the floor event in nine of 11 meets in 2026 and has scored 9.900 or better in every single meet of this season — the only gymnast in the entire country to achieve that standard. She has earned five ACC Specialist of the Week honors, three All-ACC selections, and became the first collegiate gymnast to both attempt and complete the Biles I on floor during the 2025 season. In the ACC Championship meet, she anchored the floor rotation with a 9.925 and added a 9.850 on both beam and vault.

Clark did not just perform at the championship. She led it.

Ella Cesario gave Clemson its all-around dimension in a year when depth was essential. Her steady, multi-event scoring across beam, floor, vault, and bars made her one of the most valuable competitors on the roster — a gymnast who showed up for her team across every rotation, every week, all season long. Her 9.850 on bars in the championship's final rotation was one of the key counting scores that sealed the title.

Tara Walsh has been one of the quiet engines of this program since its first day. Named to the All-ACC Team on vault with a 9.880 NQS, Walsh competed in 33 events in 2026 — with 27 scored at 9.800 or above and 22 at 9.850 or higher. She ranks in the top 10 of the ACC in vault, floor, and beam. She does not show up on the highlight reel every night — but she shows up in the lineup every rotation, and that consistency is exactly what championship teams are built on.

Lilly Lippeatt delivered one of the most important routines of the night — opening the championship bars rotation with a career-high-tying 9.900 that set the tone for what became a historic rotation. A member of Team Zero, Lippeatt has 25 routines of 9.800 or higher in 2026 including 9.900s on bars, beam, and floor — the versatility of a gymnast who has grown into one of the ACC's most complete performers.

Madison Minner won the vault event title Saturday night with a 9.900 that matched her career high — a fitting final statement from a senior who has spent three seasons anchoring the Tigers' vault lineup and earning her program's trust on gymnastics' most explosive event.

THE REST OF THE FIELD: HOW EVERY TEAM SHOWED UP IN GREENSBORO

Stanford (197.075) — The Favorite That Almost Won

Stanford entered the 2026 ACC Championship as the conference's dominant force. The Cardinal finished the regular season with a perfect 6-0 ACC record, claimed the regular season title outright, and were voted the favorite by the league's head coaches. They entered Greensboro as the No. 1 seed and No. 7 team in the country — and they nearly delivered exactly what was expected of them.

Ana Barbosu — the 2024 Olympic bronze medalist on floor — posted the highest individual floor score of the entire night with a 9.950, claiming the event title. Sienna Robinson and Temple Landry shared the beam event crown with a 9.925 apiece. And the Cardinal's overall performance was exceptional from start to finish — a 197.075 that on almost any other night wins the championship.

But this was not almost any other night. This was Clemson's night.

Stanford's head coach Tabitha Yim was named the 2026 ACC Coach of the Year — a recognition that reflects a season of dominant regular season work and a program that has elevated the standard of ACC gymnastics since joining the conference. Anna Roberts claimed the Gymnast of the Year award, and Robinson added the Specialist of the Year honor — three of the four yearly ACC awards going to the Cardinal in a statement about where this program stands nationally.

Yim, who guided Stanford to its first ACC regular season title and produced a roster loaded with elite individual talent, has built the Cardinal into one of the most formidable programs in the country. They will be a force to be reckoned with at the NCAA Championships — and Clemson knows it better than anyone after Saturday night.

California (196.900) — A Program That Refuses to Be Counted Out

California's story in 2026 is one of resilience and transition. The Golden Bears lost their championship coaching staff when Justin and Liz Crandall-Howell departed for Clemson after 13 seasons — a seismic change for a program that had grown from 49th in the country to a 2024 NCAA runner-up under their leadership. Losing coaches of that caliber over any offseason would challenge any program.

And yet here was California, posting a 196.900 in the ACC Championship — finishing third in a conference loaded with nationally ranked programs and sending Tonya Paulsson to the top of the podium as both the All-Around Champion and the Bars Event champion, with a 9.950 on bars and a 39.425 in the all-around. Paulsson was named the ACC Newcomer of the Year — an extraordinary first season from a gymnast who announced herself on the national stage at the biggest meet of the conference year.

Cal enters the NCAA Championship conversation as a program proving that its culture and its standard outlast any individual coaching staff. That is the true measure of what the Howells built in Berkeley — and the Bears are taking that foundation into the postseason.

NC State (196.500) — The Wolfpack Holds Its Ground

NC State has been one of the ACC's consistent presences in gymnastics and the 2026 championship was no different. The Wolfpack posted a 196.500 for fourth place — a solid performance that reflected a team capable of competing at the conference level week in and week out. With five of six ACC teams ranked in the national Road to Nationals Top 30, the Wolfpack's fourth-place finish puts them in strong position heading into the postseason.

North Carolina (196.025) — The Tar Heels Compete in Session I

North Carolina competed in Session I of the championship in a dual-meet format against Pittsburgh, finishing fifth overall with a 196.025. The Tar Heels put together their best rotation of the night on floor — led by Kaya Forbes and Sydney Seabrooks each posting 9.875s — and received All-Championship Team recognition for Gwen Fink on beam, who led the event with a 9.900 in Session I. UNC's floor rotation closed with a 49.250 that showed the program's offensive ceiling when the lineup is operating at its best.

Pittsburgh (194.450) — Growing Pains and Bright Spots

Pittsburgh rounded out the field with a 194.450 in Session I, finishing sixth in the championship. The Panthers are a program in development within one of the most competitive gymnastics conferences in the country — and competing against five nationally ranked programs in ACC play provides an invaluable proving ground for a roster that continues to build. Every rotation at this level is a data point that matters when the NCAA bracket is released.

2026 ACC CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL TEAM SCORES

1st: Clemson- 197.100

2nd: Stanford- 197.075

3rd: California- 196.900

4th: NC State- 196.500

5th: North Carolina- 196.025

6th: Pittsburgh- 194.450

2026 ACC Event Champions Vault: Madison Minner, Clemson — 9.900 Bars: Tonya Paulsson, California — 9.950 Beam: Temple Landry and Sienna Robinson, Stanford — 9.925 Floor: Ana Barbosu, Stanford — 9.950 All-Around: Tonya Paulsson, California — 39.425

2026 ACC Yearly Awards Gymnast of the Year: Anna Roberts, Stanford Specialist of the Year: Sienna Robinson, Stanford Newcomer of the Year: Tonya Paulsson, California Coach of the Year: Tabitha Yim, Stanford

WHAT COMES NEXT — NCAA REGIONALS AND THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PICTURE

The confetti at First Horizon Coliseum had barely been swept before the conversation shifted to what comes next — and for Clemson, what comes next is the biggest stage the program has ever stood on.

The NCAA Selection Show airs Monday, March 23 at noon on ESPNU, where Clemson is vying for a top-16 national seed that would allow the program to host an NCAA Regional at Littlejohn Coliseum — in front of the fans who have made it one of the top attendance venues in the country all season long. The Tigers rank 8th nationally in average attendance at 7,324 fans per meet and lead the country in total home attendance. A regional host bid would bring the NCAA Tournament to Death Valley for the first time — and given what Littlejohn Coliseum does to opposing teams, that would be a formidable home floor advantage.

The 2026 NCAA Gymnastics Regionals are scheduled for April 1-5 in Baton Rouge, La., Corvallis, Ore., Lexington, Ky., and Tempe, Ariz. Five of the six ACC programs are ranked in the Road to Nationals Top 30 — the deepest concentration of ranked programs in any single conference — and multiple teams from this championship meet will be advancing to regional competition.

For Clemson, the goal is clear and it is bigger than a regional appearance. This is a program that three years ago did not exist. That two years ago was playing its first-ever collegiate meet. That one year ago was navigating a coaching transition at the highest possible stakes. And that this year — under coaches who have been to this stage before and know exactly what it takes to compete for a national title — is playing for something that would have seemed impossible when Amy Smith walked into Littlejohn for the first time.

A national championship. That is the destination. And an ACC title is the clearest possible signal that the road to get there runs directly through Clemson, South Carolina.

The Tigers are not building anymore. They have arrived.

2026 ACC Gymnastics Championship | First Horizon Coliseum, Greensboro, N.C. | March 21, 2026 | Final: Clemson 197.100, Stanford 197.075, California 196.900, NC State 196.500, North Carolina 196.025, Pittsburgh 194.450