DENVER – University of Denver gymnast Shyla Bhatia will compete at the 2026 NCAA National Championships at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, as an individual event specialist, the NCAA announced on Monday.
 
Bhatia was named the individual event specialist on vault from the Corvallis Regional and will compete in the national semifinals on Thursday, April 16. She will rotate with Minnesota in the second semifinal, beginning at 8 p.m. CT/7 p.m. MT, and is set to compete in the third rotation.
 
The DU freshman will contend for a national title and WCGA Postseason All-America honors on the event. Individual national champions and podium finishers are awarded when results from both national semifinal meets are combined. WCGA All-America awards are presented to the top eight finishers, including ties, within each national semifinal.
 
Individual event qualification to NCAA Nationals is determined by results from the NCAA Second Round at each regional site. Results from both second-round meets are combined, and gymnasts from the two advancing teams (as determined in the NCAA Regional Final) are removed from the individual standings. The top remaining gymnast in the all-around and on each event then advance the NCAA National Championships.
 
Bhatia's 9.900 on vault tied for first in Denver's session of the NCAA Second Round and was tied for third overall when results from both sessions were combined. The two gymnasts ranked above her were from UCLA – one of the two advancing teams – and Bhatia won three-way tiebreak to determine the Corvallis Regional's vault qualifier. After the tie was not broken by an average of all four judges' scores for each gymnast, Bhatia won on the next round of tiebreaks by way of having the highest chief judges' score (a 9.950).
 
With Bhatia's achievement, Denver has now had at least one gymnast advance to NCAA Nationals in 25 of the last 26 seasons in which the competition has been held (excluding the canceled 2020 postseason).
 
Bhatia becomes the 22^nd individual national qualifier in Denver's Division I history and the second in a row on vault, following Rosie Casali who was one of three overall DU individual qualifiers a season ago. Bhatia is now the third DU gymnast to earn a spot at NCAA Nationals on vault, joining Casali and Casey Dobyns (2004, 2006).
 
She also becomes the fifth DU freshman to qualify as an individual to the NCAA National Championships and the first since Lynnzee Brown in 2018.
 
The DU freshman will seek to becoming Denver's third individual national champion at the NCAA Division I level. DU owns two individual national titles, both on floor and won in the last decade (Lynnzee Brown in 2019, Nina McGee in 2016).
 
As a team, Denver placed fourth in its NCAA Second Round appearance in Corvallis.
 
Additional information about the 2026 NCAA National Championships will be announced in the coming days.