It all came down to one event for LSU’s gymnastics team in the national semifinals Thursday afternoon in Gainesville, Fla. — the dreaded beam.A six-inch wide surface, one that the Tigers have excelled on the past few weeks, separated LSU from elimination and a third-straight trip to the Super Six.Unfortunately for the Tigers, the beam may as well have been an inch wide, as both sophomore Gloria Johnson and senior Summer Hubbard took falls on the apparatus, forcing LSU to count a fall.LSU was left with a 48.625 on the event after five straight meets of posting at least a 49.000 on the apparatus. The Tigers finished in sixth place of six teams with a 196.025 team score.”Beam is what got us here,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “We had two falls, and everybody else did really well. Gloria Johnson trains two events. Just stay on the beam. Summer lost her concentration for a second, and she fell. Other than that we had a good team performance today.”The Tigers had a shot to make it to the Super Six heading into the sixth and final rotation of the afternoon. The team was in fourth place after five rotations, a mere 0.075 behind Oklahoma. The Sooners were able to finish with a 49.250 on the floor to finish with a third place finish of 196.550.Jackson won the event with a 9.90, but it was a bittersweet consolation for the senior, who took home LSU’s first ever national championship in the all-around with a 39.625.”Well it’s been 20 years of work. It’s an amazing feeling, and I’m in shock,” Jackson said. “But I totally wish I could take this honor and send it back to the team and make Super Six, and that would be a truly amazing ending.”The Tigers had a bye on the first of six rotations, affording them the opportunity to sit back and watch favorites Oklahoma and Utah stumble in their first events, vault and floor, respectively.Those stumbles left LSU with a chance to come out with a hot start on the floor, and senior Kayla Rogers did just that as the leadoff gymnast with a 9.850.Sophomore Ashley Lee followed with a 9.750 despite a minor wrist injury, the same injury she had at the end of last season. But senior Sabrina Franceschelli fell on her final tumbling pass and ended with a season-low 9.225. Hubbard righted the ship with a 9.850, and Jackson finished the event for the Tigers with a 9.850. It was the only event Jackson didn’t win.”We were really excited going into the meet,” Lee said. “We had a few mistakes, but it was nothing that brought us down. Even with the mistakes we were enjoying ourselves.”The Tigers followed up their solid floor performance with a 49.100 on the vault highlighted by a career-high 9.95 by Jackson to win the vault title and a career-high 9.90 by Lee, as both earned First-Team All-American honors on the event.After a bye, the Tigers kept the momentum going with their second best bars score of the season, a 49.300. All Tigers scored at least a 9.775 on the apparatus, and Jackson won the event title with a 9.925. Hubbard became an All-American for the third-straight season with a 9.900.Franceschelli had an equipment malfunction on the event when her hand grip ripped when she mounted the apparatus, forcing her to the back of the lineup. She was able to post a 9.825, despite having to use new hand grips.”Not many people could have gotten up and did what she did,” Breaux said. “For the whole team to go to bars and do what they did showed a lot of character.”The season is not over for three Tigers. Jackson, Hubbard and Lee will all compete in individual championships Saturday afternoon. Jackson will compete on bars, beam and vault, while Hubbard will join her on bars and Lee will compete in her first career national individual championship on floor.”The stress is gone because I’ve already made All-American,” Jackson said.____Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]