A sense of springtime and competition is in the air in Fort Worth, Texas.
LSU gymnastics is gearing up for the 2025 NCAA semifinals this Thursday, where it will compete for a national championship title.
The Tigers know this competition all too well. They are coming as the defending national champions, and this year, they’re doing everything they can to protect the crown.
“That was last year’s team. This is a different team,” Clark said. “This title doesn’t belong to this year’s team, and that’s gonna be our attitude going forward.”
Clark has remained true to this mindset all year and has used it to push this year’s team forward. Through regular-season competition, injuries or even the “meat grinder” that he described NCAA regionals to be, the 2024 Region One Head Coach of the Year and his team have refused to back down, calling themselves “hunters” at the start of the year.
Since that interview, LSU has hunted its way to the front of the pack as the No. 1 team in the country, breaking program records and winning an SEC Championship. The hard work has not been ignored.
“You know, LSU, you could argue they’ve put up a championship performance the highest percentage of time,” two-time Olympian John Roethlisberger said in a conference call previewing the 2025 NCAA Championships. “I think the favorites are Oklahoma and LSU because they have the most consistency at putting up championship performances, the highest percentage of times.”
With their championship performance, the Tigers the No. 2 seed in the country.
The Tigers, the only SEC team in the lineup, will compete against No. 5 Michigan State, No. 6 UCLA and No. 4 Utah.
Familiar names like Michigan State’s Gabrielle Stephen and UCLA’s Olympic champion Jordan Chiles will compete against LSU’s anchors, like 2024 NCAA All-Around champion Haleigh Bryant and 2024 NCAA Floor champion Aleah Finnegan.
“You have Jordan Chiles and you have Grace McCallum, and think about all of the amazing athletes in addition to those superstars on the team,” Olympian and women’s gymnastic commentator Samantha Peszek said. “They’re really both exciting teams to watch. I think Utah has a lot of difficulty, and then UCLA — they have a lot of diversity, diversity in their choreography and in their skills as well.”
While UCLA and Utah will put up a good fight in chasing the Tigers’ tails this Thursday, LSU won’t bow down to their challenge.
“I’ve been really impressed with the way that LSU has come into the season with this intensity, but also yet this calm confidence,” Olympian and women’s gymnastics commentator Aly Raisman said. “I think that’s really hard to do when you’re coming from being the national champions.”
Raisman continued and reflected on how her coach used to say that becoming No. 1 is extremely difficult, but the hardest place in the world is staying in that top spot.
“I’ve watched LSU this season, and to me, it doesn’t seem like they’re feeling that pressure, in the sense that I think maybe other people would feel if they’re the reigning national champions,” Raisman added. “I think I feel that they almost sense it as this extra confidence when they walk into the arena. They feel this sense of calm and this assurance, and they really trust their training and each other.”
But for every moment of calm comes a storm, and you can watch this storm take Fort Worth at 8 p.m. or follow the Reveille for live updates on the competition.
“Whatever team truly wakes up and believes in one another, from beginning of the lineup to the end of the lineup, is the one that’s going to be the national champions,” Peszek said.
