The LSU Tigers went into Fort Worth expecting to reclaim their national title, and win the school’s first ever back-to-back national championship in gymnastics.

However during their semifinal, the Tigers couldn’t get momentum going and finished 5th in the country with 197.5250. The two advancing teams from the semifinal were the Utah Utes (197.7625), and UCLA (197.7375).

The Tigers found themselves playing hard defense early into the first rotation, where small mistakes on the uneven bars cost them big. Going into the second rotation, the Tigers held the third spot and hadn’t stuck a single landing.

The beam was a struggle for the Purple and Gold, with balance checks from Kailin Chio and Haleigh Bryant, as well as a fall from Aleah Finnegan putting the Tigers into the bottom spot at the halfway point of the meet.

While the Tigers did seem to show some spark on the floor with Amari Drayton (9.9000), Aleah Finnegan (9.9375), and Haleigh Bryant (9.9125) all putting up large scores, they couldn’t carry that momentum onto the vault runway.

Head coach Jay Clark says that in this meet, the Tigers were their own worst enemy.

“Before, we were chasing something. Now we were being chased and that shifts your perspective a little bit,” Clark said.

“There’s places throughout all four events that we could have done a little bit better in, but we just never could seem to get out of our own way,” Clark said.

Coach Clark emphasised that this LSU team still has a lot to be proud of, despite the loss of the title.

“They finished the year with six 198+ scores in a row, they won both levels of the conference, they won the NCAA Regional in a very tough field… I’m proud of them, they’re a championship team,” Clark said.

“We fell short today, but that’s about the only spot we fell short,”.

While the Tigers won’t be bringing back any new hardware from Texas, they will still be returning as record-breakers for LSU Gymnastics, and as the 2025 SEC Champions.