Now that the 2025 postseason has ended, LSU gymnastics will focus on filling the massive hole left in the team’s roster by their departing seniors.

The Tigers’ championship run was halted at the national semifinals, where they placed behind Utah and UCLA and excluded them from the final round of competition.

The meet marked the conclusion of 10 seniors’ collegiate careers: Haleigh Bryant, Olivia Dunne, Aleah Finnegan, Sierra Ballard, KJ Johnson, Chase Brock, Alexis Jeffrey, Alyona Shchennikova, Tori Tatum and Kathryn Weilbacher.

After an Achilles injury took her out of competition early in the season, Brock is technically eligible to return for a sixth year but has yet to announce a decision.

LSU entered this season ranked No. 2 and the postseason ranked No. 1, but it fell to fifth in the final standings after the semifinal loss. No longer national champions, is a comeback in the cards for the Tigers?

With an entire half of the squad possibly gone, how far back could LSU be set for the 2026 season? Tigers head coach Jay Clark is optimistic about their chances.

“The cupboard is not going to be empty,” Clark said after the semifinal loss. “We’ve got to get some people healthy – Zoe Miller, who didn’t get to compete this year as a freshman, Kaliya Lincoln and we have got to keep Konnor [McClain] in a good place, but we’re going to be in a good spot.”

Since there will be a shortage of upperclassmen, keeping experienced gymnasts injury-free would be ideal for team leadership.

“I think the future is bright for us,” Clark said.

So, who will step up? Who will emerge as the new leader of this comeback team?

Some fingers may point to the incoming seniors: Ashley Cowan and Bryce Wilson.

Cowan is an all-around gymnast who has been a regular on bars since her freshman debut. She put up some of the highest scores of her career this season, including a 9.950.

Wilson competed on vault and beam in her freshman season but was left out of the lineups for the past two seasons.

LSU will need others to produce to win another national championship.

The juniors, Kylie Coen, Konnor McClain and Amari Drayton, were rising stars in their first two years on the collegiate stage and could be top candidates experience-wise.

In 2024, Coen went from only doing exhibitions to being a regular addition to the beam and floor lineups. She handled the pressure gracefully and will likely take on more responsibility in the upcoming season.

McClain and Drayton had stellar debuts in 2024 that earned them multiple event titles throughout the regular and postseason.

After McClain tore her Achilles the following May while preparing for the Olympics, she had to recover quickly for her sophomore year. She returned and made a big impression on this season’s bars and beam lineup, even joining the floor squad in the postseason. Her junior year could be her best yet.

Drayton competed on vault, beam and floor throughout the season and notched some career highs.

While high scores aren’t necessarily required for outstanding leadership, Kailin Chio would be the first pick if they were.

In the most remarkable debut season LSU has ever seen, Chio outscored both her all-around teammates Bryant and Finnegan in the regular season and landed a 10 on vault as a freshman.

On senior night, Clark advised Chio about her future with the program.

“I wanted her to take note of the way that these seniors are regarded and to make sure that she understands why they’re regarded the way that they are,” Clark said. “It has very little to do with their scores. It has more to do with the quality of people they have been and the character they have exhibited.”

Next year, each event lineup will have multiple vacancies. By taking the seniors out of the national semifinal roster, LSU is missing three on vault, two on bars, four on beam and three on floor.

The team will need a new anchor for all four events and a leadoff for three.

That anchor spot is notoriously the hardest to fill, and early in the season, a great deal of experimentation can be expected to determine who will fit best in each event.

The team needs someone unshakeable for the job, and that person will undoubtedly be one of the faces of LSU gymnastics in 2026.