Sophomore Kailin Chio made history with three perfect scores for No. 2 LSU gymnastics in front of a packed PMAC crowd as the Tigers hosted their final regular season meet against No. 8 Arkansas.

The Tigers also celebrated their annual senior night and earned a 198.075-197.100 victory over the Razorbacks at the Friday meet.

Judges awarded Chio a perfect 10 on vault, balance beam and floor. With the three scores, Chio has found herself short one perfect score of a gym slam, a moment where a college gymnast earns a perfect 10 on each event; she just lacked a perfect performance on the uneven bars.

“It’s not the physical part as much as it is the mental, sort of emotional energy that goes into doing all four,” head coach Jay Clark said about why Chio doesn’t compete in a fourth rotation. “I thought it would just take a little weight off of her … but [associate head coach] Garrett [Griffeth] did say to me, ‘If you let her do bars, she would have got a 40,’ but we’ll never know.”

While we’ll truly never know if Chio would have secured a perfect 10 on bars Friday night, there’s one thing we do know, which is that three perfect scores in one meet have been achieved at LSU just once before. Those scores were earned on yet another senior night and were secured by LSU gymnastics legend Haleigh Bryant in March of 2023.

While Chio reached perfection on the vault, balance beam and floor, Bryant saw her historic night at home against West Virginia on the vault, uneven bars and floor. Bryant’s performance marked a night to remember, and the 33-time All-American gymnast would go on to set the LSU record for the most perfect scores earned in one season the next season, with eight 10s to her name.

This record has now, of course, been blown out of the water. Chio secured her eighth, ninth and 10th perfect score of the season on Friday night, with Bryant watching as an LSU assistant coach. 

LSU started the competition off strong with an overall 49.525 on the vault, marking this performance the third-highest vault score earned this season.

While the team as a whole delivered the rotation’s well-earned score, Chio, the nation’s No. 1 all-arounder, tipped the scales in the Tigers’ favor as she secured her first perfect 10 of the night.

However, as head coach Jay Clark would say, Chio’s hard work is only achievable following the path her teammates paved for her, so before she secured her perfect score, she looked to sophomores Victoria Roberts and Kaliya Lincoln’s respective 9.900 and 9.950, which served as statement performances that would go on to set the tone for the Tigers’ night.

“In the meeting earlier today, we just talked about honoring each other with our actions,” Chio said. “And that’s exactly what I thought about tonight, and just was free of mind. You know, I tell the team to compete freely. It works best for me, so I’m hoping that for the rest of the team [it] clicks for them too.”

Following its victorious vault lineup, LSU took to the uneven bars with a 49.525, miles ahead of Arkansas’ 48.800. Like usual, sophomore Lexi Zeiss led the event, earning a 9.850.

Madison Ulrich followed suit with a 9.900, and just as things were looking up for the Tigers, graduate student Courtney Blackson was on the sour end of a deduction after she fell from the bars mid-routine. While the gymnast managed to get back up and stick a landing, she earned a 9.300 given her slip-up.

“​​There’s still growth to be had,” Clark said. “We’re entering the postseason, but we can still improve. I think most of it [is not] physical. It’s just about trusting what they feel themselves do every single day, when the environment changes.”

With Blackson’s score being the lowest in the night’s lineup, it was dropped, and later followed by a 9.950 from Konnor McClain, who served as the event’s anchor.

The Tigers took the energy from McClain’s performance to the balance beam, where they saw a 9.900 from Lincoln and a 9.925 from McClain.

Those high-earning performances set the stage for Chio to mount the balance beam, where she delivered yet another perfect 10, her second of the night.

LSU then found its way to the floor with a 148.375, in the lead against Arkansas’ 147.600.

Emily Innes led off the event with a 9.850, trailed by an immediate 9.900 from Nina Ballou, or the “energizer bunny,” as Clark describes the sophomore. After that, it was nothing but 9.900s and above from juniors Kylie Coen and Amari Drayton.

Then, once again, it was all eyes on Chio, who managed yet another perfect performance in the fourth and final rotation of the night.

This was her tenth career 10, her ninth of this season and her second perfect score on the floor. For context, UCLA’s two-time Olympian Jordan Chiles has brought six perfect 10s to her name this year.

Chio’s performance laid the groundwork for Lincoln to close the meet with a 9.975 on the floor, giving LSU the win by a 0.975 difference.

Friday night was a special one for LSU as it honored both the program and its seven graduating seniors before a roaring crowd of over 10,000 Tiger fans.

“I really just think our senior class this year has been incredible leaders and just really showed us the way and gave us standards that we try and follow,” Lincoln said. “And I’m so grateful for them. I truly couldn’t have gotten through this year without them, and I just really wanted to go out there and do it for them this meet.”

While LSU closed out the regular season with a bang, it is set to begin the postseason at the SEC championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on March 21 at 7 p.m.

“I love meets like this coming up more than I do the ones that you go into where you’re supposed to win,” Clark said. “Because you’ve just got to go attack it with everything you’ve got and just let it fly. Those are the ones that are fun.”