With March coming to a close, the NCAA gymnastics championship is right around the corner.
LSU will be featured in this week’s regional round as the No. 2-seed, hosted in Baton Rouge starting Thursday night, as it looks to take the PMAC by the reins with its “normal gymnastics” in mind.
“Yes, it’s a very, very stressful time of year, but we’ve done these routines so many times and just setting them up to do what they do every single day, and it’s something we’re looking forward to,” assistant head coach Haleigh Bryant said. “And I’m excited to see them start reaching their goals.”
When it comes to head coach Jay Clark, the 2024 Region Head Coach of the Year has often described the regional round of this competition as a “meat grinder.”
This metaphor follows the fact that the championship starts with 36 teams, which are narrowed down meet by meet as the postseason progresses, eliminating team after team across three rounds of regionals across the nation.
“Maybe I shouldn’t call it that anymore,” Clark said. “I’ve said that in sort of a euphoric state of mind … after we’ve gotten out the last couple of years, it’s just tough.”
Clark commented on the fact that the regional competition is more difficult than it has been in past years, where there were six teams featured at a regional site, with the top 12 teams advancing to the semifinals.
The 2026 regional format follows the same format as last year, where one site houses nine teams, with two of them battling against each other in a dual meet, and the victor advancing to the second round of the competition to be featured in a quad meet.
“It’s just different, just a lot more difficult from a physical and mental standpoint,” Clark said. “It’s just more taxing and fatiguing, but we’ve prepared for it.”
LSU’s preparation comes from its double-meet weekend, when it faced off against Alabama on a Friday night and later took on the Tide once more in a dual meet the following Sunday.
“We do intersquads the day before competitions,” Clark said. “We do things that get us prepared for a two-meet weekend, and so, I mean, I don’t think it’s literally a meat grinder, but it is tough.”
Clark also reflected on how the format of the competition is exciting for the sport of gymnastics itself, given that it provides fans with opportunities to see some of the top teams in the nation compete under one roof.
In fact, that’s precisely what fans can expect this week as teams like Stanford, Michigan, North Carolina, Utah State, Clemson, Auburn, Air Force and Nebraska call on Baton Rouge in the PMAC.
The first round of regionals will take place on Wednesday afternoon between Air Force and Nebraska, which will be fighting for the fourth spot in Saturday night’s quad meet between LSU, No. 15 Clemson and Auburn.
“They [LSU] have a lot of fight and a lot of grit, and they’re just not going to give up, and they’re just going to keep fighting all the way through,” Bryant said. “So I just want to see that all come together on one night.”
