LSU Gymnastics Head Coach Jay Clark spoke to the media after his team’s historical win in the second round of the NCAA Gymnastics Regionals.

Clark was shocked by how his team performed in their meet against Clemson, Nebraska and Auburn.

“That exceeded even my own expectations,”

The team is coming off of a loss at the SEC Championship to Oklahoma and Florida and Clark knew his Tigers needed a win to get back in the right head space.

“Your kids perform, I mean they just laced it.” Clark said. “That’s exciting at this time of the year because again, it’s a confidence builder and it came at the right time.”

LSU set a record tonight, posting the highest score by any team in the second round of regionals while also simultaneously breaking LSU’s regional scoring record with a 198.375. But Clark focuses more on the performances, and not the scores they yield.

“I don’t care about scores. I’m talking about the level of performance that we had one through six on every event.”

Sophomore gymnast Kailin Chio scored her 10th and 11th perfect 10.0 on vault and floor, and while Clark continues to be blown away by her athletic performance, she isn’t the only gymnast he focuses on.

“Chio’s unbelievable, I don’t know if she’s human sometimes, but she’s just one of 21.”

Jay believes that the Tigers started to lose focus on their core values, and so they spent their bye-week retraining their brain.

“There’s a lot of things we had talked about coming out of SEC’s, we need to get back to the things we talk about, joy and intensity and they have to exist together.”

The Tigers will face Michigan, Stanford and Clemson in the NCAA Regional Finals Saturday in the PMAC for their last home meet of the season.