After a shaky outing at the SEC Championships just two weeks prior, No. 2 LSU gymnastics found rebound after rebound during its home-hosted regional weekend to come out on top.
The Tigers posted a program record overall total in the second session of the regional on Thursday, and they came back just as strong in the regional final two days later for a first-place finish of 197.825. The score was boosted by two perfect 10s from sophomores Kailin Chio and Kaliya Lincoln as LSU officially earned its spot in the Fort Worth semifinal.
“[It] was an interesting day to say the least,” head coach Jay Clark said. “We were good across the board, and as I’ve said before, this team’s full of fight. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re dialed in and be able to flip the switch more than one day out of two, and ultimately, that’s it.”
LSU competed in the Olympic order once again, but it was the balance beam where it really stood out from the rest of its competition, and not because of the scores.
On the rotation before, junior Konnor McClain suffered a fall on the uneven bars. Though the team led the competition at the halfway point, the Tigers headed into rotation three missing one of their strongest competitors. Filling in for McClain was Madison Ulrich, who stepped up with a 9.825 in the fifth spot.
“People forget Maddie Ulrich was a sixth-best all-arounder at the national championship last year,” Clark said. “We have a ton of confidence in her, no matter where we put her.”
Before Ulrich, lead-off junior Kylie Coen had begun the rotation by re-harnessing the team’s momentum by matching her season-high 9.900. Not long after, junior Amari Drayton took the reins when she added another score of 9.825 following a hard-fought stuck landing.
“We circle up for every rotation, and I was just talking and I said, ‘We do this every single day, it doesn’t change whether we’re in the PMAC or in the gym,’” Coen said. “I just told them to breathe and believe, and I believe in this team. I know they’ve got my back.”
Once again in the anchor spot, Chio rounded out the rotation with her continued consistency for 9.975. Though that was only the second score above 9.900 on the event, the Tigers still maintained a strong 0.275 lead over the competition headed into their final event.
At the start of the competition, sophomore Lexi Zeiss had taken her dedicated lead-off spot at the front of the vault runway, beginning what would become a total of 49.450 with her score of 9.850. Third in the lineup was sophomore Victoria Roberts, who matched her career high of 9.900 with a nearly stuck front pike half.
Even with relatively strong scores, the Tigers still hadn’t found a stuck landing behind the table, and taking the last two spots in the lineup was Drayton and Chio.
An extra step following a Yurchenko one-and-a-half from Drayton produced a 9.850, but Chio, the reigning NCAA vault champion, found the only stick of the event.
Earning the cheers from her home crowd, Chio earned her 13th career perfect 10, five of which have come from vault alone. Chio’s 10 capped off the first rotation for the Tigers, and it was just enough to push LSU into first place as they headed to the uneven bars.
While stuck landings were hard to come by on the first event for the Tigers, it was quite the opposite on the bars. Senior Ashley Cowan followed Zeiss with a stick for her third 9.900 of the season. Ulrich and Chio added scores of 9.850 and 9.800 respectively.
Though almost the entire uneven bars lineup was the same one as in the second round of the regional, LSU had swapped out senior Courtney Blackson for freshman Haley Mustari, who put up 9.875. Just after, however, an unfortunate fall from McClain in the anchor spot on her Church release move forced the junior to step away from the competition for the rest of the night.
“I went up to [McClain] after we did beam warm-up, and I saw her get a little bit teary-eyed, but I just told her, ‘We love you, we’re gonna finish this meet out for you,’” Chio said. “Just knowing that every single time we step up there, no matter the event, we always have her back.”
The floor exercise was the Tigers’ final event of the night, and senior Emily Innes competed her last routine in the PMAC for a score of 9.850. Following suit, Nina Ballou built on the total with a matching score before Drayton stepped onto the mat in the fourth spot.
Finding the team’s first score of the event over 9.900, the junior matched both her season and career-high score of 9.950. In the following routine, Chio stuck both landings of her tumbling passes to earn her second 9.975 on the event this season.
The energy in the building was electric, and all eyes looked towards sophomore Lincoln. She put up a lights-out performance and closed out the night with her first career perfect 10.
“All I could think about before I went was just go out there and do what you need to do for this team,” Lincoln said. “I feel like that’s exactly what I did, and after my routine, I didn’t really realize why everyone was screaming.”
The sophomore’s best score came in the last PMAC outing of the 2026 season to put the Tigers at an overall score of 197.825. Lincoln’s was the team’s 13th perfect score this season.
With the first-place finish secured, both LSU and second-place Stanford earned spots on the next branch of the bracket for a ride to Fort Worth for the semi-final.
Looking to make its return to the championship final after an upset last season, LSU will next compete on April 16 at Dickies Arena, looking to hold on to the confidence it has regained this weekend.
