LSU Gymnastics Head Coach Jay Clark, spoke to the media after another successful meet for the Tigers at the 2026 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional Championship on Saturday night.
After a historical win on Thursday night, Clark knew that his team was feeling good; however, he also felt like his gymnasts were fighting themselves during this meet as they were competing against tougher opponents.
“Yeah I was watching the score board, those were good teams. You get to this point, anything can happen. Stanford’s a good team.”
Konnor McClain was doing her bar routine on the second rotation when she fell and hurt her arm. McClain has suffered with shoulder injuries before and Clark is not too sure what her status is looking like with the NCAA Gymnastics Championship coming up.
“She’s been fighting with, some of its shoulder, some of its elbow, and what part of it she aggravated on that. We won’t know for sure until we get a scan. The docs felt structurally, everything was intact but the injury has evolved. You know a lot of sort of nerve pain gets into her hand so I suspect it’s probably more of that.”
Clark praised Madison Ulrich who scored a 9.825 on beam, after stepping in for Konnor McClain after suffering an injury in her bar routine.
“People forget that Maddie Ulrich was the sixth best All Arounder at the National Championship last year. So we have a ton of confidence in her, no matter where we put her. She’s a tough minded competitor.”
McClain had a rough start to the season, but eventually gained her confidence as the season progressed. Clark is “frustrated for her” as he knows that this injury could knock her confidence. However, Clark wants to ensure that the team still loves McClain and will do whatever they can to help her feel better during her recovery from this injury.
Another who was a standout during Saturday’s meet was Lexi Zeiss, who scored a 9.875 and 9.550 on bars. Clark is admired by her work ethic and contribution to the team this season.
“She’s a grinder of a worker…she demands so much excellence from herself. She probably doesn’t get a lot of the credit she deserves being early in the lineup where she is in most spots and she’s ready to go on floor.”
The Tigers will head to Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday, April 16 to compete in the NCAA 2026 Gymnastics Championships.
