LSU gymnastics’ semifinal round of the NCAA championship was a nail-biter, but a last-rotation comeback would make way for its return to the Final Four.
Making its return for the fourth consecutive time under head coach Jay Clark, the No. 2 team took on the elite eight round of the NCAA championship on Thursday afternoon, where it finished second behind a score of 197.4375.
The Tigers scraped by in second place behind SEC champions Florida, which topped the meet with a 197.7875.
Georgia was LSU’s main competition in the final rotation for a spot in the championship finals, but the GymDogs could only muster a 197.2625. Stanford finished fourth, knocking it out of the tournament as well.
“Hats off to Georgia, I mean, what a great year they had,” Clark said. “I’m happy for them, but at the same time, I’m really happy for this team, because we fought through some serious adversity today and just couldn’t get out of our way for two events and then, put the pedal to the metal at the end.”
Competing in the traditional Olympic order for the third time in the tournament, LSU’s first two rotations saw the Tigers attack with loads of momentum, but the team struggled to control it.
On the vault runway, the Tigers’ power unleashed itself, starting with Lexi Zeiss. The sophomore has held consistency throughout the entire year as she’s found a comfortable place in the leadoff spot across multiple events. Now in the postseason, she’s carried that same performance as she found her seventh 9.850 on vault of the season.
In the third spot was Victoria Roberts, who has had an impressive postseason debut, putting up 9.875 and above on her front pike-half vault in the regional rounds. On Thursday, however, the sophomore would only find a score of 9.725 after a large step following the landing.
It would be Kaliya Lincoln who took the reins of the opening rotation for the Tigers as she stuck a Yurchenko one and a half to break the team into the 9.900s with a score of 9.9625.
Amari Drayton would follow up Lincoln’s score with a 9.875 after performing the same vault but taking a small step on the landing. With just sophomore Kailin Chio left in the sixth spot of the lineup, the 2025 NCAA vault champion stuck the landing to cap off the event with a 9.9625.
Next on the uneven bar podium, Zeiss, senior Ashley Cowan added a pair of 9.8375s to the overall before Chio and freshman Haley Mustari put up their matching scores of 9.800, only continuing to show the depth the team has across all classes.
As the Tigers had failed to find a stuck dismount from any of their first five routines, the biggest story of Rotation 2 landed on one of the team’s best bar workers, junior Konnor McClain.
After taking an uncomfortable fall on her high-bar Church release in the regional final round, the gymnast came back with a performance that proved just why she’s individually ranked among the nation’s top-10 on the event.
McClain’s score of 9.9125 was the first and only stick of the Tigers bar rotation, as well as the only score that went above 9.900 for the team.
“[When] Konnor finished off that bar rotation — we needed that,” Chio said. “Hats off to her, because she really kept us in it, and without her bar set, [bars] wouldn’t have been anything [and] we would [not] have been here now.”
By the end of the second rotation, LSU had fallen to second place, trailing the Gators by 0.2375.
As the Tigers took on the balance beam, Coen, Zeiss and Lincoln all made errors in their routines, and small mistakes added up and cost the Tigers on the event.
Lincoln, in particular, had a wobble between her front aerial to back-handspring step-out, which made her droop her shoulders and miss her connection, forcing the gymnast to reattempt the series. Again, however, a wobble between the skills on her second try had resulted in a score of 9.425.
Needing two stellar performances to save the event, McClain and Chio remained as the final gymnasts in the lineup.
Taking control of every skill, McClain stuck her gainer-full dismount for her score of 9.950. Looking to cap off the rotation on just as high of a note, Chio followed with a small wobble mid-routine but a stuck landing of her own for a 9.8875.
Falling to third in the competition ahead of its floor rotation, LSU only had one event to try and qualify for the Final Four.
“I circled up the team after beam, and I just told them [that] we’re not going to do this again, let’s put our pedal to the metal,” Chio said. “I knew this team could do it. We went out there, and we did the exact floor rotation that we needed.”
Senior Emily Innes took the floor for what could’ve been the last routine of her career, hoping her score of 9.8625 would be enough for the rest of the lineup to build off of. Though freshman Nina Ballou followed with a 9.775, scores would only continue to grow from Coen’s 9.850 in the third spot.
With only three routines left for the team in the competition, Drayton delivered a much-needed 9.9375, capping off her night with an energizing routine. The crowd continued to grow excited as the intensity ramped. Chio, only added to this as two stuck tumbling passes earned a 9.9625.
With just Lincoln left, an exceptional performance would be necessary to secure a spot in the final. As the gymnast had scored her first career 10 in the regional two weeks before, this proved to be no problem as Lincoln found a 9.9125.
Despite a rocky mid-meet performance on beam, LSU’s comeback proved once again the team’s depth through its ability to fight its way back into the competition.
Making its return to the championship final for the first time since winning the title in 2024, the Tigers, along with the Gators, will meet again on Saturday, April 18, for the NCAA crown.
“I told this team at Sprouts, the first meet of the year, when we kind of messed around a little bit similar, that they learned that day that they were fighters,” Clark said. “They could fight through things and not quit and just kind of keep swinging, and that’s what they did.”
