In one of the most anticipated meets of the regular season LSU, Oklahoma, Utah and UCLA faced against one another in ESPN’s first-ever invitational. The Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad took place in snowy West Valley City, Utah.
Preseason polls had ranked all four teams in the top five. The Tigers were the only program in the meet yet to win a national championship, something they have their eyes set on this season.
“This is a great opportunity for us,” said LSU head coach Jay Clark. “It’s just another step in our process. We’re here to compete hard against three of the other best teams in the country and get a foothold of where we stand. This is a chance to create a narrative and for our team to put themselves in the conversation. It’s early in the year; only the second meet of the season and our first road meet. We just want to make sure their minds stay where they need to and compete hard. That’s what we want to do.”
Heading into the quad meet, and their first road meet, the Tigers were ranked No. 5 following a narrow 196.975-196.775 win in their opening meet against the No. 14 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.
LSU started the meet a bit shaky on the balance beam, where its previous struggles against the Buckeyes continued. An early fall by sophomore Annie Beard resulted in a score of 9.225, leaving it up to the rest of the Tiger’s gymnasts to secure a solid score.
After recovering from a stumble, fifth-year senior Kiya Johnson finished on beam with a score of 9.850 following Beard. For the second week in a row, senior Haleigh Bryant was once again the anchor for LSU on the beam, finishing with a score of 9.900. The Tigers finished the first rotation with a score of 48.750, trailing the three other squads early.  
But that would only last a short time, as LSU was determined to rebound from their early growing pains. This was especially true for Johnson.
Johnson came out swinging in her squad’s second event, the floor. Cramping kept her from performing her floor routine last week against Ohio State, but in this quad meet, Johnson showed no signs of weakness. Her explosiveness and unique movements put together a complete performance on the floor, ending in a score of 9.875.
“Kiya [Johnson] showed tremendous fight on that beam set and then came back, kept her head where it needed to be, and did a great job closing us out on floor. I was really proud of how we did floor,” Clark said.
Junior KJ Johnson’s powerful routine scored a 9.925, granting her the first place slot in LSU’s floor rotation. The Tigers sat in third with a score of 98.275 as they transitioned into the second half of the quad meet. 
KJ Johnson also led LSU in its third rotation, the vault, with a score of 9.975. But, in a meet full of heavyweights, the Tigers found themselves in last as they headed into the final frame.
LSU came into its bar rotation swinging, with freshman Konner McClain stepping up huge with a perfect ten, the first of the young season. While it wasn’t enough to get past the two-time defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners’s 197.900, LSU’s 197.150 was enough to get past the UCLA Bruins’s 197.100 and the hometown Utah Utes’s 196.975.
While LSU will take the second place finish in a meeting with some of gymnastics’s best, the Tigers still have some question marks moving forward. Can they find their rhythm on the balance beam? Will first-year students like Amari Drayton and Konner McClain continue to step up? How can they eventually get past Oklahoma?
 Clark doesn’t seem very worried about whether his team will be able to step up.
 ”I’m just proud of the way they came back,” Clark said.
LSU will look to answer those questions when it returns to the PMAC on Friday night to face off against Kentucky.