LSU Gymnasts Lexi Zeiss, Ashley Cowan, and Haley Mustari spoke to the media ahead of NCAA Championship in Fort Worth, Texas

LSU Gymnastics made it to the NCAA Championship, this being their fourth straight year that the Tigers have qualified under head coach Jay Clark.

With this being some of the gymnasts’ first time competing for an NCAA Championship, the most important thing is being there for your teammates and passing on past experiences at the championship while also keeping focus and not forgetting the main reason why they’re there.

“I think a lot of it has been taking what we need and leaving what we don’t just going into this year,” Cowan said. “I think over the past several years, every year is different in some way so just bestowing wisdom that the seniors and juniors and everyone that’s been to Fort Worth before can help the lowerclassmen and others has been crucial and keeping us focused on the task at hand while we’re there.”

Joy has been a key thing in order for LSU Gymnastics to succeed. Keeping joy and keeping a peace of mind are things that can typically be taken away from gymnasts as they get older, but the LSU gymnasts prioritize that and will prioritize that going into Thursday.

“I think a lot of it takes the pressure off once you find joy and the pursuit of happiness in our sport,” Cowan said. “As we grow up, there isn’t a ton of joy in it for a lot of people. Just training at the level that we do when we’re younger just takes it away.”

“Being able to do it in college and being surrounded by others who get to be a kid again and just enjoy every second of it has been really awesome. You can push through pain and the hard days if you have that level of joy doing it all.”

Gymnastics is a mental game, but this team has been focusing on having more fun this season and going into the NCAA Tournament, they have to keep the same energy to reduce the pressure.

“I feel like definitely leaning on your teammates because I feel like if they see that you’re kind of struggling a little bit, they’ll come over and help you alot,” Mustari said. “I think when you’re having more fun and not focusing so much on what you’re doing, there’s less pressure.”

“It’s more like practice because in practice, you’re not thinking about what you’re doing as much or being perfect, but you’re having everyone there screaming across the gym, cheering you on and it’s just a great environment and it helps a lot.”

The slogan for LSU Gymnastics has been to compete free and their normal is enough. With the gymnasts competing for a national championship, their strategy is to worry about themselves and to do their normal.

“Do us,” Zeiss said. “We’re not worried about anyone else on the floor. It’s all about us and we don’t really care about the other teams. We’re there to do what we want to do and we’re going to compete our best, so really staying in our bubble and doing our normal because normal is enough.”

LSU Gymnastics will compete for the first round of the NCAA Championship tournament Thursday, April 16 at 3:30 p.m. They will go up against No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Georgia and No. 7 Stanford. The top two teams will move on to compete for a National Championship.