LSU Gymnastics is headed to the NCAA Championship after finishing second in session one of the semifinals.
Each team kept the score close all afternoon with Florida finishing 197.7875, LSU with 197.4375, Georgia with 197.2625, and Stanford with 196.9375. However, it was Konnor McClain’s 9.9125 bar routine and the last rotation with Kailin Chio’s 9.9625 on floor that secured the Tigers a spot to compete in the final, as Georgia was tailing them closely.
“Hats off to Georgia…,” Head Coach Jay 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…then put pedal to the metal at the end.”
The Tigers opened the meet on the vault where Lexi Zeiss set the tone for her team early on . After Zeiss’s 9.8500, which proved her consistency throughout the season, Kaliya Lincoln had a massive 9.9625 which is what kept LSU in the meet. After Lincoln and Drayton, Chio proved why she’s the “Stick Queen”, matching Lincoln’s 9.9625 with a perfect landing.
For rotation two, the Tigers moved onto bars, which wasn’t their best event, but McClain was able to score a 9.9125. This was surprising as all the gymnasts who went before her failed to stick their dismounts, even though McClain did it effortlessly coming off of an injury.
“Konnor finished off that bar rotation, we needed that,” Chio said. “Hats off to her, because she really kept us in it…”.
Moving onto beam, this was the event where errors made in routines is what opened the door for the Georgia Bulldogs to have a chance at seeing the finals. Lincoln’s wobble in her routine caused her to miss her connection to the beam and had to redo her series. However, McClain’s 9.950 was able to put the Tigers back in the fight.
It was then when Chio pulled her team together and told them to leave everything out on the floor, and that’s exactly what they did for the final event. The energy was tense as the first three gymnasts, Emily Ines, Nina Ballou, and Kylie Coen, did a little to bring the score up, but it wasn’t enough.
That’s when Amari Drayton locked in on a routine that brought so much energy into the arena, the crowd started roaring. That excitement kept rising as Chio delivered a 9.9625, which would bring the Tigers to where they needed to be. Lincoln sealed the second place spot and the win in the final four with her 9.9125 routine.
Even though this meet had its ups and downs, LSU was able to keep fighting and secure their chance at winning the NCAA National Champion on Saturday, April 18. They will be competing against Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah in Fort Worth, Texas at Dickies Arena.
