LSU gymnastics dominates Auburn to stay perfect at home with a night full of season highs

LSU gymnastics pieced together a more than complete meet on Friday night, defeating No. 17 Auburn 198.325 to 196.825 in the PMAC. 

Head coach Jay Clark said after LSU’s win over Penn State last Friday that his team couldn’t find a complete meet with great scores on vault and floor, and season lows on beam and bars. 

“That was better,” Clark said opening his post-game press conference Friday. 

LSU posted season highs on three events, had countless individual season highs, and even posted a season high total score. 

But the whole meet was properly summarized by LSU’s floor rotation. 

Posting a 49.775, a season high on the event, LSU went nuclear, simple as that. 

Emily Innes led with a 9.925, and Nina Ballou and Kylie Coen followed with 9.925’s to open it all up. 

The PMAC was rocking. 

But it ramped up from here, with a 9.950 from Amari Drayton previewing a perfect 10 for Kailin Chio, her second of the season and first on floor. 

It was anchored with a 9.975 from Kaliya Lincoln. 

Clark said the momentum that carried his team the whole meet started from the jump on vault. With a season-high 49.550, LSU posted the second consecutive season high on the event. 

Individually, it started great with Lexi Zeiss leading things off with a 9.850 followed by Victoria Roberts’ comeback vault going 9.875. Courtney Blackson was next, she had a stumble on her landing, scoring a 9.650.

That score would be dropped as the back half of the lineup woke up the PMAC. 

A string of scores over 9.9 from Lincoln and Drayton started the momentum. 

“Momentum is a is a contagious thing,” Clark said. “And we caught it early. We started fast and I thought Kaliya and Amari had an awful lot to do that with that.” 

They posted a 9.950 and a 9.900, respectively. But Chio wanted to join them, so she anchored with a 9.975. 

LSU found a similar stride on bars. 

The Tigers needed a strong rotation on bars after posting a season low on the event last week, and they delivered just that. They even went as far as posting a season high. 

Zeiss scored a 9.875 to open up the rotation. Ashley Cowan followed suit with a 9.875 of her own. 

After that, the scores just exploded. 

Madi Ulrich posted a beautiful routine for a 9.900, followed by the usual from Chio, a 9.925. 

Ballou, the freshman who has turned heads so far this season, got a shot on bars. On her career debut on the event she posted a 9.900. 

But it was all anchored by Konnor McClain, who wanted in on the 9.9 party. She went 9.975 to cap the event. 

Now to beam, LSU’s most consistent event. 

But Clark decided to shake up the lineup on beam today, specifically in the first two spots. He decided to sit Coen to rest her for the tough upcoming stretch. 

Zeiss got the nod as the leadoff on beam for the first time this season. She did exactly what was asked of her, and led off strong, posting a 9.850. 

And Emily Innes got her debut beam, going 9.825. 

But Drayton continued her hot night, putting up a 9.900 on beam. Lincoln followed with a 9.875. 

McClain’s score was dropped ultimately, scoring a 9.675. 

But all was right in the world when Chio hopped on the beam. She had the attention of the whole PMAC during her routine. It earned her a 9.975. 

At that point, LSU had the hold over Auburn all meet, but with the largest lead of the night, LSU went in for the kill on floor. 

“The performance level was the best we'd had all year,“ Clark said. “Top to bottom … we had four relatively clean events, and that's what we should be doing.” 

The Tigers look to carry this momentum into next weeks’ showdown as they take a road trip to visit top-ranked Oklahoma.