LSU gymnastics heading to Elite-Eight

Easter is known for candy and sweets. But on the Saturday before Easter, LSU gymnastics made the weekend about being elite, moving on from the Sweet 16 to the Elite Eight. 

LSU punched its ticket to Fort Worth, Texas, with a first-place finish in the Baton Rouge regional with a .600 lead over Stanford, who also advanced to the Elite Eight with its placement tonight. 

LSU’s final score was a 197.825.

Head coach Jay Clark talked on Thursday, after LSU advanced to the regional final, about his team’s ability to carry momentum from rotation to rotation. 

LSU didn’t just carry momentum to each event from the one before, but it carried the momentum from its season-high and program-record regional score from Thursday night. 

There was momentum for LSU’s entire vault lineup, but no one carried it better than Kailin Chio. 

She anchored the lineup, vaulting sixth, and she proved why her teammates call her “the definition of consistency,” when she scored 10 on vault for the second consecutive meet. 

That’s her fourth perfect score on vault, 12th of the season and 13th of her young career. 

Leading up to Chio’s routine, LSU had nearly repeated its vault rotation from Thursday. With three 9.850s from Lexi Zeiss to lead off, Konnor McClain right behind her and Amari Drayton in the fifth spot. 

In the middle of those routines was a 9.900 from Victoria Roberts, which ties her season high vault score, and a 9.825 that got dropped from Amari Drayton. 

LSU then moved on to bars, and the momentum followed. 

It started off with a 9.875 from Zeiss, who has consistently given LSU a good leadoff score on bars, but the heat was turned up by Ashely Cowan with a 9.900, repeating her score from Thursday. 

LSU wouldn't be able to build off the 9.9 as a string of scores in the 9.8s followed. 

Madi Ulrich posted a 9.850 in the third spot followed by Chio’s 9.800. Immediately after, Haley Mustari posted a 9.875 in the fifth spot. 

And for the final bars routine, McClain stepped up. After missing her catch on a trick on the high bar, she fell onto the mats. Typically, gymnasts get right up and get back into their routine, but McClain was in obvious pain and was slow to get up. 

Immediately, Clark rushed over as well as the other LSU personnel and trainers. After about 30 to 45 seconds in between the bars, she got up and went to the medical area to be checked out. She didn’t finish her routine. 

It’s easy to fall into a slump after that kind of thing happens to a teammate, but LSU was able to compartmentalize and move onto beam. 

“When somebody goes down like Konnor did, you worry how their team will respond,” Clark said. “But I really don't worry about that with this group, because they stay where they should, mentally and emotionally.” 

The third rotation started hot with a 9.900 from Kylie Coen and a 9.850 from Zeiss, and Drayton and Lincoln followed suit as well. 

Drayton posted a 9.825, as well as Ulrich who filled in for McClain in the fifth spot, and Lincoln followed with a 9.875. 

A score over 9.9 felt elusive, but the SEC Gymnast of the Year mounted the beam in the sixth spot. 

Much to the PMAC’s disappointment, Chio wouldn’t get another 10, but a 9.975 was certainly good enough to give LSU momentum heading into the final rotation. 

At this point in the meet, every position was in reach for nearly every team. The scores saw LSU in first with a 148.175, with Clemson and Stanford tied in second with a 147.900 and Michigan in fourth with a 147.575. 

Obviously, the meet was decided in the last six routines for each school, but for LSU, it pulled away and

A 9.850 from Emily Innes in the leadoff floor spot gave LSU the spark it needed to build scores throughout the rotation — and a bigger lead. Nina Ballou followed with another 9.850 in the second spot. 

Up came Coen, who took LSU up in terms of scores, with a 9.875. 

But in the fourth spot, it turned up multiple notches. 

Drayton posted a 9.950, turning the PMAC to the loudest volume it's been at since Chio’s vault. 

“I thought Amari Drayton’s floor routine was sort of the thing that lit the match finally for us on that last rotation,” Clark said. “[It] helped us finish looking like we look.”

Then Chio had her chance and she turned the dial, and the score, up a few more clicks with her 9.975 in the fifth spot. 

And up came Lincoln, who performed amidst the cheers from Stanford, whose vault rotation clinched it a spot in the Elite Eight. 

She blocked it out, and put her best routine on the floor, and she capped off LSU’s floor rotation with her first career 10 and a standing ovation. 

“It was amazing,” Lincoln said. “All I could think about before I went was just go out there and do what you need to do for this team. And I feel like that's exactly what I did. And after my routine, I didn't really realize why everyone was screaming because I couldn't see, but I just had so much fun celebrating with this team and like it was time like no other.” 

Chio was thinking what many LSU gym fans have been thinking all season about Lincoln’s floor routine: “It's been a long time coming.” 

LSU had already secured its first-place finish in the meet, but the 10 completed LSU’s growing scores in the final rotation and capped off a phenomenal season for LSU in the PMAC. 

Now it’s onto Fort Worth, Texas, for the NCAA gymnastics national championship for LSU, starting with the Elite Eight competition on April 16.