Heartbreak: LSU Gymnastics Falls Just Short of NCAA Title
LSU gymnastics falls 0.0875 points short of a national title in heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma, who claimed its eighth national title.
The Tigers were seeing flashbacks from 2024 with the order it competed in and how the meet ended. But this time, LSU was on the wrong side of history.
It can be tough to start a meet on floor or beam. But for LSU, there was no problem.
The nation's best floor team posted a 49.5125, building from the leadoff spot and carried momentum all the way to the anchoring spots.
But LSU didn't just drop off its momentum before vault, they brought it there too.
On floor, Emily Innes scored a 9.8250 to open the meet, and Nina Ballou followed that up with a mature routine.
On Thursday, in the semifinals, she scored a 9.7750, but she corrected a couple of landing mistakes and improved her score to a 9.8750.
After that, LSU had four routines left and it saw three scores over 9.9. The one 9.8 was Kylie Coen’s 9.8625.
After that, Amari Drayton scored a 9.9375, followed by Kailin Chio’s 9.9000 and Kaliya Lincoln’s 9.9375.
LSU ended the rotation in the No. 2 spot behind Oklahoma. Then the No. 2 vault team in the country took the runway.
The rotation was solid, with five scores in the 9.8s being posted, but that outlier score was Chio. And if you’ve watched LSU this season you can probably guess what that score was.
To be clear, it was a perfect 10.
It was the first vault 10 in LSU’s program history at finals.
After the lowest bar score since 2023 in semifinals, LSU opened up the rotation with two 9.9250s from Zeiss and Ashley Cowan. Madison Ulrich was in the third spot, and her 9.8875 turned the lineup over the three bars routines with high potential.
Chio got LSU back into the 9.9s after the lone 9.8, and her teammates fed off of her score.
In the fifth spot, Courtney Blackson finished her college career with a great bars routine, scoring a 9.9125. She was clearly emotional on her landing, and immediately hugged Jay Clark.
But right after her routine, McClain stepped up and delivered a textbook anchoring bar routine. She scored a 9.9500 and gave LSU a score to take the lead, and the momentum it needed to finish out the meet.
Coen started off on beam with a strong 9.9125, and in another flashback moment, Zeiss fell off the beam, just like in 2024.
But Drayton erased the mistake with a 9.8750 in the third spot. And Lincoln followed that up with a great routine that ended with a step on her landing, earning a 9.8375.
LSU needed two massive scores from McClain and Chio.
McClain posted a massive 9.9500 in the fifth spot, and it all came down to Chio.
No one else was competing, nothing else was happening but Chio’s routine.
It was great. The balance was there. The skills were there. The landing was just off.
With a small hop on her landing and a score of 9.9000, she would fall short of the 9.9875 score needed to tie with Oklahoma, and end LSU’s title hopes. A 198.0750 would be LSU’s final score of the season.
For the second time, LSU ended a championship final on beam, and the last routine decided the champion. This time, LSU was on the wrong side of that.
