The biggest stage for the best teams
Hopefully it’ll be better than the other Super Bowl.
The reigning national and SEC champion #2 LSU gymnastics team returns home for the biggest meet of the 2025 season. In what’s expected to be a battle for the ages, #2 LSU faces #1 Oklahoma in a meet between the two most recent national champions. The meet begins at 8 p.m. on ESPN2 with John Roethlisberger and Aly Raisman on the call and Taylor Davis as floor-side reporter. It’s also Alumni Night tonight, so LSU will be welcoming in members from the 50-year history of the women’s team and some members of the legendary men’s program as is tradition. Doors open at 6:30, and the first 1000 fans will receive a snow globe. Every fan who comes will receive a light-up wristband for a light show they’re planning on doing.
Matchup history between LSU and Oklahoma
LSU is 11-25 overall against Oklahoma and 2-3 against them at home. The last time the two met was back in Week 2 at the Sprouts Collegiate Quad at which the Sooners won 197.950-197.650. LSU last faced the Sooners in a dual meet on MLK Day in 2023, the first meet I ever covered as a media member. Oklahoma had their worst meet of the 2023 season in a tight 197.600-197.450 win over LSU.
The most recent 1 vs 2 dual meet in the NCAA came on March 3rd, 2023, when #1 Oklahoma beat #2 Florida in Norman 197.950-197.700. This is the second time in LSU history that the Tigers have been involved in a 1 vs 2 meet. The first was in 2021, when the #1 Florida Gators came into the PMAC and beat the #2 Tigers 198.150-198.050.
LSU has faced the #1 team in the nation in 12 dual meets since 1997 and holds a 5-6-1 record in such meets. Their last dual meet win over a #1 team came in the 2016 season opener when the Tigers beat Oklahoma 196.950-196.725. One interesting fact thanks to the voice of the team Mike Smith is that LSU is 8-0 when competing at home in front of a crowd of at least 13,000; that’s a total they expect to surpass tonight.
About #1 Oklahoma
Oklahoma had the greatest team in the history of the sport last year. They decided to collapse in the semis regardless and finished sixth behind Stanford. Finishing behind Stanford? Were they trying to emulate their men’s gymnastics team? Anyway, they’re back to try and undo that and get back to ruling the roost, and they’ve done that a bit.
The Sooners lost eight NQS routines and one NQS AA from last year, with the biggest hits coming from the loss of Ragan Smith’s bars/beam/floor contributions and Kat LeVasseur’s all-around abilities. They retained 2024 co-national bars and beam champion Audrey Davis, a traditional all-arounder who may not vault depending on everything.
Oklahoma enters at 10-0 overall and 4-0 in SEC play. Their most recent meet was a 197.825-197.225 home win over Kentucky. One of the most ridiculous things about Oklahoma is that up until that meet, they’d used five all-arounders in each meet (against Kentucky, Davis didn’t vault and the Sooners had a mere four AAers). Each of them is a star: 2024 national beam co-champ Faith Torrez, senior and greatest active gymnast without an individual natty Jordan Bowers, freshman former elite Addison Fatta and freshman phenom Lily Pederson. The main thing about OU is that they’re consistent: their lowest score is higher than all but six teams’ highest (197.550, equal to #7 Cal’s high).
The Sooners rank #3 on vault [49.375], #1 on bars [49.513], #1 on beam [49.408] and #2 on floor [49.450]. They are led by head coach KJ Kindler and her duo of assistant coaches Lou Ball and Tom Haley, each of whom are entering their 19th season with the program. Assistant coach Ashley Kerr is in her second year.
About #2 LSU
(recap of Monday’s press conference)
LSU is ranked #1 on vault [49.417], #4 on bars [49.346], #5 on beam [49.296] and #4 on floor [49.342].
According to Jay, Kaliya Lincoln will be in on vault this week, so somebody is going to be taken out. I expect it to be Aleah since he said they wanted to rest her last week on vault. No other changes from last week’s lineups are expected at this time. This meet will likely determine if Oklahoma wins the SEC regular season title outright or if they share it with LSU. Winning will be very difficult, but it won’t be impossible. If they replicate the Missouri meet, they can beat the Sooners. Then again, they could do all of that and still lose because OU is made up of T-10.00s (like T-1000 from Terminator).
As Jay likes to remind everyone, though, wins and losses are not what matters, scores do. This week, we move back to our good old friend NQS. It’s time for the first edition of the NQS-capades for 2025!
NQS-capades
Before I jump in, I’ll explain what an NQS is. NQS is short for National Qualifying Score, and it’s how teams and individuals qualify for regionals. An NQS is the average of six scores. Three of those scores must come away from home, and the other three can come from anywhere including at home. Of that set of six, the highest score is dropped and the remaining five are averaged.
The first thing to note about NQS rankings right now is that LSU could score a 200 tonight and they’d still fall in the rankings because of other teams. Don’t be surprised if LSU goes 198 tonight and they come into next week ranked #3 or even #4. That’s because LSU can’t move that much thanks to them being at home. The 196.600 from the Arkansas meet is dragging their NQS down by quite a bit.
As of right now, LSU’s NQS is 197.280. LSU is looking to drop the 197.300 from the season opener, so any score above 197.325 will do that. The highest LSU’s NQS can climb this week is 197.420 with a 198+. Since there’s not much LSU can do this week, I won’t go over everything.
Tonight’s meet is going to be a celebration of the amazingness of this sport. A raucous crowd should be roaring and bringing honor to the Deaf Dome nickname. Win or lose, this is a night to remember. In 2018, UCLA and Oklahoma faced off in an iconic meet between the two most recent national champions. Hopefully this’ll be remembered in the same way.
If you’ve made it this far, you get to know something most don’t: tickets are on sale for the 2025 Purple & Gold Podium Challenge. This year’s meet is a dual meet with George Washington because conference realignment forced Iowa and Washington to pull out late. This is a chance to see the two best front tumblers in the NCAA on the same floor for what might be the last time ever (LSU’s Haleigh Bryant and GWU’s Kendall Whitman). As the website notes, you’re best off going to the River Center box office in person and avoiding TicketMaster fees.