A solid road performance this team needed
Road wins are fun to see in person.
The reigning SEC and national champion LSU gymnastics team picked up their first true road win of the season Friday. The Tigers made it tight near the end, but they pulled out a 197.300-197.075 win over Alabama to move to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in SEC play.
Kailin Chio wins SEC Freshman of the Week for fourth time
In just six weeks of competition, Kailin Chio has won her fourth SEC Freshman of the Week award, though she deserved better. Her 39.650 AA score led the conference across all gymnasts, and the SEC has been fine giving a freshman Gymnast of the Week honors in the past. Instead, they gave that to Oklahoma’s Faith Torrez and her 39.625 AA score. Either way, this is the second straight week that Kailin’s won the meet AA title with a 39.650 AA score.
What happened with Alabama
Alabama looked fine out there, but it’s shocking to see them look this bad at this point compared to their usual. They still don’t look like a top 10 team with their myriad of vault and beam issues, and they still haven’t surpassed their opening meet score. It’s internal mistake after internal mistake, and it’s very concerning if you’re a Bama fan.
For readers who wish to follow along to my notes on each routine, this is a link to the meet in full. Deductions I would’ve taken are in parenthesis and my final score is in brackets. If I note a split in scores after a person’s score, it means the judges had a difference of at least 0.1, something I think is worth noting because it shows that they didn’t agree. I’m not going to catch everything because the camera angles are pretty bad at points.
Here’s the long form of every abbreviation I’ll be using below: Yurchenko Full (YF), Yurchenko 1.5 (Y1.5), half-in half-out (HIHO), double layout (DLO), round-off (RO), back handspring (BHS), layout-step-out (LOSO), front layout (FLO), front through to double tuck (FTDT).
LSU Bars 49.275, Alabama Vault 49.175
Lexi Zeiss led things off with a 9.750.She appeared to hit her first two handstand, bent her arms (.05) and wasn’t straight (.05) in her Maloney, hit her Pak, hit her final handstand, swung her arms to try and maintain her balance on her HIHO (.05), hopped forward (.1) and failed to hold her finish (.05). That’s a classic example of compounding mistakes on a dismount. [9.700]
Ashley Cowan followed with a 9.900. She hit her first handstand, drilled her Ray to overshoot, adjusted her grip by regrasping the bar (.05) during her hit final handstand, stuck her DLO and failed to hold her finish for a full second (.05). This routine was the closest to perfect she’s ever been. [9.900]
Alexis Jeffrey was next with a 9.800. She was just short on her first handstand (.05), hit her second handstand, hit her Maloney, hit her bail handstand, hit her final handstand, hopped forward on her HIHO (.1) and held her finish. Once again, this was solid. [9.850]
Kailin then scored a 9.850. She hit her first handstand, bent her arms in her Maloney (.05), hit her bail handstand, came up short on her third handstand (.05), hit her Markelov, hit her final handstand, nailed her HIHO and held her finish. She’s still killing it. [9.900]
Aleah Finnegan hit a 9.825. She hit her first handstand, hit her piked Deltchev, hit her second and third handstands, hit her bail handstand, hit her final handstand, had a low chest (.05) and step forward (.1) on her full-out, and held her finish. That full-out is a nuisance. [9.850]
Konnor McClain anchored the rotation with a 9.900. She hit her first handstand, nailed her Church to Pak, hit her low bar half turn, hit her final handstand, hopped back on her HIHO (.1) and held her finish. Her dismount is hit or miss, but the rest of that routine was some of her best bars work ever. [9.900]
Overall, this was a decent start. The landings weren’t perfect, but most of the stuff on the bars was great. Vault was solid.
LSU Vault 49.450, Alabama Bars 49.275 (LSU leads 98.725-98.450)
KJ Johnson led off with a 9.825 on her YF. She landed on her left directional line (.1), barely moved her right foot back (.05) and held her finish. This was a decent start. [9.850]
Chase Brock then scored a 9.775 on her Y1.5. She lacked height (.05), hopped (.1), lacked balance (.05), took a step forward (.1) and never held her finish (.05). This wasn’t up to her usual standard. [9.650]
Aleah followed with a 9.825 on her Y1.5. She twisted early on the table (.05), stepped forward (.1), moved her body to maintain her balance (.05) and held her finish. This was a bit too powerful to stick. [9.800]
Amari Drayton kicked things into gear with a 9.900 on her Y1.5. She twisted early on the table (.05) and hopped forward (.1). Other than that, this was great. Her form in the air is really nice and deserves credit. [9.850]
Kailin nailed her Y1.5 for a 9.975. I didn’t see a single standard deduction on replay including shoulder angle. This is what a 10 looks like. She’s so unreal. [10.0]
Haleigh Bryant did her first front pike half of the season and anchored with a 9.925. The only deduction I noticed was for her hop back (.1). It’s nice to see that vault back in action. [9.900]
Overall, this was solid. The mistakes were typical of a road meet in a weird environment, and it’s not like the vault rotation from the Mizzou meet was going to be the standard. Floor was fine.
LSU Floor 49.325, Alabama Beam 49.125 (LSU leads 148.050-147.575)
Sierra Ballard led off with a 9.775. She slid back on her DLO (.05), hit her back 1.5 to FLO, did a hit switch half to short (.05) sissonne and had a low chest (.05) and step forward (.1) out of her double pike. That last pass could’ve gone better, but she was having a bit of trouble with it in warm-ups. [9.750]
Kaliya Lincoln made her floor debut with a 9.875. She hit her DLO, did a hit split jump to cheated (.05) Gogean, bent her leg in her wolf turn full (.05) and took a slight step forward (.05) on her FLO to back 1.5. This was a great routine, though I’m shocked to see a GOGEAN in the NCAA. [9.850]
Kailin kept her incredible meet going with a 9.900. She leaned back on her full-out (.05), hit her switch ring to cheated (.05) tour jete half, nailed her back 2.5 to front tuck and hit her switch leap. Overall, this was fantastic. [9.900]
Amari followed with a 9.900 of her own. She slid back on her DLO (.05), did a good switch ring to cheated (.05) switch half, leaned slightly on her FTDT (.05) and hit her ring jump. This was decent. [9.850]
Aleah had a third consecutive rough floor routine and scored a 9.675. She slid (.05) and stepped back (.1) on her double Arabian, hit her switch ring to tour jete half, took a big step (.1 since it’s a clear part of landing error) out of bounds (.1 ND) on her back 2.5 to front tuck and hit her switch jump. It’s getting to a point where I think she needs to rest a meet on floor and reset her mind. LSU has the depth to do so without having to worry. [9.650]
Haleigh anchored with a 9.875. She stepped back (.1) on her front double front, hit her switch leap to cheated (.05) switch full, hit her back aerial and hit her FLO to Rudi. That switch full needs more work, but everything else is fine. [9.850]
Overall, this was decent. The main errors came from missed timing on certain things, whether it be passes (Aleah’s back 2.5 finished too far forward) or other skills (Kaliya’s leg on her wolf turn stayed bent too long). Still, they managed to do enough to get by, just like they did on beam.
LSU Beam 49.250, Alabama Floor 49.500 (LSU wins 197.300-197.075)
Sierra led off with an uncharacteristic 9.550. She stepped back (.1) and had a big wobble (.1) on her BHS LOSO, hit her full turn, did a short sissonne (.05) to hit switch half, had some leg (.05) and a major wobble that saw her chest go very low and arms swing (.25 for everything) on her kickover front, stuck her RO back double full with a lean to maintain balance (.05), and held her finish. This routine looked rushed throughout. She was trying to get it over with instead of doing her normal, and that was to her detriment. [9.400]
Kylie Coen followed with a 9.825. She had some leg in her front aerial (.05) to beat jump, nailed her BHS LOSO, did a short switch leap (.05) to short split jump (.05), had low releve (.05) and a slight wobble (.05) on her full turn, stuck her RO back double full, and held her finish. She was dancing to Jamison Sears’ floor music while waiting for her routine, and I think that relaxed her enough to get her to hit such a good beam set under that pressure. [9.800]
Kailin concluded her incredible night with a 9.925. She nailed her BHS LOSO mount, nailed her BHS LOSO, hit her leap series, had some leg (.05) in her front aerial to split jump, dipped her shoulder (.05) on her full turn, stuck her BHS 1.5 and held her finish. I’m not shocked by her talent, I’m shacked by her poise. She’s centered herself really well. [9.900]
Konnor hit a slightly nervy 9.775 (9.70/9.85 split). She did a hit switch leap to crooked (.05) and short (.05) switch half before wobbling (.05), hit her front aerial to BHS, wobbled (.05) on her full turn, wobbled (.05) on her side aerial, nailed her wolf jump, stuck her gainer full with a low chest (.05), and held her finish. It wasn’t one major mistake that got her, it was several tiny mistakes. Even then, she finished the routine without coming off the beam. [9.700]
Haleigh then scored a 9.850. She did a wobbly front aerial (.05) to wobbly BHS (.05), nailed her leap series, dropped her shoulder in her full turn (.05), drilled her standing front, hit her split jump, stuck her standing punch Rudi and held her finish. I had a bad feeling she was going to fall on her standing front after everything that came before considering her history with the skill, but she was too clutch to let that happen. [9.850]
Aleah clinched the meet with a 9.875. She did the best BHS LO LOSO series of her season so far, did a hit switch leap to short (.05) split jump, hit her full turn, swung her arms and bent her chest over the beam on her front aerial (.15 combined for the balance checks), stuck her gainer full and held her finish. In these moments, she’s usually nailed the routine or fallen. This was the rare example of her hitting a clutch routine with a major mistake, and that’s really good to see especially after the floor routine earlier. [9.800]
Overall, they didn’t let things snowball, and that’s a big step forward. In a road environment with the crowd more aggressively against you than usual, Jay had to go talk to the guys in body paint by the beam because they weren’t following proper etiquette, they pushed past a rocky start.
Overall thoughts
Coleman Coliseum is not a good arena for gymnastics. I couldn’t see the team scores from my seat because I was too high up in section J, and the camera angles for the broadcast were atrocious because of the poor floor space. The only thing that it has better than the PMAC is proximity to the arena floor, but that’s not much of a big deal.
As for the meet itself, this was fine. The issues that came up were things that can’t be happening in the later part of the season, but they’re fixable. They are getting closer to hitting their stride as a team, and the meet that will say the most will be the meet at Kentucky in two weeks.
LSU moved up to #2 in the rankings this week thanks to Florida’s collapse at Arkansas. That means the LSU-Oklahoma meet will be a #1 vs #2 meet, and it will also be for control over the SEC regular season title. For those wondering, Oklahoma is 4-0 in the SEC, LSU is 3-1, Auburn is 2-1 (yet to face OU), and the rest of the league has no control over their chance at the title.