Return of the queens
It’s been 258 days since hoisting the championship trophy, and LSU is finally ready to go for their second.
The reigning NCAA and SEC champions #2 LSU will open their 2025 season at home with a festive night. They’ll host #32 Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network, the first nationally televised meet of the 2025 season and second overall (Mizzou has a quad meet streaming on SECN+/ESPN+ that starts at 6). John Roethlisberger and Sam Peszek will be on the call, and the SEC Network is broadcasting a special SEC Now episode previewing the 2025 season beginning at 6:00. For those going to the meet, doors open at 5:00 p.m. Fans will get a replica of the national championship banner in the same style as the one given away before the women’s basketball opener in 2023. Introductions will begin at 6:15 followed by the dropping of the NCAA championship banner (and likely unveiling of the updated individual champions and SEC tournament champions banners).
Match-up history for LSU and Iowa State
LSU is 13-1 all-time against Iowa State and 5-1 in the regular season. The Tigers are 4-1 against the Cyclones in the PMAC, with the lone loss coming in the 2006 season opener in the Super Six Challenge. Iowa State finished just ahead of 4th place LSU in that meet 194.050-193.900. Those Cyclones were the last coached by current Oklahoma head coach KJ Kindler. LSU’s last meet against ISU was on 2/14/2020 at the GymQuarters meet in The Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri, at which LSU prevailed 197.875-196.625.
LSU and Iowa State have one prior dual meet: their first battle back in 1988 which LSU won 184.20-177.55. This is the first LSU vs Big 12 dual meet since LSU’s 2023 home opener vs Oklahoma, a 197.600-197.450 loss. The Big 12 has seen a lot of movement, lost one and added four in the past two seasons, so that’s all I’ll say there.
Iowa State has not faced an SEC team for a dual meet since 1/21/22 when they lost at Auburn 197.350-195.575. The last time the Cyclones won a season opener on the road was in 2018 when they won a quad meet at Arizona State that featured Auburn and Iowa whom they defeated 195.175-194.675-193.950-193.000.
About Iowa State:
Iowa State did a hard reset in 2024 following a disastrous 2023 which saw them finish 44th, just the second time they’d missed regionals since 1998 and the worst ranking since at least 1996 (they missed regionals in 1995 and I can’t find their final ranking from that year). ISU decided to fire their head coaches and bring in ESPN commentator and Alabama legend Ashley Miles Greig, and that seemed to work.
The Cyclones finished 29th overall in 2024 after sneaking into regionals at 36th out of 36 teams and then sneaking past Clemson by .250 in their opening round meet. It’s worth noting that the team had a hot start in January before having 0 meets that ended up in their NQS in February and then swooping back in to fix that in March.
The Cyclones lost eight members of the 2024 squad who combined for a total of seven NQS routines. That includes their best bars worker. Luckily, they retained a fifth-year senior: bars and beam specialist Lauren Thomas. They’re also adding four freshmen and a transfer. Two of their gymnasts earned spots on the All-Big 12 preseason team: senior vault and beam specialist Josie Bergstrom-Te Slaa and sophomore vault/beam/floor specialist Noelle Adams. The only all-arounder the team used last season was Hannah Loyim, whom I must admit is someone I interviewed prior to the 2024 season and who has since become a fantastic friend. Her apathy towards Ames tap water is still baffling.
Last season, ISU had a major weakness on bars. Maybe they’ll clean that up, but it’s tough to tell in the opener. Just know that they are about two rungs below Ohio State, the team against whom LSU opened the 2024 season in a nail biter.
Head coach Ashley Miles Greig is in her second season with the program and serves as primary beam coach. She is assisted by associate head coach Ryan Snider and assistant coach Haylee Young. Snider oversees vault and bars and is in his second season with the program. Young oversees floor and is in her fifth season with the program as a coach (was a gymnast in Ames from 2015-18).
About LSU
(Link to Twitter thread recapping Monday’s presser)
For the first time since she got here, LSU will be without the services of Haleigh Bryant. She’s not injured in any major way, but the coaching and training staffs have decided to air on the side of caution to prevent a possible UCL injury to her elbow after she tweaked it on vault at Gym 101. Kylie Coen was expected to make her debut in the beam lineup, but she’s out with a hyperextended knee.
Aleah Finnegan and Kailin Chio are near locks for the all-around. Kailin will be the first freshman to make a season-opening debut in the all-around since Kiya Johnson did so to open the 2020 season. In Monday’s presser, it seemed like Jay confirmed Sierra Ballard will be doing floor at the meet. Based on intrasquad footage uploaded to Instagram Thursday, KJ Johnson and Alexis Jeffrey are available on vault and bars respectively following their absence from competition at Gym 101.
Konnor McClain is likely to be on bars and beam because she recovered really well from her Achilles injury. There’s a chance Lexi Zeiss makes her debut on some event. There’s a chance Amari Drayton does either bars or beam in addition to vault and floor. The only reason I’m stressed about this meet is that it’s a gymnastics meet in which I have a very vested interest in the outcome, the default state is anxious.
Please note the following: scoring might be accurate at this meet. Not tight, accurate, don’t get your feelings hurt when routines that used to get 9.9s for no reason get 9.8s or something. LSU is highly likely to win if they just don’t pull an Alabama at the 2024 national semifinal (for those who forgot, Alabama put up their worst beam score in 30 years at that meet).
The win is academic, I want to see a good start and good promise. It’s a celebration, but it’s also business