A banner start to the title defense
That was a great start.
The reigning national champion LSU gymnastics team opened their season Friday with an emotional banner climb ceremony before an impressive win. The Tigers throttled Iowa State 197.300-194.100 in the second-best opener in program history in terms of score. A home-opening record 12,324 fans watched a Haleigh Bryant-less squad score .325 better than last season’s opener in which she did the all-around. It was nowhere near perfect, but it was a great sign of what might be in store.
Aleah Finnegan and Kailin Chio win SEC weekly awards
It’s not an LSU home season opener without some big awards. Aleah won SEC Gymnast of the Week for her nation-leading 39.725 all-around performance. She broke the LSU record for best all-around score in a season opener held by Haleigh Bryant and Sarah Finnegan. She also won at least a share of all five individual titles in the meet, something only Mya Lauzon of Cal and Haleigh Bryant managed in 2024.
Kailin Chio continued the trend of an LSU freshman winning the first SEC Freshman of the Week award when at home. Kailin became the first freshman to open the season in the all-around since Kiya Johnson in 2020, and she did so in record fashion. Her 39.575 is the best all-around score by an LSU freshman, and it was the fourth-best score in the nation in week 1. Kailin won a share of the bars and beam titles alongside Aleah.
What happened with Iowa State
For each meet this season, I’ll be adding a bit on the opponent(s) and what they did to give context to the final result. Iowa State led the meet off with two falls on bars, an 8.850 from Paige Wills and an 8.800 from Hannah Loyim. These were the only falls that the Cyclones suffered, but they set a bad tone. Worse, ISU was forced to run just 5 vaulters and 5 floor performers. Vault seemed like a pre-planned thing while floor was the result of a Paige Wills injury. They looked rusty, and combined with the nerves that come with competing in front of a sold-out crowd the likes of which they’ve never seen either home or away, they had a rough night.
For readers who wish to follow along to my notes on each routine, this is a link to the meet in full (I’m not editing each clip this year to save myself some time). Deductions I would’ve taken are in parenthesis and my final score is in brackets. If I note a plit 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.
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 Vault 49.350; Iowa State Bars 47.750
KJ Johnson led things off with a 9.825 on her YF. She hopped back (.1) and held her finish. Good start. [9.850]
Chase Brock followed with a 9.825 on her YF. She hopped back (.1) and held her finish. I saw nothing much different beyond the power. [9.850]
Aleah stuck her Y1.5 for a 9.950. The only thing I saw that the judges would’ve been likely to take was for lack of amplitude (.05) because it didn’t have much upward travel. [9.950]
Kaliya Lincoln made her LSU debut with a 9.825 on her Y1.5. She had leg separation in her first flight (.05), a hop out of her landing (.1) and no held finish (.05). This has very high potential for the rest of the season. [9.800]
Amari Drayton followed with a 9.925 on her Y1.5. She hopped on her landing (.1) and held her finish. This was very good and looked close to being stuck. She has very good form on it and it’s a fantastic staple of the lineup. [9.900]
Kailin made her LSU debut in the anchor spot and scored a 9.900. I couldn’t see anything beyond the hop she took at the end (.1), but blame the SECN camera angles for screwing things up (tight isometric angles are a sin on vault). This was very good and almost a stick. [9.900]
Overall, this was a solid start, especially with two fulls in the lineup. Bars was decent, too.
LSU Bars 49.275; Iowa State Vault 48.825 (LSU leads 98.625-96.575)
Lexi Zeiss made her LSU debut with a 9.800 on a 9.75/9.85 split (originally a 9.70/9.85 split before a conference). She hit her first two handstands, wasn’t straight in her Maloney (.05), hit her Pak, did a nice low bar half turn, hit her final handstand, took a slight step forward on her HIHO (.05) and failed to close her heels in her hold (.05). It takes a special kind of poise to be a bars lead, and it’s rare a freshman earns that. Lexi looked like a veteran throughout her routine, though, and that’s a great sign of what’s to come. [9.850]
Ashley Cowan followed with a 9.850. She dolphined her first handstand (.05 for imprecision), bent her arms in her Ray catch (.05), hit her overshoot, hit her final handstand, hopped back on her DLO (.1) and held her finish. It was a solid routine. [9.800]
Alexis Jeffrey followed with a 9.825. She hit her first two handstands, wasn’t straight in her Maloney (.05), hit her bail handstand, hit her final handstand, had a low chest (.05) and hop (.1) on her HIHO and held her finish. Her dismount is still a bit wonky, but this was worse than usual. [9.800]
Kailin kept her great night going with a 9.900. She hit her first handstand, wasn’t straight in her Maloney (.05), hit a great bail handstand, hit her third handstand, killed her Markelov, hit her final handstand, stuck her HIHO and failed to hold her finish by moving her back throughout (.05). This is going to get a 10 very soon, that’s how clean it is. [9.900]
Aleah followed with a 9.900 of her own. She hit her first handstand, did a great piked Deltchev, hit her second and third handstands, hit her bail handstand, hit her final handstand, stepped back on her full out (.1), and failed to hold her finish for a similar reason to Kailin, though less egregious (.05). This was a nice return to form, and if that dismount gets consistent, she’ll get her gym slam. [9.850]
Konnor McClain anchored the rotation with a 9.800. She hit her first handstand, bent her arms in her Church catch (.05), had leg separation in her Pak (.05), hit a textbook low bar half turn, hit her final handstand, had a low landing (.05) and hop (.1) on her HIHO, and held her finish. Her HIHO is hit or miss, and this was a miss, but that’s fine. [9.750]
Overall, this was very good for a season opener, especially when Alexis didn’t go at Gym 101 and two of the members of the rotation were freshmen. Beam could’ve been a disaster, but this team showed they were capable of facing adversity.
LSU Beam 49.175; Iowa State Floor 48.800 (LSU leads 147.800-145.375)
Sierra Ballard led things off with a 9.250 (9.20/9.30). She went into the z axis on her acro series and fell (.5), remounted and did a great full turn, did a short sissonne (.05) to hit switch half (!!!), had some leg (.05) in her aggressive kickover front, and stuck her RO back double full with a held finish. She led off the 2024 season with a fall, too, so that’s just the rust coming off. [9.400]
Amari made her beam debut with a 9.675. She had an okay front aerial, a wobble in her BHS LOSO (.05), a wobble in her full turn (.05), a short switch leap (.05) to very short split jump (.1) with wobble out (.05), and was off center (.05) on her RO back double full with low chest (.05) and step forward (.1) on her landing. She also failed to hold her finish for full second due to unnecessary movement of her fingers (.05). Remember that one-second clock beings when everything is stood still. Other than that, this was a nervy debut, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the routine subbed in for Kylie Coen’s injury. [9.450]
Kailin brought everything back on track with a 9.925. She had a nice BHS LOSO mount, a good BHS LOSO, a nice switch leap to split jump, a nice front aerial to split jump, a good full turn, a stuck BHS 1.5 with low chest (.05) and held finish. This was extremely close to being a well-deserved 10.0, something no LSU freshman has done in their debut. [9.950]
Olivia Dunne made her beam debut with a 9.825. She had a nice full turn, a good BHS LOSO, some leg in her front aerial (.05) and lean (.05) after, a hit switch leap to hit split jump to short switch ring (.05), a form issue (.05) in her stuck gainer pike, and a held finish. How did it take this long for her to get on beam? She’s a natural. [9.800]
Konnor finished her remarkable comeback night with a 9.825. She had a hit switch jump to short switch half (.05), a good front aerial to BHS, a hit full turn, a hit side aerial, a hop back on her gainer full (.1) and a held finish. It’s not excellent by her standards, but it’s great to see that glow back in her eyes after all she’s been through recently. [9.850]
Aleah anchored the rotation with a sublime 9.925. She had a beautiful BHS BHS LOSO, a great switch leap to split jump, a good full turn, a slight lean on her front aerial (.05) and a stuck gainer full. She failed to hold her finish for a full second because of unnecessary extra movements (.05). My obsession with that rule and this routine have remained the same from last year. [9.900]
Overall, this was a good show of mental toughness. The Tigers led off the 2024 season with two sub-49 beam rotations in a row thanks to falls. Sierra’s fall wasn’t a big deal, though, and that’s very promising. Floor was the usual LSU standard.
LSU Floor 49.500; Iowa State Beam 48.725 (LSU wins 197.300-194.100)
Sierra led things off with a 9.850. She had a stuck DLO, a hit back 1.5 to FLO, a short switch full (.05) to short (.05) sissonne and a genuine stick on her double pike with a low chest on landing (.05). She changed her leap series and while it didn’t pay off this time, it should pay off in the long run. [9.850]
Chase followed with a 9.875. She had a low chest (.05) and hop forward (.1) out of her full out, a nailed back 1.5 to FLO and a hit switch side to Popa. This is a very good routine when she hits the full out like she did during warm-ups. She generates a ton of power on this routine, and it’s most apparent when she does her Popa because she didn’t cheat it, something KJ Johnson has done basically every time. [9.850]
Olivia followed with another 9.875. She slid back on her FTDT (.05), “hit” her Ferrari (even Ferrari herself couldn’t do it right), nailed her double pike, and hit her switch leap to switch ring with hop back on landing (.1). That hop is the only thing that I can think of as an extra deduction because nobody seems to do that. Either way, this was very good. [9.850]
Amari followed with yet another 9.875. She slid back on her DLO (.05), did a nice switch ring to short switch half (.05), and had a low chest (.05) and step forward (.1) on her FTDT. The punch on her double tuck isn’t as good as it was last year based on the two times she’s done it this season, so that’s an area that needs work. [9.750]
Kailin finished her historic debut with a 9.925. She slid back (.05) and leaned (.05) on her full out, had a low switch ring (.05) to hit tour jete half, drilled her back 2.5 to front tuck and hit her switch leap. She’s a star right out of the gate, and it’s going to be fun to see more. [9.850]
Aleah anchored the meet with a near-perfect 9.950. She nailed her double Arabian to stag, did a hit switch ring to cheated (.05) tour jete half, nailed her back 2.5 to front tuck and hit her switch leap. I expect judges to keep cracking down on turns in leaps, so that needs to become less obvious for this to get a 10. Otherwise, did you really expect anything less? [9.950]
Overall, this was the best floor rotation in week 1 by 0.250. My rescore of the rotation came out to 49.350, and that’s still 0.100 better than second place. Courtney got that associate head coach title for good reason.
Overall thoughts
(Post-meet press conference recap)
If this is the kind of team that’s going to show up every week, this is a team that can beat Oklahoma if they’re fully healthy. Again, they didn’t have Haleigh Bryant and counted a 9.675 on beam and still had the second-best opener in program history. Yes, there are areas in which they can improve, but that’s to be expected at the start of the season. It’s just one meet, though, and the next one is a test of their ability to focus and lock in.