Sharing the title with Oklahoma because the SEC doesn’t break ties
That’s how you close out a regular season on a high note.
The reigning SEC and national champion #2 LSU gymnastics team added another championship to their collection Friday when they beat Auburn 198.200-197.550. With the score, LSU set a program record for highest regular season score in which they didn’t start the meet on vault, breaking their previous record from the 2019 season finale at Arizona by .025.
New record for Kailin Chio
For a record-breaking ninth time in 2025, Kailin Chio was named SEC Freshman of the Week, technically co-freshman with Oklahoma’s Addison Fatta. This broke a tie with 2023 Kayla DiCello for the most SEC Freshman of the Week awards won in a season and a tie with her and 2020 Trinity Thomas for most wins of a single SEC weekly award in a season (Thomas won Gymnast of the Week eight times that year). Her nine overall awards ties 2023 Kayla DiCello for most in a season; DiCello also won an additional Specialist of the Week award that year. The race for SEC Freshman of the Year is basically over at this point.
What happened to Auburn
This was a very good meet for Auburn. They looked like a solid team hitting their stride. Beam was the only event that didn’t look great, but the others were near the best they’ve shown this year. They pushed LSU as much as I expected them to, but LSU was on another level and wasn’t going to get caught in this meet.
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.
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 49.600, Auburn Vault 49.425
Lexi Zeiss led off with a 9.850. She wasn’t straight in her Maloney (.05) and moved her arms (.05) and hopped slightly (.05) on her HIHO, but the rest was fine. [9.850]
Ashley Cowan followed with a 9.900. With the angles given, the only deduction I could see was for lack of travel in her Ray (.05) which is why her overshoot looked lower than usual. This was a very good routine overall. [9.950]
Aleah Finnegan put up a 9.950 on her best bars routine of the season. She was short on her first handstand (.05), but the rest of the routine was textbook. I was blown away by the form on her piked Deltchev and lost it when she stuck her full out. [9.950]
Kailin then scored a 9.900. She wasn’t straight in her Maloney (.05) and had a low chest on her HIHO (.05), but the rest was very good. [9.900]
Konnor McClain followed with a 9.875. This meet’s awful production forced everyone to miss everything until her Pak, and the only deduction after that was a hop back on her HIHO (.1). This looked really good. [9.900]
Haleigh Bryant anchored with a 9.975. The only possible deduction I noted came for bent elbows in her straddle Jaeger catch (.05). The rest of this was exquisite. [9.950]
Alyona Shchennikova scored a 9.850 on her exhibition routine. I think her deductions came for the form errors in her DLO, and I’m much harsher about those than the judges were (.2). Still, this showed that she can hit in a pinch, and it’s one of the best bars routines I’ve ever seen her do. [9.800]
Overall, this was the third straight incredible bars rotation for LSU. It’s become clear that something has clicked that cascades from Lexi down to Haleigh, and that’s awesome to see. Vault was great, too.
LSU Vault 49.575, Auburn Bars 49.400 (LSU leads 99.175-98.825)
KJ Johnson led off with a 9.875 on her YF. She had a slight hop back (.05), but it’s completely reasonable for a judge to see that as a normal hop. Other than that, this was good. [9.900]
Lexi followed with a 9.900 on her Y1.5. She had leg separation on the block (.05) and had soft knees throughout (.05) to the point it looked semi-tucked, but she stuck it very well. [9.900]
Aleah was next with a 9.900 on her Y1.5. She had leg separation in the block (.05) and she took a step forward (.1), but the rest of the vault was fine. [9.850]
Amari Drayton then scored a 9.800 (9.85/9.75) on her Y1.5. She hopped (.1) and took a slight step forward with her left foot (.05), and she didn’t hold her finish for a full second (.05). This was okay. [9.800]
Kailin nailed her Y1.5 for her first 10.0! Based on the angle from the broadcast, I saw no deductions. This also felt like her most 10-worthy vault despite the fact that I thought her vault in Tuscaloosa also deserved a 10. Either way, she became the first freshman with a 10 this season. [10.0]
Haleigh anchored with a 9.900 (9.85/9.95) on her front pike half. She underrotated it slightly (.05), had a low chest (.05) and stepped forward (.1). That’s the first time I’ve seen Haleigh step forward on her landing, and hat continues a trend of uncharacteristic errors in her vaults. [9.800]
Overall, this was a great rotation. Despite only sticking two vaults, this was still the kind of rotation that gets this team working in the postseason. Floor was as good as usual.
LSU Floor 49.650, Auburn Beam 49.150 (LSU leads 148.825-147.975)
Kylie Coen led off with 9.875. She slid forward slightly on her front double full (.05), hit her back acro series, nailed her FLO to front full and cheated the last two turns in her leap series (.1 total). This was very good, and the issue with the turns is extremely common across the country. [9.850]
Sierra Ballard followed with another 9.875. She did a short switch half (.05) to short sissonne (.05), but the rest was fine. That series has been giving her fits all year. [9.900]
Kailin then scored a 9.925. The only deduction I saw was for the step back she took after her front tuck (.1), something that came from her not going forward enough when punching into it. Other than that, this was a great routine. [9.900]
Amari followed with a 9.925 of her own. She stepped forward out of her FTDT (.1), but the rest was great. [9.900]
Aleah showed what she’s known for and got a 9.975. The only issue appeared to be a cheated turn in her tour jete half (.05), but she finally ended her streak of consecutive floor routines going out of bounds with this masterpiece. [9.950]
Haleigh anchored with a 9.950. The turn on her switch full looked closer to a switch half or switch ¾ (.05), but the rest of the routine was very good. [9.950]
Alyona did an exhibition routine which scored a 9.875. She controlled her back 1.5 to front full well, did a short switch leap (.05) to low switch ring half (.05) and hit her Rudi to split jump. Once again, this was a great routine and a very viable option for regionals if needed or wanted. [9.900]
Overall, this was as good as usual. It was so good to see Aleah get out of her slump and hit her routine. Kylie is very solid as the lead on floor, so that’s a good sign in case Kaliya has issues with her shoulder. With the first three rotations having gone so well, it’s unfortunate that beam was just okay to start.
LSU Beam 49.375, Auburn Floor 49.575 (LSU wins 198.200-197.550)
Sierra led off with a 9.825. She had some leg in her BHS LOSO (.05), did a short sissonne (.05) and stepped back on her RO back double full (.1), but the rest was good. Her kickover front has been otherworldly the past few weeks, but she hasn’t stuck her dismount recently. [9.800]
Following an inquiry of her start value, Kylie’s final score came out to a 9.825. She had some leg in her front aerial (.05), had a slight check after hitting her leap series (.05) and lacked releve in her full turn (.05), but the rest was solid. I was shocked to see her initial start value at 9.90, but that got changed. [9.850]
Kailin finished her night with a 9.825. She had a big check and lean after her first leap (.15 total) and thus had to change her series to a switch leap to straddle quarter, but the rest was fine. This showed her mental fortitude, something that’s impressed me the most as the season’s progressed. [9.850]
Konnor cleaned things up with a 9.900 (9.85/9.95). She had some leg in her front aerial (.05) and a low chest on her gainer full (.05)te res was very good. For some reason she chose to do only two leaps and do her side aerial. [9.900]
Haleigh killed her routine for a 9.950 (10.0/9.90). She had a shoulder dip on her full turn (.05), but the rest was great. This clinched the all-around title with a 39.775, a total she’s gotten used to scoring. [9.950]
Aleah finished things out with a 9.875. She had some leg in her front aerial (.05) and a wobble (.05) and a step (.1) on her gainer full, but the rest was very good. It could’ve been better, but it’s hard to complain about it considering the circumstances. [9.800]
Amari did an exhibition routine which scored a 9.825. She had some leg and a big wobble in her front aerial (.15 total), a lean after her BHS LOSO (.05), a hit switch leap to straddle quarter, and a stuck RO back double full. She also failed to hold her finish (.05)
Overall, this was okay. The first three routines weren’t great, but nothing snowballed. For this meet, it was an acceptable ending, but when the postseason rolls around, this can’t happen.
Overall thoughts
I was blown away by this meet, and I wasn’t the only one. If you’re an LSU fan, you have to feel really good about this team going into the postseason. Last year was one thing, they were basically hosting SECs as the top seed and going to one of the easier regionals. This year, they aren’t the top seed at SECs, but they look like they could repeat despite Oklahoma’s existence.
The one thing that seemed concerning was that they hadn’t knocked a meet out of the park when they started on an event other than vault. This was a huge accomplishment in that regard, and it needs to continue. The regular season is over, the next step is defending the SEC title on Saturday.