The SEC regular season title is still in reach
The demons are gone.
The reigning SEC and national champion LSU gymnastics team went into Lexington and came out victorious for the first time since 2017 in a 197.200-197.075 victory over Kentucky Friday to move one step closer to the SEC regular season title. The score was LSU’s second ever 197 in Lexington and was more than enough to drop the 196.600 from the Arkansas meet.
Kailin Chio wins SEC Kailin Chio of the Week Award
Credit T-Bob Hebert for coining that one, yes Kailin Chio has won her fourth consecutive and sixth overall SEC Freshman of the Week Award after scoring a 39.575 in the all-around to win the meet title yet again, her fourth in a row. This means she’s won the SEC Freshman of the Week Award in more than half the weeks the award is given in 2025. Back in 2023, Kayla DiCello of Florida claimed the award eight times, so Kailin can surpass her if she wins it in the three remaining regular season meets.
What Happened to Kentucky
I can’t say much more about them except that they weren’t as good as LSU in this meet. They came close, but they were just a step below what LSU was doing. The finer details that cost teams meets came back to bite the Wildcats. This was a solid performance without a doubt, but it wasn’t enough to get the win.
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 49.325, Kentucky Vault 49.175
Lexi Zeiss led off with a 9.875. She hit her first two handstands, wasn’t straight in her Maloney (.05), hit her Pak, hit her low bar half turn, hit her final handstand, slid her right foot back slightly on her HIHO (.05) and failed to hold her finish because she brought her heels together right at the end and didn’t hold after (.05). This was a solid start as usual. [9.850]
Ashley Cowan followed with a 9.875. She hit her first handstand, bent her arms to catch her Ray (.05), hit her overshoot, hit her final handstand, had some slight leg separation in her DLO (.05), stuck the landing and held her finish. This was very good. [9.900]
Alexis Jeffrey was next with a 9.825. She hit her first two handstands, hit her Maloney, had some wonkiness in her legs on her hit bail handstand (.05), came up short on her final handstand (.05), hopped forward on her HIHO (.1) and held her finish. For some reason, her chest was off on her HIHO, and that’s what forced her to hop. [9.800]
Kailin hit her set for a 9.875. She hit her first handstand, had some leg separation (.05) and wasn’t straight in her Maloney (.05), hit her bail handstand, hit her third handstand, hit her Markelov, was short on her final handstand (.05), nailed her HIHO, and held her finish. This wasn’t top tier by her standards, but it was more than good enough. [9.850]
Konnor McClain then scored a 9.850. She hit her first handstand, caught her Church close (.05) with bent arms (.05), connected it directly to a Pak with leg separation (.05), hit her low bar half turn, hit her final handstand, stepped back (.1) on her HIHO and held her finish. I’m shocked she managed to get enough power from he catch on her Church to do a Pak right out of it. [9.750]
Haleigh Bryant anchored in her 2025 bars debut with a 9.850 (9.90/9.80). She was short on her first handstand (.05), hit her straddle Jaeger, way overdid her second handstand (.1), hit her bail handstand, was short on her final handstand (.05), took a slight step (.05) and moved her arms to maintain her balance (.05) on her double front half and held her finish. She looked very rusty on this routine, but that’s to be expected. Hopefully this shook off a bunch of it. [9.700]
Overall, this was fine. I thought this was slightly worse than the Oklahoma meet’s bars rotation even if the scores didn’t reflect it. Nothing snowballed, but the less than spectacular results carried over to vault.
LSU Vault 49.200, Kentucky Bars 49.150 (LSU leads 98.525-98.325)
KJ Johnson led off with a 9.725 on her YF. She underrotated it (.1), hopped forward (.1) and held her finish. I can’t remember a time she’s ever underrotated that vault, but maybe that was because of her ankle still being annoying. [9.750]
Aleah followed with a 9.850 on her Y1.5. She bent her legs before the landing (.05), underrotated the vault slightly (.05), took a slight step back (.05) and held her finish. This has been inconsistent all season. [9.800]
Kaliya Lincoln was next with a 9.800 on her Y1.5. She had leg separation at two separate points in her flight (.1), took a large hop on the landing (.2) and held her finish. That was more like the vaults she did before she found her control, but it happens. [9.700]
Amari Drayton followed with a Y1.5 that scored a 9.725 (9.65/9.80). She had a bad angle on her block (.05) which led to the following happening once she landed: large hop (.2), slight hop (.05), movement of body to maintain balance (.05), step forward (.1) and no hold of the finishing position (.05). That’s completely out of character for her and should be treated as the fluke it is. [9.500]
Kailin drilled her Y1.5 for a 9.925. Everything was perfect except for her shoulder angle off the block (.05), but I only caught it after comparing her block to Aleah’s. That said, it’s something I’ve noted earlier as being the only issue she needs to work on with this vault to make it absolutely perfect when she sticks it. [9.950]
Haleigh finished things off with a 9.900 on her front pike half. She hopped back (.1) and failed to hold her finish for a full second (.05). Compare this vault to the one she did against Oklahoma and you’ll notice this one had the kind of height she tends to get. [9.850]
Overall, this wasn’t a great vault rotation. This team won’t be happy with one stick in a vault rotation by this point in the year, and that’ll motivate them to push to be more consistent. The good news was that it didn’t hurt their ability to hit floor.
LSU Floor 49.325, Kentucky Beam 49.325 (LSU leads 147.850-147.650)
Kaliya led off with a 9.825. She had leg separation (.05) in her hit DLO, hit her switch leap to cheated (.05) Gogean and bounced in place on her FLO to back 1.5 (.05). This was uncharacteristic, but she’s also getting used to things. Not every routine is going to be immaculate. [9.850]
Sierra Ballard followed with a 9.825. She had a low landing on her DLO (.05), did a short switch half (.05) to short sissonne (.05), hit her back 1.5 to FLO and did a hit switch ring to short switch half to knee (.05). She is an immaculate tumbler, but her leaps get her more often than not. [9.800]
Kailin then got a 9.850 (9.80/9.90). She had a low chest on her hit full-out landing (.05), did a hit switch ring to cheated (.05) tour jete half, did a back 2.5 to front tuck that lacked sufficient amplitude (.05, she was lucky to land it) and hit her switch leap. Maybe this floor isn’t as springy as others because the issues both her and Kaliya had on their final passes felt like they came from not putting as much force into the combination pass. [9.850]
Amari was next with a 9.875. She took two stutter steps forward out of her DLO (.1), hit her leaps, hit her FTDT and hit her ring jump. Outside the issue on her DLO, this was a great routine. [9.900]
Aleah followed with a 9.775 (9.875, .1 ND). She lacked control on her double Arabian (.05) and stepped out on bounds when she landed her stag jump (.1 ND), did a hit switch ring to short (.05) and cheated (.05) tour jete half, hit her back 2.5 to front tuck and nailed her switch leap. It’s clear the adjustment to her back 2.5 worked wonders. That said, this is the fifth straight meet in which she’s gone out of bounds and fourth straight meet in which her floor score did not count. She is the reigning NCAA floor champion. Something’s off, and I hope it gets fixed. [9.750, .1 ND]
Haleigh anchored with a 9.900. She nailed her front double front, did a hit switch leap to cheated (.05) switch full, hit her back aerial and nailed her FLO to Rudi. This was a great ending to this rotation. [9.950]
Overall, this was fine. LSU normally does a bit better on floor, but it seemed like there were some issues in this rotation that came from not being familiar with the equipment. The Tigers clutched things out on beam.
LSU Beam 49.350, Kentucky Floor 49.425 (LSU wins 197.200-197.075)
Sierra led off with a 9.850. She hit her BHS LOSO, hit her full turn, did a short sissonne (.05) to hit switch half, drilled her kickover front, stepped forward on her RO back double full
Kylie Coen followed with a 9.775. She had some leg in her front aerial (.05) to beat jump, nailed her BHS LOSO, did a hit switch leap to short (.05) split jump, had low releve in her full turn (.05), slid back (.05) and took a step (.1) on her RO back double full, and failed to hold her finish for a full second (.05). She was clearly laughing about something after she finished, so whatever caused her to screw up her dismount must’ve been new to her. [9.650]
Kailin finished her strong night with a 9.925. She nailed her BHS LOSO mount, nailed her BHS LOSO, hit her leaps, had slight leg in her front aerial (.05) to split jump, hit her full turn, nailed her BHS 1.5 and held her finish. The leg bend in her front aerial was very slight. It’s remarkable how close to a 5-star perfect 10 routine this was. [9.950]
Konnor was next with a 9.825. She did a hit switch leap to short switch half (.05) to hit split jump, had some leg in her front aerial (.05) to BHS, hit her full turn, hit her wolf jump, carried her momentum back through her stuck gainer full (.05) and never held her finish (.05). This was decent. [9.800]
Haleigh finished her return to the all-around with a 9.850 (9.90/9.80). She hit her front aerial to BHS, hit her leap series, hit her full turn, wobbled on her standing front (.05), hit her split jump, hopped back on her standing punch Rudi (.1) and held her finish. This was good for her first all-around performance of any kind since Gym 101. [9.850]
Aleah clinched the win with a 9.900. The only issue I noticed was a step back on her gainer full (.1), everything else was perfect. This was the most stoic I’ve ever seen her look during a routine. She usually reacts after hitting her front aerial, often a smile, but this was all business. [9.900]
Overall, this was okay. The last two weeks saw LSU go 12/12 on beam dismount sticks in meets where they were vital, so having just one this time felt a bit weird. That said, none of these routines had any major wobbles or instances that made me more nervous than I already was watching the meet on my phone at Privateer Park, and that’s really good to see for this point in the season.
Overall thoughts
This was a solid performance, but a lot of the little details got in their way, especially landings. Only sticking one vault and one beam dismount hurt the score tremendously. Had they stuck all the counting routines on vault and beam, a ludicrous feat, LSU would’ve had a 198.000. LSU’s put together complete meets at home, but they are still yet to do it when they don’t start on vault, and they’ve got one more meet left where they don’t before the postseason begins (finale at Auburn March 14th).
Now, they get two meets back in Baton Rouge, the first being the third annual Purple and Gold Podium Challenge vs George Washington at the Raising Cane’s River Center on February 28th for which tickets are still available at the box office.