Tigers look to lock in for a solid meet
Welcome to the title defense!
The back-to-back SEC champion and reigning national champion #1 LSU gymnastics team has made the trek north to the 2025 Pennsylvania Regional, and today is the first step towards the journey to protect their crown. Today at 6:00 in Rec Hall on the campus of Pennsylvania State University, the Tigers will face #16 Arkansas, Michigan and Maryland for the right to continue their tournament run. A top two finish will see the Tigers advance to the regional final held Saturday at 4:00. The meet will be streamed on ESPN+ with Alex Perlman and Kennedy Baker on the call.
LSU’s history against each team
LSU is 47-7-1 all-time against Arkansas and is 30-3 against them in neutral environments. The Tigers suffered their only dual meet defeat of 2025 at the hands of the Hogs on January 24th 196.875-196.600.
LSU is 14-13-1 all-time against Michigan and is 10-7-1 against them in neutral environments. The last time the two teams met was at the 2023 Denver Regional Final when the two teams tied at 197.750. LSU advanced to nationals over the Wolverines on the sixth-score tiebreaker.
LSU is 9-0 all-time against Maryland and is 5-0 against them on neutral floors. The two last met at the 2018 Raleigh Regional where the Tigers defeated the Terrapins 197.675-195.850.
#31 Maryland (196.030 NQS, 16-20 overall (15-9 regular season), 12th at B1Gs (dead last), starts on beam)
2024 finishes: 26th overall, 5th at B1Gs
Program overview: best finish ever: 14th in ‘01, 0 conference titles, 0 individual NCAA titles, 0 nationals appearances, 0 Super 6 appearances (1993-2018), 0 Four on the Floor appearances (2019-present)
Event rankings: t-#26 on vault [49.035], t-#25 on bars [49.185], #38 on beam [48.990], #31 on floor [49.175]
Preview: One of my favorite things that I’ve followed the last couple years has been March Maryland. Head coach Brett Nelligan packs the team’s schedule with a ton of meets in the last month of the season. Six of the team’s 13 meets have been since March 1. They shift into another gear a this point and shoot up the rankings from outside the top 36 to inside it. They had a bad Big 10 Championship meet by their standards, but they have consistency on their side. Advancing out of this round will require enough of that to beat an inconsistent team.
Whom to watch for: Maryland had five gymnasts qualify as individuals that will now compete with the rest of their team. Natalie Martin qualified on vault. Hailey Merchant, Sierra Kondo and Sarah Saville qualified on bars. Maddie Komoroski qualified on beam.
#16 Arkansas (197.055 NQS, 7-9 overall (7-9 regular season), DNC at SECs, starts on vault)
2024 finishes: 7th overall, 6th at SECs
Program overview: best finish ever: 5th (’09), 0 SEC titles (best finish: 2nd in ’11), 2 individual NCAA titles (Katherine Grable on VT and FX in ’14), 9 nationals appearances (last in ’24), 2 Super 6 appearances (’09 and ’12), 0 Four on the Floor appearances
Event rankings: #15 on vault [49.225], t-#16 on bars [49.265], #14 on beam [49.315], #9 on floor [49.470]
Preview: This is going to be very interesting. Arkansas is the only team in the tournament who did not compete the week prior to the tournament after failing to qualify to the SEC Championship meet. Last year’s team advanced to nationals on familiar equipment. This year, they have to fend off the top unseeded team to make it out of their first day. They have to be on point if they want to prove that last year was the start of something big. Did the extra rest allow them to reset and refocus, and did it throw off their rhythm? For their sake, they need to act like the former is true.
Whom to watch for: Joscelyn Roberson is the best freshman in Arkansas history, and that was before she became their first freshman with All-American honors. She is a strong all-arounder with a high chance of making nationals either as an all-arounder or on beam, the event on which she was an All-American. If she’s on, they’re going to have a good chance of advancing. If not, this could be a disastrous day for the Hogs.
#17 Michigan (196.945 NQS, 18-9 overall (10-6 regular season), 4th at B1Gs, starts on bars)
2024 finishes: 18th overall, 3rd at B1Gs
Program overview: 1 team title (’21), 27 B1G titles (last in ’23), 9 individual NCAA titles (last was Natalie Wojcik on BB in ’19), 26 nationals appearances (last in ’22), 10 Super 6 appearances (last in ‘11), 1 Four on the Floor appearances (‘21)
Event rankings: #20 on vault [49.140], #18 on bars [49.255], #15 on beam [49.310], #17 on floor [49.355]
Preview: Michigan has a reason to come out swinging in the regional semis, pun intended. In 2024, they became the first seeded regional host to miss nationals in the current era (2019-present) after collapsing on beam in their regional semifinal, completing their journey of getting knocked out one round earlier each year since their national title run. This year’s team has been mired in a mid-ness most fans aren’t used to, and that’s likely due to inexperience from the dominant freshmen. However, the Wolverines just put up their best score of the season at the Big 10 Championship meet they hosted. They’ve only crossed the 197 barrier twice this year and both came at home. If they want to pull off an upset run, they’ll need to hit it twice more.
Whom to watch for: Michigan doesn’t have any 2025 regular season All-Americans, which is somewhat shocking considering they have a bunch of contenders for a nationals spot. If they want to pull the upset, they’ll need hits from people like freshman Sophia Diaz, a consistent vaulter with the best NQS outside LSU’s vaulters, fifth-year senior Carly Bauman, a star on bars and beam who made it to Fort Worth on bars last year, and sophomore Kayli Boozer, a rising star who does everything but beam.
#1 LSU (198.115 NQS, 18-2 overall (11-2 regular season), SEC Champions, starts on floor)
LSU is ranked #1 on vault [49.540], #2 on bars [49.535], #5 on beam [49.495] and #3 on floor [49.605].
The Tigers will be without freshman Kaliya Lincoln for the rest of the season after she stayed back and received shoulder surgery. She hasn’t appeared in LSU’s last few meets and that hasn’t been a major hindrance thanks to Lexi Zeiss and Kylie Coen stepping up big on vault and floor, respectively. LSU needs to do their normal tonight if they want to advance. A solid 197.8 should be enough to win this session outright. It’s going to be weird for this team to start on floor and end on beam, but they can handle it. Hopefully this will be a good meet that sees the team advance to Saturday without much fuss.
Fun fact about this regional: this is a homecoming of sorts for assistant coach Ashleigh Gnat. Her first paid coaching job was as an assistant coach for Penn State back in 2020, though she primarily worked with floor.