The LSU Tigers Gymnastics team topped Arkansas, Maryland and Michigan on Thursday to advance to the regional final tonight, where they faced No. 8 Michigan State, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 16 Arkansas with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.
Here’s how the meet went down:
The Tigers started on the uneven bars, and got a massive kickstart from true freshman Lexi Zeiss, who matched her career-high with a 9.925 in the leadoff spot. Kailin Chio and Haleigh Bryant added a couple of 9.900s, but overall, it felt like the Tigers had some jitters in the first rotation. They still led Michigan State and Arkansas by .025 and 0.050 respectively, though.
LSU moved to the balance beam for their second rotation of the night, and man, these girls cooked. Sierra Ballard led off with a 9.900, but her score ended up being the one that got dropped. That’s because Haleigh Bryant, Kylie Coen and Konnor McClain earned 9.925s and Aleah Finnegan and Kailin Chio posted a pair of 9.950s to give LSU a score of 49.675 on the hardest event of the night…