FORT WORTH, Texas — As much as she hates to admit it, Kailin Chio is an incurable scoreboard watcher.
Thursday afternoon in LSU’s NCAA gymnastics semifinal at Dickies Arena, the Tigers’ star sophomore glanced up at the big video scoreboards hanging over the floor in Dickies Arena and didn’t like what she saw.
LSU led after one event, fell to second after two and slid to third place behind Florida and Georgia going to the final rotation. Only the top two teams would advance to Saturday’s NCAA final. It was uncomfortably like the fix the Tigers found themselves in during last year’s NCAA semifinals, when LSU shockingly finished third and failed to advance after coming in as the No. 1 national seed.
Typically not one of the Tigers’ most vocal gymnasts, Chio gathered her teammates around her and told them straight what needed to happen next.
“I circled up the team after beam and told them we were not going to do this again,” Chio said. “We had to put the pedal to the metal.”
After wobbly rotations on uneven bars and balance beam, LSU went to floor and floored it. The nation’s No. 1-ranked floor squad, LSU posted at 49.525, two-10ths better than Georgia’s score on vault. The difference in those marks allowed the Tigers to surge past the Bulldogs and into the second transfer spot to Saturday’s final, 197.4375-197.2625.
“I knew this team could do it,” Chio said. “We did exactly the floor rotation that we needed.”
The Tigers advanced to the NCAA final for the 11th time in program history and third time in the past four years. LSU and Florida, which finished first with a 197.7875, awaited the top two teams from Thursday’s second session between Arkansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma and UCLA at 3 p.m. Saturday on ABC.
Stanford, which also advanced with LSU out of the NCAA Baton Rouge regional, was a distant fourth at 196.9375.
“We made it interesting,” LSU coach Jay Clark said, a bemused look on his face. “It wasn’t our best day by a long shot.”
Still, a quality Clark believed his team possessed since its very first meet came back to him amid Saturday’s anxious drama.
“At Sprouts (Collegiate Quad), we messed around in a similar fashion,” Clark said. “But they learned that day they were fighters. They don’t quit. They keep swinging. That’s what they did.
“Certainly our bars and beam weren’t what we’ve grown accustomed to doing. But we survived. We fought through serious adversity.”
As the No. 2 overall seed and the top seed in the semifinal, LSU competed in the Olympic rotation as it would at home, with the Tigers starting on vault. After a 9.725 from Victoria Roberts in the third spot, LSU finished strong with 9.9625s from Kaliya Lincoln in the fourth spot in the lineup and a 9.9625 from Chio as well, giving the Tigers a slim 49.475-49625 lead over Florida after one rotation.
Lincoln was one of two injury concerns for LSU, having been bothered by an ulnar nerve issue in her elbow since last month’s Southeastern Conference championships. She was able to do all three of her events as usual, but the bigger concern was Konnor McClain.
The junior suffered a hard fall when she missed a hand hold on the top bar during her uneven bars in the regional final. She practiced well Wednesday but said she wasn’t sure she could compete on vault, bars and beam until she got through pre-meet warmups Thursday.
“I struggled in warmups and I was like, ‘Oh man, not again,’ ” McClain said. “The buildup to be here today was really hard. I’d wake up sometimes (the past two weeks) and my arm would hurt and I couldn’t practice. It was a day-to-day struggle. But it was so fun to be here today.”
Without McClain, LSU would have been hard-pressed to advance to the NCAA final. After posting a 9.825 on vault, she anchored bars with a team-best 9.9125, then finished first in the session with a 9.95 on beam.
Despite McClain’s performances, LSU still trailed Georgia 147.9375-147.9125 going to the final rotation after only scoring a 49.1875 on bars and a 49.250 on beam.
The Tigers opened on floor with a solid 9.8625 from Emily Innes, but were left no room for error when freshman Nina Ballou got a 9.775 in the second spot. Kylie Coen followed with a 9.85, but LSU trailed Georgia by three-10ths at that point.
The second half of the Tigers’ rotation came through, however. Amari Drayton got a 9.9375, which Chio followed with a 9.9625 to take the floor event lead. Meanwhile, CaMarah Williams, Georgia’s vault anchor, got only a 9.7625, leaving the Bulldogs behind the Tigers 197.300-197.2625 at that point. Lincoln finished with a 9.9125 in LSU’s floor anchor spot, but it was lagniappe at that point.
Chio finished first on vault, floor and in the all-around (39.6125) in the session, giving her 66 individual wins for her career, good for an eighth-place tie in program history with Jeanie Beadle. Chio has 43 wins in 2026, fourth-most in a season for any LSU gymnast.
NCAA Championships
At Dickies Arena
Fort Worth, Texas
Session I
Top two advance to NCAA final
1. #3 Florida 197.7875 (Vault — 49.225, Bars — 49.6625, Beam — 49.4625, Floor — 49.4375)
2. #2 LSU 197.4375 (Vault — 49.475, Bars — 49.1875, Beam — 49.250, Floor — 49.525)
3. #6 Georgia 197.2675 (Vault — 49.325, Bars — 49.150, Beam — 49.250, Floor — 49.5375)
4. #7 Stanford 196.9375 (Vault — 48.875, Bars — 49.2875, Beam — 49.525, Floor — 49.250)
Individual (includes first place and all LSU competitors, regional titles decided after both semifinals)
All-around — 1. Kailin Chio, LSU, 39.6125; 2. eMjae Frazier, Florida, 39.5625; 3. Kayla DiCello, Florida, 39.5375.
Vault — T1. Kailin Chio, Kaliya Lincoln, LSU, 9.9625; T6. Amari Drayton, LSU, 9.875; T9. Lexi Zeiss, LSU, 9.85; T15. Konnor McClain, LSU, 9.825; 26. Victoria Roberts, LSU, 9.725.
Bars — 1. Riley McCusker, Florida, 9.9875; 5. Konnor McClain, LSU, 9.9125; T13. Lexi Zeiss, Ashley Cowan, LSU, 9.8375; T21. Kailin Chio, Haley Mustari, LSU, 9.80.
Beam — T1. Konnor McClain, LSU, Ana Barbosu, Stanford, 9.95; T8. Kailin Chio, LSU, 9.8875; T13. Amari Drayton, LSU, 9.8625; T24. Kylie Coen, LSU, 9.7875; 26. Lexi Zeiss, LSU, 9.7625; 28. Kaliya Lincoln, LSU, 9.425.
Floor — 1. Kailin Chio, LSU, 9.9625; T2. Amari Drayton, LSU, 9.9375; T6. Kaliya Lincoln, LSU, 9.9125; T16. Emily Innes, LSU, 9.8625; T19. Kylie Coen, LSU, 9.85; 27. Nina Ballou, LSU, 9.775.
Attendance: 5,170
