LSU Athletics
BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 2 LSU Gymnastics team (10-2-1, 4-2 SEC) finished on top of the fourth-annual Podium Challenge with their score of 198.200 on Sunday afternoon in the Raising Cane’s River Center.
The Tigers closed out their double weekend with their second highest score of the season and third score of 198.000 or higher. No. 2 LSU finished first in Sunday’s quad meet followed by No. 13 Alabama in second (197.650), North Carolina in third (195.950) and Arizona in fourth (195.500).
Sophomore Kailin Chio posted another perfect score at the meet, marking her fourth meet with a perfect 10 and third straight on beam. Chio also earned a perfect score on beam in the Tigers previous two meets against No. 3 Alabama and No. 1 Oklahoma.
She is now at seven total perfect 10’s in her career, with six of those coming just this season and four coming on beam. Her seven career perfect 10’s share the seventh spot for most in program history. She is currently tied with Lloimincia Hall, needing one more to share the program record eight with Aleah Finnegan, Kiya Johnson and April Burkholder.
LSU started the meet on vault, where sophomore Lexi Zeiss led off with a 9.900. Konnor McClain followed with a career high 9.925 in spot. Going third was Victoria Roberts, who scored a 9.850. Kaliya Lincoln followed with another 9.850 in spot four before junior Amari Drayton drilled a team-high 9.95 in the fifth spot. In the anchor spot, Kailin Chio finished the rotation with a 9.850.
The Tigers went 49.475 in the first rotation.
Next, LSU headed to bars where freshman Haley Mustari led off the Tigers with a 9.775 in only her second career appearance on the event. Senior Ashley Cowan put up a strong 9.925 in the second spot, her second consecutive score of 9.9+, followed by a 9.900 from Madison Ulrich in spot three. Chio earned the highest score of the rotation with career high 9.950 in fifth before McClain anchored with a 9.900.
It was a strong 49.550 rotation for the Tigers with the 99.025-98.675 lead over Alabama at the halfway point in the River Center. UNC sat in third and Arizona in fourth.
Junior Kylie Coen got things started for the Purple and Gold on beam with a 9.875 followed by a 9.725 from senior Emily Innes in the second spot. Drayton matched her career high a 9.925 ahead of sophomore Kaliya Lincoln with a career high score of 9.950 in spot four. McClain delivered another 9.950 in the fifth spot that set up Chio’s perfect 10 in the anchor spot to round out the beam lineup for the Tigers. It was a 49.625 for LSU on beam.
LSU moved to its final rotation of the afternoon, where Innes led off the squad with a strong 9.900 on floor. Freshman Nina Ballou followed suit with a 9.875 in the second spot before Coen delivered a career-high 9.975 performance in the third spot. Drayton continued to have a day and put up her third score of 9.9+ on the day, earning a 9.900 in the fourth spot. Ulrich added another 9.900 in the fifth spot before Zeiss finished with a 9.850 in the anchor spot to close out a 49.550 floor rotation for the Tigers.
Three Tigers took home event titles on the day as Drayton won her fourth career vault title, Coen took home her first ever career title on floor and Chio secured her 12th career beam title and ninth this season with her perfect score. She now sits at 50 titles in her career and 28 this season.
Chio nears the record for most individual beam titles in a single season held by Sarah Finnegan with 11 in 2019. The sophomore can match that record with two just two more beam titles this season.
No. 2 LSU will hit the road for another top five battle amongst the SEC’s best next week, this time against No. 4 Florida at 5 p.m. CT on Sunday, March 8 on SEC Network.
**LSU PRESS RELEASE**
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