The Recap: No. 2 LSU Gymnastics Upsets No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners in Pivotal SEC Clash

Jay Clark's crew stuns the Sooners in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, takes down the top-ranked team in America.

Courtesy of LSU Gymnastics.

BATON ROUGE – In a battle between the top teams in the nation, the No. 2 LSU Gymnastics team (7-2, 4-1 SEC) took down No. 1 Oklahoma (10-2, 4-1 SEC) by a score of 198.050-197.675 on Friday night inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. 

In front of a crowd of 13,386, the third largest in program history, the Tigers were powered to the win by season-high scores in vault (49.600) and on the floor (49.700).

Individually, freshman Kailin Chio claimed her third consecutive all-around title with a 39.725.

LSU claimed two event titles - graduate student Sierra Ballard took home the first beam title of her collegiate career with a 9.95 while three Tigers claimed a share of the floor title with a 9.95 - Senior Haleigh Bryant, sophomore Amari Drayton and Chio.

The Tigers handed the Sooners their first loss of the 2025 season. 

“Well, that was certainly the outcome that everybody hoped for around here. It's a great night for us,” said head coach Jay Clark. “We didn't make it easy in spots, but then we came back, put a little pressure back on the meet. And, you know, it's tough to compete here. I mean, it's tough for us when we go to other places, so Oklahoma has certainly been the gold standard, so they deserve a lot of credit for the consistency that they have performed.”

“We had to fight through some things on bars and then really reved it back up on balance beam, and then finally, really put a fairly complete floor rotation together and looked a little more like ourselves. So, we're still rounding in the form in spots, and some people are still getting their legs under them, and we’ve got plenty of places we can get better. But, certainly a great night for our fans and for our team.”

Senior KJ Johnson opened the night on vault with a 9.875 on her opening pass before senior Aleah Finnegan followed up with her own 9.875 in the second spot.

Freshman Kaliya Lincoln scored a career-high 9.95 in the third spot ahead of sophomore Amari Drayton posting a 9.875 in spot four.

It was a strong finish for the Tigers as freshman Kailin Chio posted a 9.95 before senior Haleigh Bryant anchored the rotation with a season-high 9.95. The Tigers concluded the rotation with a 49.600 in vault, a season-high for the program and tied for the highest vault score in the nation thus far this season..

The Tigers led at the first intermission by a margin of 49.600-49.425.

Rotation two took the Tigers to bars, where freshman Lexi Zeiss opened with a career-high 9.875 to lead things off.

Junior Ashley Cowan scored a 9.825 in spot two, followed by a 9.80 from senior Alexis Jeffrey in the third spot. Chio scored LSU’s highest score of the rotation with a 9.90 before Finnegan and sophomore Konnor McClain finished with scores of 9.85 and 9.80, respectively.

LSU concluded the rotation with a team score of 49.250.

At the halfway point, it was all squared up at 98.850-98.850.

Graduate Student Sierra Ballard opened LSU’s third rotation on beam in strong fashion as she tied her career-high with a 9.95 score. Sophomore Kylie Coen scored a 9.875 in the second spot ahead of a 9.925 from Chio in the third spot.

McClain kept it rolling in the fourth spot as she scored a 9.925 of her own, followed by a 9.825 from Braynt in spot five. Finnegan anchored with a 9.70 to bring LSU’s beam rotation to a 49.500, its third highest score of the 2025 season..

The visiting Sooners lead heading into the final rotation by a margin of 148.425-148.350.

The Tigers looked to finish strong on the floor rotation and got the start they were looking for as Lincoln hit a career-high 9.925 to open up.

Ballard followed up in the second spot by matching her career-high with a 9.925 of her own, with Chio continuing the career-high streak for the Tigers with a 9.95 in spot three.

The fourth spot saw Drayton finish strong as she matched her career-high with a 9.95 ahead of Finnegan scoring a 9.80 in the fifth spot. In the final pass of the night, Bryant hit a season-high 9.95 to bring the team’s rotation score to 49.700, a season-high for the Tigers and the second highest floor score in the 2025 season.

The strong floor clinched a 198.050-197.675 win for the Tigers, its first win over a No. 1-ranked foe since defeating No. 1 Florida at the 2021 SEC Championships and first in the regular season over No. 1 since 2016 (A 196.950-196.725 win over No. 1 Oklahoma). 

Chio’s floor and all-around title marks her 11th event titles of the season, with it being her third in the all-around and her first on floor. Bryant’s share of the floor title marked her third title of the season while Drayton and Ballard’s share of floor marks their first event titles of the year.

LSU will return to action next Friday when they hit the road to take on No. 8 Kentucky at 6 p.m. CT on Friday, February 21st on the SEC Network.

More LSU News:

LSU Adds Commitments From Seven Top-100 Transfers in the Portal

LSU Dishes Out Offer to No. 1 Quarterback in America

Nick Saban Calls LSU Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier a "Sleeper" Ahead of 2024 Season

Join the Community:

Follow Zack Nagy on Twitter: @znagy20 and LSU Tigers On SI: @LSUTigersSI for all coverage surrounding the LSU program.