FORT WORTH, Texas — Winning the national championship isn’t a goal for the LSU gymnastics team.
“Goals to me are like vapor,” LSU coach Jay Clark said here Wednesday.
Instead, the Tigers talk about intentions. Right from the top. In fact, winning the national title is spelled out in the team handbook every LSU gymnast is given before the season.
“The first couple of pages outline our intentions,” Clark said. “Our intentions academically, competitively and environmentally.
“What are we intending to be? We want to compete for and win the national championship.”
The first step in achieving LSU’s long pursuit of the program's first NCAA team title begins Thursday with the NCAA championships semifinals at Dickies Arena.
The Tigers, the No. 2 national seed, compete in the afternoon session at 3:30 p.m. against No. 3 California, No. 12 Arkansas and No. 19 Stanford. The other semifinal Thursday finds No. 1 seed and reigning NCAA champion Oklahoma taking on No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Utah and No. 8 Alabama.
The top two teams advance to the NCAA championships meet at 3 p.m. Saturday. In addition, the NCAA individual titles will be decided Thursday in the all-around competition as well as vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor.
Both semifinals will be on ESPN2, while Saturday’s final will be on ABC.
Last year, LSU had to survive a tiebreaker to get here. The Tigers were tied for the second and last transfer spot in the NCAA Denver regional with Michigan, with the competition going to each team’s sixth-place scores — which are usually discarded. A team wracked by injuries all season, LSU made a surprising appearance in the final before finishing fourth.
This season, the Tigers have left little to chance or debate as to whether they are one of the nation’s best teams. LSU was the Southeastern Conference regular-season runner-up to Florida but stormed to the SEC championships meet title in March at the Smoothie King Center, its first since 2019.
That helped propel LSU to its No. 2 NCAA seed. The Tigers then took care of business in the NCAA Fayetteville regional, finishing first to advance and become the top-seeded team in their semifinal.
Clark said the SEC and regional titles only help his team when it takes the ultimate stage in college gymnastics.
“When you have a team that believes it’s good and can compete, that’s awesome,” he said. “What we did at SECs should give them confidence.”
The Tigers will compete in the Olympic rotation as they would at home — vault, bars, beam and floor.
“Finishing on floor is good for us,” Clark said with a knowing smile. “We’re pretty good on floor.”
LSU has the nation’s best season average in the event.
The Tigers are led by senior Haleigh Bryant. An NCAA vault champion in 2021 as a freshman, Bryant has enjoyed her best season at LSU. She won the AAI Award on Tuesday, given to the nation’s top senior gymnast. She is ranked No. 1 nationally in the all-around and on vault, both events she won at the SEC championships.
Bryant is the NCAA’s active leader with 18 career perfect 10s, including eight this season. She is one of four Tigers who had 10s this season along with fellow senior Kiya Johnson, junior Aleah Finnegan (floor) and freshman Konnor McClain (bars, beam).
Kiya Johnson and KJ Johnson shared the SEC floor title, while McClain won beam with a perfect 10 and Ashley Cowan won on bars. Finnegan’s third 10 of the season on floor came in the Fayetteville regional semifinal.
The Tigers were without Kiya Johnson here last year, having lost her in January to an Achilles tendon tear. Clark has some worries about one of Bryant’s hamstrings and sixth-year senior Savannah Schoenherr’s shoulder, but he said overall that’s to be expected after 3½ months of competition.
“We’re certainly in a better place physically than we were last year,” he said. “We have some dings and things, but we’re in a good spot. We had good preparation (Wednesday). We weren’t perfect, but I don’t like to be perfect the day before a meet.”
Perhaps more importantly for a team as talented as LSU is to be relaxed heading into nationals.
“This team is already a championship team,” Clark said. “I just want us to do our best with no regrets, regardless of the outcome.”
In other words, best intentions.