Aleah Finnegan was on the verge of tears the moment her feet hit the mat following her balance beam routine in the anchor spot of LSU’s lineup.
The Tigers entered the final rotation of the NCAA women’s gymnastics championship Saturday trailing Utah by .037, and though the Utes left the door open with a few mistakes on vault, LSU needed Finnegan to put up a clutch performance to replace the 9.3875 Savannah Schoenherr received after an uncharacteristic fall. Fellow Tigers Konnor McClain, Kiya Johnson and Haleigh Bryant recorded three straight scores of 9.950 or better to get the Tigers back on track, but the margin of error remained slim after Utah rallied to a strong finish.
With a shot at clinching LSU’s first national title teetering on the four-inch width of the beam, Finnegan delivered.
The 21-year-old, who will represent the Philippines at the Paris Olympics this summer, was rock solid from the moment she jumped to perch sideways for her mount. She floated through her difficult back handspring, layout step-out, layout step-out series, tossed a front aerial with ease and capped the title-winning performance by drilling her full-twisting gainer dismount.
LSU started celebrating before the judges flashed Finnegan’s score, and when her 9.950 sealed the deal, there were Tiger tears everywhere. The 49.7625 total on beam was a program high for LSU, and it propelled the team to a final score of 198.225.
“We all worked so hard this entire season, and I looked at them before I went. We wanted this so bad. I wanted it for them, and that routine was for every single one of them and everybody in this room,” Finnegan said after the meet.
ICE IN HER VEINS
Aleah. Finnegan. Called. Game. pic.twitter.com/3HAOlSVg7D
— LSU Gymnastics (@LSUgym) April 20, 2024
Tiger fans packed Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, to watch their team attempt to become just the eighth school to capture a national title in women’s gymnastics. With the win, LSU joins an exclusive club that includes Georgia, Utah, UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida and Michigan. The championship is also a first for coach Jay Clark, who was a part of multiple title-winning teams as an assistant at Georgia under Suzanne Yoculan but hadn’t previously claimed a championship as the leader of a program.
California edged Utah to finish second with a 197.85 in its first appearance in an NCAA women’s gymnastics championship final, while Florida placed fourth following a shaky beam rotation that forced the Gators to count a routine with a fall.
LSU began its climb to the top of collegiate gymnastics on its strongest event, the floor exercise. Superb performances by freshmen McClain and Amari Drayton in LSU’s first rotation set the tone early, but the Tigers faced their first hurdle when veteran competitor KJ Johnson received a 9.2875 after sitting down the landing of her second tumbling pass. The back half of the floor lineup righted the ship to send the Tigers into vault with a slight lead over California.
Miss McClain sure knows how to get things started 🔥
The freshman leads off with a 9.925
📺 ABC | @_KonnorMcClain pic.twitter.com/INJgVFgx5j
— LSU Gymnastics (@LSUgym) April 20, 2024
Though the Tigers didn’t find any sticks on vault in their second rotation, Kiya Johnson and Bryant put up scores of 9.9125 and 9.950, respectively, to keep ahold of a slim 0.1 lead heading into the second half of the meet. A solid performance on the uneven bars in the third rotation kept LSU firmly in contention, but Utah briefly overtook the Tigers after every gymnast in the Utes’ floor lineup recorded a 9.900 or higher.
Entering the final rotation with a 0.037 lead, the Utes struggled on vault, their weakest event. Landing errors by gymnasts early in the lineup ultimately knocked Utah out of the top spot, and the remaining two teams vying for first place couldn’t keep up with the scores coming out of LSU’s ice-cold bounceback on beam.
With its first national title, LSU extends its storied history of individual NCAA champions, All-Americans, conference titles and runner-up finishes by finally ascending to claim the sport’s biggest crown.
Where was Oklahoma?
The Sooners, who many expected to sail to their third straight NCAA title, failed to advance to the final four after a shocking collapse in the semifinals on Thursday. The Sooners’ troubles began on vault, one of three events in which they were ranked No. 1 in the country, when three gymnasts fell on their landings. They appeared to shake their nerves with a strong bars rotation, but two falls on beam spelled the end of Oklahoma’s title defense.
Individual national champions
NCAA all-around and individual event titles are awarded on scores earned during the preliminary round prior to the team final.
On Thursday, Bryant was named the NCAA all-around champion with a score of 39.7125, and Finnegan picked up an individual title on floor with a 9.9625.
Stanford’s Anna Roberts claimed the vault title with a 9.950 to become the Cardinal’s first NCAA champion since 2018. Oklahoma’s Audrey Davis and Florida’s Leanne Wong split the bars crown with matching scores of 9.9625, and Davis also got a share of the beam title after posting a 9.9625 to tie with teammate Faith Torrez.
AUDREY. DAVIS. OH. MY. GOSH.
It’s a 9.9625 for the senior! pic.twitter.com/cLzizuYGBW
— Oklahoma Women’s Gym (@OU_WGymnastics) April 19, 2024
Required reading
(Photo: Aric Becker / ISI Photos / Getty Images)
