FORT WORTH – The No. 1 LSU Gymnastics team will compete in the evening session of the 2025 NCAA Championship Semifinals on Thursday, April 17 at 8 p.m. CT in Dickies Arena.
The top two teams from each of the four regional sites (Utah, Washington, Alabama, Penn State) make up the field of eight teams in NCAA Semifinals, along with those who qualified as individual competitors. This year’s Elite Eight who are fighting for a spot in the national championship are LSU, Oklahoma, Utah, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, UCLA and Michigan State.
“I’m proud of my team. It was tough to get out of regionals, and we did what we needed to do to win and advance. Our mindset doesn’t change heading into nationals because mindset is a permanent intention for us,” said head coach Jay Clark. “It’s about the next five minutes. They’ve done a great job of staying in the right headspace all year long, and now we’re just focused on taking our next step to the ultimate destination.”
“We understand that the level of competition as we move through any tournament bracket increases. We’ve been battle tested, and the SEC Championship was a great example of that when you had the top three teams in the country in the same meet, but our team is bought in and we are maintaining our same approach. The destination is not the definition for us. It’s how we go about getting there that will define who we are.”
No. 1 LSU will fight for their spot in the championship against No. 4 Utah, No. 5 UCLA and No. 8 Michigan State in the evening session on Thursday while the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners will kick off competition in Semifinal I on Thursday against No. 3 Florida, No. 7 Missouri and No. 11 Alabama at 3:30 p.m. CT.
The Tigers will start the meet on bars on Thursday. Utah starts on beam, UCLA on floor and Michigan State on vault. All teams will rotate in Olympic order in Dickies Arena.
Individual awards and All-Americans will be named at the conclusion of both semifinal sessions on Thursday. Gymnasts that place 1-4 on an event in their respective session will earn first team honors while spots 5-8 will earn second team honors. Individual titles and podium finishes will be based on combined results from both semifinals, and ties will not be broken.
The top two teams from each semifinal session will advance to the NCAA Championship Final (Final Four) on Saturday, April 19, at 3 p.m. CT, live on ABC.
Both semifinal competitions in Fort Worth will be televised nationally on ESPN2 with Olympians John Roethlisberger, Aly Raisman and Sam Peszek on the call. Taylor Davis will serve as the sideline reporter.
In addition, ESPN+ will surround the televised action with additional apparatus live streams on Thursday and Saturday. Bridget Sloan, Trinity Thomas, Kennedy Baker and Anastasia Webb will cover all stream action.
Direct links to every ESPN+ stream can be found here. Live results from Virtius for Thursday’s competition are available here.
LSU NCAA Championships History
Thursday’s semifinal meet starts LSU’s battle to protect their crown, as the team is looking to claim their spot in the NCAA Championship Final and defend last year’s national title.
LSU began their NCAA postseason journey in the Penn State Regional as the No. 1 seed for the first time in program history. It was the program’s 40th straight regional berth and 42nd overall appearance in the postseason.
The Tigers came out on top of their regional after scoring a 198.050 in the Penn State Regional Final on April 5 to claim their 15th regional championship title and secure their spot at nationals.
LSU now owns 34 appearances at the NCAA Championships, with three consecutive appearances under Clark’s tenure.
No. 1 LSU (198.050) and No. 8 Michigan State (198.00) came out on top of their regional final over No. 9 Kentucky (197.625) and No. 16 Arkansas (197.325) to advance to the NCAA Semifinals.
Now, LSU is one of five Southeastern Conference teams to earn a 2025 NCAA Championships berth and complete the field of eight. That is the league high since the Four on the Floor format began in 2019.
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