FORT WORTH, Texas — After being the runner-up on four different occasions and a perennial contender for the past several seasons, LSU won its first NCAA gymnastics title Saturday in front of 7,684 fans at Dickies Arena.
The Tigers, who earned the highest score in Thursday’s semifinals, led for the first two rotations Saturday but fell .037 points behind Utah ahead of the final event.
But the team closed the deficit, and then some, on beam.
Competing on her only event of the day, senior Sierra Ballard opened the rotation with a career-high 9.95 and, save for a mistake by graduate student Savannah Schoenherr, the Tigers continued to put up clutch routine after clutch routine for a record-setting total event score of 49.7625 — the highest ever on beam in NCAA championship history.
When Aleah Finnegan, the team’s final performer, stuck her dismount, she hugged assistant coach Ashleigh Gnat and began to visibly shake and sob as she and her teammates — jumping up and down several feet away — seemed to realize what they had just achieved.
Finnegan earned a 9.95 to give the team a final score of 198.225 and the victory over second-place California (197.8500). After struggling on vault, its last event, Utah fell to third place (197.8000)….
