No. 5 seed UCLA gymnastics will head to Fort Worth, Texas, to compete in Session II of the NCAA National Semifinals on Thursday. They will battle No. 1 seed LSU, No. 4 seed Utah and No. 8 seed Michigan State for one of two tickets the national championship. Sports contributor Hannah Westerhold breaks down three of the nation’s top eight squads.

LSU
Seeding: No. 1
Strength: Vault
Weakness: Beam
X-Factor: Aleah Finnegan

The reigning national champions are back in the semis and will meet UCLA for the first time this season.

The Tigers enter Fort Worth, Texas as the No. 1 team on vault – they held the ranking for eight weeks in the regular season.

Leading the vault lineup is Kailin Chio, who has been a staple all-arounder for LSU in her rookie season. The SEC Freshman of the Year notched vault scores higher than 9.900 eight times this season and achieved perfection March 14 against Auburn.

Chio’s owns career-highs of at least 9.950 on every event, including a 9.975 on floor, four 9.950 marks on beam and two 9.950 scores on bars. Chio finished the regular season No. 5 in the nation’s all around standings, with her career-high 39.800 marking LSU’s highest freshman all-around score in program history.

At No. 5, beam is LSU’s lowest ranked event. But the squad tied its season-high 49.675 beam total April 5 – a score UCLA’s No. 4 ranked beam squad has surpassed only once this season.

Aleah Finnegan, who represented the Philippines at the 2024 Olympic Games, scored her only perfect score this season March 7 against Georgia – her second career perfect 10 on beam. And she is fresh off two consecutive 9.950 marks and her second consecutive NCAA regional beam title – helping turn the event into one of the Tigers’ strengths as the postseason approached.

Last year, Finnegan helped the Tigers to a national title with a 9.950 on beam – the squad’s second highest score in their season-high 49.7625 beam total.

Another crucial player in the Tiger’s lineup is Haleigh Bryant – the reigning NCAA all-around champion. Bryant has competed in seven all-around meets this season – marking scores 9.900 or higher in every competition.

If LSU continues to perform as they have all season, then a repeat could be in reach.

Utah
Seeding: No. 4
Strength: Beam
Weakness: Vault
X-Factor: Grace McCallum

Despite qualifying for every NCAA national championship since NCAA gymnastics’ inception in 1982, the Red Rocks haven’t claimed a title since 1995.

Led by Olympian Grace McCallum, Utah could flip the script this season.

McCallum lifted the Red Rocks to their No. 4 national bars ranking with three perfect scores – matching the three 10s she’s tallied on the event since 2022.

Bars isn’t McCallum’s only claim to perfection in 2025. She scored her first career 10.0 on beam March 15 against UCLA, helping Utah – a program long known for its performance on the event – to the No. 3 national beam ranking.

Another staple in the beam lineup is Amelie Morgan, who was part of Great Britain’s bronze medal-winning team at the 2020 Olympic Games. Morgan has added two 9.925 marks to the mix in 2025, alongside being a regular in the bars lineup. Avery Neff has also impacted the beam lineup as a freshman, only recording scores of 9.875 or higher this season.

Makenna Smith is a pillar in Utah’s bars lineup, scoring 9.900 or higher four times this season. But Smith’s highest scores come on vault and floor – Utah’s lowest ranked events, with each ranked No. 6 in the country.

Smith notched career-high 9.975 marks on both events this season and added three 9.950 marks to the Red Rock’s vault totals. Smith has also made every floor lineup this season, and she hasn’t scored below a 9.825.

Despite being its highest-ranked event, Utah struggled to find beam consistency in recent meets. Following their season-high 49.625 March 22, the Red Rocks dropped almost half a point April 3, with the team’s beam totals varying the most of any event over its past four meets.

UCLA and Utah just met March 15, where the Red Rocks defeated the Bruins by 0.675. But the Red Rocks’ 198.100 marked a season-high, and the Bruins are only .100 behind them in the national rankings.

Maintaining consistency come Thursday could be the key to continuing the Red Rocks’ unblemished championship streak.

Michigan State
Seeding: No. 8
Strength: Vault
Weakness: Beam
X-Factor: Gabrielle Stephen

Michigan State is the only squad in Semifinal II without a national title to its name.

As they reach their first semifinal since 1988, the 2025 squad could make program history.

UCLA has beaten Michigan State twice this season, but neither win came without a fight. In their Feb. 1 dual meet, the Spartans led by .700 heading into the final rotation. At the Big Ten Championships on March 22, UCLA again trailed Michigan State until the final rotation – and again managed to come out on top.

At No. 4, vault is the only event where Michigan State is ranked in the nation’s top five. The Spartans have maintained the top-five event ranking since week four and landed a program record-setting 49.650 total at the Pennsylvania regional final – breaking the 49.600 mark set against UCLA nine weeks prior.

Nikki Smith leads the Spartans in the individual vault rankings with her 9.935 NQS, landing her at No. 4 in the country. Smith has only recorded vault scores higher than 9.800 this season, including five 9.950 marks.

Sage Kellerman is just behind Smith in the national vault rankings at No. 6, with her scores breaking 9.900 for the past three weeks. Olivia Zsarmani owns another consistent spot in the Spartan’s vault lineup, only marking scores equal to or higher than 9.800 in 2025. Zsarmani also tied her career-high 9.975 March 22 to win the event title at the Big Ten Championships.

But Gabrielle Stephen is the only Spartan to achieve vault perfection this season – recording her first 10 on the event two weeks ago. One week prior, Stephen earned her first career perfect score on beam at the conference championships, leading Michigan State to a season-high 49.500.

While Stephen has proven capable of beam perfection, she has lacked consistency this season. Stephen marked four scores below 9.350, including a 9.300 last week – one meet after a 9.900 mark and two meets after her perfect score.

Beam is tied with floor for Michigan State’s lowest ranked events at No. 13 in the nation, and a hit routine from Stephen could be what the squad needs to advance to the championship.