LSU gymnastics head coach Jay Clark has been named the the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) Region 1 Coach of the Year.
Clark, who shared the honor with Alabama’s Dana Duckworth, is in his first season as Tigers’ head coach. He led LSU to a second-place finish at the SEC Championships and the program’s 31st NCAA Championships appearance in 2021. Clark is just the fourth head coach in NCAA Gymnastics history to lead two division I programs to the NCAA national championship meet.
LSU will compete in Semifinal II at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, April 16 inside Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The semifinal will be live on ESPN 2 and feature No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 6 Utah and No. 7 Alabama. The top two teams will advance to the NCAA Championship final at 2:30 p.m. CT on April 17.
The LSU team went into postseason as the No. 3 overall team and top seed in the Salt Lake City Regional. It marked the 11th time in school history and seventh time with Clark on staff that LSU earned the top seed in an NCAA Regional.
The squad ranked second on vault and floor, sixth on bars and seventh on beam in the country. LSU gymnasts Haleigh Bryant, Sami Durante, Kiya Johnson and Alyona Shchennikova combined to earn seven All-America honors.
Bryant was named the SEC Freshman of the Year and WCGA Region 1 Gymnast of the Year after a stellar debut season. She was named an All-American on vault, floor and the all-around and won a share of the SEC vault title with fellow freshman Elena Arenas. Johnson was named the SEC Specialist of the Year and won the SEC floor title. The sophomore finished the season ranked No. 1 on floor.
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