Fil-American Paris Olympian Aleah Finnegan won the individual floor exercise crown and shared the beam honors with two others as the top-seeded Louisiana State University gymnastics’ team claimed the 2025 Penn State Regional crown Saturday.
The 22-year-old Finnegan and the LSU Tigers led with their score of 198.050 inside the Rec Hall of the State College in Pennsylvannia.
It was the first time in program history that the Tigers scored more that 198 in the regional level as they earned their 15th crown at this level in the NCAA division 1 meet.
“There’s no complaints after scoring a 198. It was tough to get out of this thing, and we did what we needed to do to win and advance,” said LSU head coach Jay Clark.
The Tigers outscored Michigan State (198.00), Kentucky (197.625) and Arkansas (197.325) to end up in the top two and reach the NCAA semifinals.
Finnegan, set to see action for the Philippines in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games, won the floor title with her 9.975 and claimed a share of the beam title with her 9.950.
Meanwhile, reigning Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year and LSU teammate Kailin Chio took a share of the beam title with Finnegan and Joscelyn Roberson (Arkansas) with similar 9.95s.
Finnegan now has career total of 43 event titles, with 17 of those coming in the floor, 13 in the beam, six in the vault, one in the bars and six in the all-around.
Her 17 career floor titles are the sixth most in LSU history. Peter Atencio
LSU and Michigan State were the first two teams to advance to the NCAA Championships, along with the Emma Malabuyo-led University of California-Los Angeles Bruins and Utah from the Salt Lake City Regional.
