EAST LANSING — The No. 21 Michigan State gymnastics team was heavily anticipating just its second meet ever at the Breslin Center for its home opener of the 2025-26 season on Sunday, Jan. 25.
MSU attracted a record crowd of 9,887 fans for a mighty test against No. 5 UCLA, led by U.S. Olympian Jordan Chiles.
The Spartans met the moment, compiling a season-best score of 196.900, but they narrowly fell to the Bruins, who posted a 197.425.
“It was better than we were in weeks past,” MSU coach Mike Rowe said. “We have to clean up the bars and take care of some of the little details, but I’m extremely proud of what they did today.
“Right around 197 is where we need to be. The Breslin is great, and seeing the energy as electric as it was, the girls just feed off it. The more amped they are, the better they score.”
Each side recorded a 49.300 team score on the vault, as the Spartans were led by senior Sage Kellerman’s 9.925 score. Sophomore Cady Duplissis hit the 9.900 mark, and co-captain Olivia Zsarmani contributed with a 9.875.
UCLA’s biggest area of separation came in the uneven bars, with the Bruins scoring a 49.350 and the Spartans coming in under a 49 total at 48.975. MSU was led by Kellerman and Zsarmani with scores of 9.875 and 9.850, but Chiles posted a 9.950 score and UCLA’s Sydney Barros also hit the 9.900 mark.
UCLA just edged the Spartans on the beam, scoring a 49.325 to MSU’s 49.275. Senior Nikki Smith paced MSU with a 9.925 score, while MaKayla Tucker posted an individual season-high score of 9.875, followed by another season-high of 9.900 in the anchor spot from freshman Lily Cosman.
MSU fell by just .100 in the final event — the floor exercise. Tucker and Smith both posted 9.925 scores to pace the Spartans. Tucker’s routine tied a career-high score for the junior gymnast, while UCLA’s Chiles recorded a perfect 10.000 in the event.
“We’re catching up, but UCLA has a long history of being a national contender and national championships. They’re a great addition to the Big Ten as a gymnastics program,” Rowe said. “It just makes it now where everyone has to raise their bar, and that’s what we are trying to do. If we didn’t have some of the issues we had on bars today, we would have been right with them.”
MSU now has a 1-4 record, but has had a difficult schedule to begin the season. The Spartans finished third in the Sprout Farmers Market Collegiate Quad to begin the season, finishing just behind both No. 20 California and No. 14 Michigan and finishing higher than No. 9 Kentucky. MSU then fell to Iowa on the road before Sunday’s tightly contested loss to the top-five Bruins.
MSU will have another shot at topping the Wolverines next when the Spartans travel to Ann Arbor to face Michigan on Feb. 1.
Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on X @Nathaniel_Bott
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU gymnastics sets season high score, attendance record in narrow loss to No. 5 UCLA
Reporting by Nathaniel Bott, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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