LSU Gymnast Kailin Chio named 2025 SEC Freshman of the Year
Tina Howell • March 27, 2025
LSU gymnast Kailin Chio has been named the 2025 SEC Freshman of the Year, announced by the Southeastern Conference in its annual gymnastics awards for the season.
Chio has not only been the top freshman performer in the SEC throughout the 2025 season, but also in the country. On top of her FOTY honors, she was also named to the All-SEC and All-Freshman Team. Chio is just the fourth gymnast in LSU history to win the SEC Freshman of the Year award, joining Haleigh Bryant (2021), Kiya Johnson (2020) and April Burkholder (2003), and the 20th gymnast to earn a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team since it began back in 2009.
Chio has had the most historic freshman debut in LSU's history. In her first year, she has competed in the all-around in every meet for the Tigers, recording season highs of 10.0 on vault, 9.950’s on bars and beam, 9.975 on floor and 39.800 in the all-around, the highest all-around score by a freshman in LSU history and in the country currently. She has placed as one of the top five gymnasts in the country for five straight weeks in only her first year, putting up veteran numbers all year long. She owns an NQS of 39.670 in the all-around heading into postseason and has ranked amongst the top 10 gymnasts in the nation for eight out of 12 weeks of competition so far in 2025, including claiming the No. 1 spot on vault for two weeks in week seven and Week 11.
Chio currently ranks in the top 20 on every event nationally with an NQS of 9.9+ across the board. She has had nine meets this year where she has put up scores of 9.900 or better on at least three events for the Tigers and owns 20 titles, with six of those coming on vault, five in the all-around, four on bars, three on beam and two on floor.
Chio has marked many “firsts” in her first year at LSU, including being the first freshman to record a 10 this season after her perfect yurchenko one and a half on vault against Auburn on March 22. It was only the fourth perfect score in the country by any gymnast so far this year.
She also made SEC history when she set the record for the most SEC Freshman of the Week honors in a single season, taking home nine out of 11 awards in 2025, the most by any freshman in SEC history. She broke the previous SEC record of eight set by Florida’s Kayla DiCello’s in 2023 and Haleigh Bryant’s previous LSU record of five.
In her postseason debut, Chio finished amongst the top 10 performers in the 2025 SEC Gymnastics Championships on vault, bars, floor and the all-around. She finished second on floor with her score of 9.950 and fourth in the all-around with her 39.650 at the championships.
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New Orleans Saints 17 - 19 Atlanta Falcons The Saints' season is officially over. As sad as it is to say that, this season ended on a much more positive note than I expected, and has me actually looking forward to the offseason, not dreading it. The defense finished on a positive note, Tyler Shough is definitely the guy for at least the next few seasons, and Kellen Moore improved over the second half of the year. If the season finished how we expected prior to Shough saving the team, this offseason would be much more bleak in appearance. This is supposed to be a week 18 recap, but why recap a game no one really had any expectations for or cared about? No one, not even us Saints fans or analysts, really expected Shough to be able to do much with this offensive group, and he couldn’t really. Sure, he made a few really good plays, but you could tell Kellen Moore was struggling to find plays that he felt confident running with the receivers, and I don’t view that as a negative, just a bad scenario for everyone. Because of this, I am not going to write this really as a week 18 recap, but more as a short preview of this offseason. Chase Young Chase Young has made it clear that he is the best young player on this Saints team. Maybe you could swap him out with Chris Olave, but I struggle to overlook his incredible performances and constant clutch play in big moments to close out the year. He finished this game with one and a half sacks and three tackles for losses, but should have even had one more sack and a forced fumble on his stat sheet. Mickey Loomis seemingly has gotten away with the deal of a lifetime, sorry Loomis haters, by signing Young to a three-year deal for only $17 million per year on average. That is more than $10 million less than what the top 10 defensive end salaries are on a per-year basis, and Young has 10 sacks in 12 games played. While watching this one, I texted my buddies and said that Young is a top 10 EDGE in the league at this point, but they disagree. Although he may not be right now, Chase Young is quickly improving and becoming what everyone expected him to be when he came into the league. If he continues down this path, it would be extremely reasonable for him to try and get a pay raise after next season. Going into this offseason, the Saints must add at least one other piece to the defensive end rotation, so teams are forced to take their focus off of Young and open up the opportunity for even more plays by him. Tyler Shough Tyler Shough did not by any means have a perfect game; he finished 23 of 39 for 259 yards and a touchdown and an interception. However, as I said earlier, I don’t think anyone expected him to with the weapons at his disposal. He led the team down the field multiple times, and a Charlie Smyth missed field goal, and Dante Pettis offensive pass interference made this game appear worse offensively than it was. He made some throws and plays out of scheme that once again added to the current mindset that he is the team’s future, so I am not worried about the interception that came late in the fourth quarter on the tenth or so double slant pattern of the game. However, I will say that Shough’s ability to make things work at times with this battered of a weapon room is impressive in itself, and means that if the team decides to go and get him weapons in the draft or free agency, he can be even more successful. I’d really like the Saints to leave the draft with one of the following: Jeremiyah Love, Jordyn Tyson, Makai Lemon, or Elijah Sarratt. If they do that, I think this offense alongside Shough would be extremely fun to watch next season. The Defense The Saints' defense finished the season without allowing a fourth-quarter touchdown since Week 11 against the Falcons. Yes, week 11. Although I felt the defense started off pretty rough, the second half of the season was a true testament to Brandon Staley’s abilities as a defensive coordinator. The Saints' defense improved this season in both total scoring and yardage allowed in comparison to last season, at 17th and 9th, respectively, before this game. They played another great game here with what should have been two turnovers if it weren’t for a bad call by the refs on the Chase Young strip-sack. Quincy Riley and Jonas Sanker both have been massive additions to this side of the ball, and Danny Stutsman appears to have the potential to be good whenever Werner or Davis leave. If the Saints decide to run it back with this same defense and bring back the vets, it would not be the worst thing in the world, but I would still like to see them bring in more young talent. Closing Time This season was my first writing for the team, and I really enjoyed recapping all of the highs and lows of the season and trying to let you guys know exactly how I felt about the team week in, week out. As much as I hate this team missing the playoffs and the season ending today, I’m happy I had this opportunity and look forward to doing the same next season. I may write a few offseason articles, but if not, I will definitely have a few Saints-focused episodes on my YouTube channel, Jenks Island. Until next time, Who Dat!! Offensive MVP: Tyler Shough Defensive MVP: Chase Young Special Teams MVP: NONE (Please fire Phil Galiano)
The final game of the season is here!