The future of LSU shined bright once again.
Future LSU gymnast Hezly Rivera won the 2026 Xfinity U.S. Championship senior all-around crown for the second straight year. Rivera took home the all-around title with a combined 111.950 in the two-day competition, and she also secured beam gold with a 28.700. Rivera finished second on floor with a 28.300 behind another future Tiger, Reese Esponda. Esponda won floor with a 28.900 and finished fourth in the all-around with a 108.900. Future Tiger Tatum Drusch
finished 13th overall with a 105.000 and finished fourth on vault with a 13.700 average.
If anybody found a new spotlight during this competition, it was Reese Esponda. Esponda had the same score of 14.450 (6.0 D, 8.450 E) on floor on both days to dominate the event and put up the highest scores regardless of event on each day. U.S. Classic was far from a fluke, and it may be the past two competitions that sends her to Antwerp.
Hezly Rivera had to claw her way to a national championship, but she did it. She had the greatest comeback by placement of any gymnast in this event since the open scoring era began in 2006. On day one, Rivera had a fall on bars and failed to get part of her requirements. This put her in a hole behind Skye Blakely and Claire Pease by 0.600. Pease crushed her bars routine, her best event by far, and put herself 1.100 ahead of Rivera going into the final three events. The good news is that Rivers tends to do better on the remaining events, and she drilled them (maybe, don’t ask me about that 14.400 beam score).
All three future Tigers were named to the Senior National Team, meaning they’ll compete for the five main spots on the team that will go to Antwerp for Worlds. That camp will be in October. With this result, future LSU recruits won all four domestic elite competitions in the senior women’s division in 2026. Rivera won this and the Winter Cup, Drusch won the American Classic and Esponda won the U.S. Classic.
