Three future LSU gymnasts are looking to make it a Tiger threepeat this summer. U.S. Classic AA champion Reese Esponda, American Classic AA champion Tatum Drusch, and 2025 Xfinity U.S. Championships AA champion Hezly Rivera have made their way to Phoenix to compete at the 2026 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championship senior elite division. The two-session meet begins today at 10:00 p.m. on Peacock and NBCSN if you have YouTube TV, and the second session will be Sunday at 6:00 p.m. on NBC and Peacock.
In session 1, Esponda begins on vault while Drusch and Rivera begin on floor.
Esponda is coming off a surprise win at the U.S. Classic where she outdid two-time Olympian Jade Carey with incredible execution on vault and floor. In a media call last week, she noted that she hasn’t decided whether she’ll be deferring her enrollment to LSU yet. Drusch is coming off a disappointing U.S. Classic which got derailed by a balance beam situation. U.S. Classic performances are not an indicator of Championship performance, so it will be interesting to see how she competes here.
The biggest question mark of this entire meet is Hezly Rivera. Last time she competed was at the Pan American Championships in June, a meet in which she withdrew after vaulting with a sore right hamstring. From what I’ve personally gathered, there are conflicting reports on whether she sustained that injury at those championships or if that was an existing injury that flared up again. She’s slated to do the all-around, and is looking for her chance to make her first World Championships after an injury kept her from the 2025 edition.
Rivera is the strongest competitor of the three I’ve mentioned, but she’s got Jade Carey and Skye Blakely nipping at her heels. Blakely is the best gymnast on beam and bars by far, but she’s just getting back to vault and floor. Carey is getting better as the season progresses. That said, Rivera’s upgraded some of her difficulty on beam to try and allow herself to be the first repeat U.S. all-around champion not named Simone Biles since Jordyn Wieber in 2011-12.
