Jay Clark evaluates where Livvy Dunne stands ahead of final season at LSU

It would have been understandable if Livvy Dunne chose not to return to LSU and instead capped her gymnastics career on a national championship. After all, for someone who has found success in and out of the gym, it would have been a great way to finish her competitive career.

Still, Livvy Dunne chose to return to LSU and compete in the 2025 gymnastics season as a fifth-year senior, a decision that Tigers coach Jay Clark is clearly happy with as he broke down where she stands in her final season.

“Liv did a great job,” Jay Clark said. “Liv does a great job any time we’ve needed her. I think she’s proven that she’s able to go at a moment’s notice.”

LSU opened up its 2025 season and national championship defense with a 197.300-194.100 win over Iowa State. That meet was held in Baton Rouge and saw Livvy Dunne compete on the balance beam and the floor exercise. She scored a 9.825 on the beam and 9.875 on the floor. Clark even had her prepare as an alternate on the uneven bars.

Liv beam debut alert 🚨@livvydunne scores a 9.825 in the fourth spot!

📺 SEC Network pic.twitter.com/7X4zecAtba

— LSU Gymnastics (@LSUgym) January 4, 2025

“She did it on bars too. People don’t even know that I made a change after the 15-minute touch and made her the alternate on bars,” Clark said. “And she went cold and did a bar set in our two-minute touch warmup and was ready to go there too if something had happened.”

Aleah Finnegan and Kailin Chio were the only two Tigers to compete in all four events. In fact, of the 12 different Tigers who competed during the meet, nine competed in two events or fewer total. So, the versatility that Livvy Dunne offers is massive to LSU.

“She’s just very versatile. She’s confident in what she’s doing,” Clark said. “Her gymnastics right now, the level she’s at is comfortable for her and it was good to see her grow in confidence. I think that’s the first time she’s competed balance beam outside of an exhibition. I don’t know for sure, but I thought she did a really good job. She has a nice line and a good look. Give a different look on balance beam than some other people do. Her leaps are great and she shows those 180 splits really well. She did a great job. She’s a serious competitor.”

Livvy Dunne has become one of the best known college sports figures during her time at LSU. With that, she has an On3 NIL Valuation of $4.2 million. That comes from a proprietary algorithm that combines roster value and NIL value of an athlete. That puts Dunne fifth on the On3 NIL 100 list and makes her the highest-valued female athlete.

“She’s always been in the mix. Even when she hasn’t been out there for us, she’s been very relevant almost all of her career and I’ve said it before,” Clark said. “I don’t think she gets the credit she deserves sometimes in terms of the impact she’s had for us because that role she played almost all year last year was extremely important. If we had the equivalent of a sixth-man award like they have in the NBA I would say she probably would have been a favorite to win it.”

The LSU Tigers will be back in action on Saturday, January 11th when they’ll compete at the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad against California, Oklahoma, and Utah. SEC play begins against Florida on January 17th.