The No. 1 LSU gymnastics team claimed every individual title as it blew past Kentucky, 197.800-195.000, Friday night in the PMAC.
Junior all-arounder Rheagan Courville won the all-around title with a 39.625, and senior all-arounder Kaleigh Dickson set her career-high with a 39.500 all-around score on senior night.
“We got take momentum from each person in front of us,” Courville said. “We did what we’ve been doing in practice, and we just kind of went all-out for everything and didn’t worry about much.”
Dickson opened the meet with a career-high tying 9.925 on vault, setting the tone for a 49.450 team score. Courville scored a 9.925 to share the vault title with Dickson, and freshman all-around Sydney Ewing earned a 9.875 on her first vault of the season.
“I love getting to start out the competition, and I love setting the tone for the whole meet,” Dickson said.
After the Wildcats (9-10, 2-5 Southeastern Conference) notched a 48.950 on bars, it tallied a 49.025 on vault in the second rotation. The Tigers (10-3, 5-2 SEC) followed up with a 49.475 on bars, led by Courville’s event-winning 9.950.
LSU took a 98.925-97.975 lead into the third rotation and extended its lead with a season-high 49.450 on beam. Freshman all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat won the beam title and tied her career-high with a 9.950, and no Tiger scored lower than a 9.850.
Kentucky earned a 49.175 team score on floor and trailed 148.375-147.225 heading into the final rotation. The Wildcats totaled a 47.775 on beam, and LSU finished with a 49.425 on floor. Junior all-arounder Lloimincia Hall anchored floor exercise with an event-winning 9.925.
“We’ve tried not to look beyond the meet at hand,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “We went in the gym this week, and I think we worked a lot harder than we did in previous weeks. We had midterms and a lot going on, and they still pushed through it.”
The Tigers will travel to Birmingham, Ala., next Saturday for the SEC championship meet.
“I still think there’s little things we could improve on at SECs, but I think this was the perfect meet to be going into SECs with,” said junior all-arounder Jessie Jordan. “We weren’t perfect tonight, and I think we can still improve, and I think it’s setting us up for a great opportunities at SECs.”