Friday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, 12,838 LSU fans left the arena not only feeling disappointed, but frustrated and cheated as The No. 5 LSU team lost to the No. 10 Kentucky Wildcats by a very slim margin (197.500-197.450), to make matters worse, several fans thought the night ended unfairly for the Tigers.
The controversy began during the final rotation of the night with the Tigers in the lead. While LSU was on beam, the Wildcats took to the floor. Kentucky’s third gymnast in the lineup, Isabella Magnelli, originally scored a 9.825 for her performance but later had it changed to a 9.875 after Kentucky Head Coach Tim Garrison made a protest about the given start value of her routine.
“I don’t fault Kentucky for fighting for their gymnasts,” LSU gymnastics Head Coach Jay Clark clarified later on. “That’s what they’re supposed to do. Whether the rule is applied correctly is up to the meet referee.”
With the alteration, the Wildcats were only a quarter point ahead going into the last event. The Tigers put up a 49.250 score on floor with Sarah Edwards anchoring in Kiya Johnson’s spot.
The junior was originally slated for the floor, but her achilles tendon injury took yet another opportunity away from her. Edwards dominated the floor, matching her career high of 9.925 and registering the highest floor score of the night.
“I was glad I was able to help my team,” Edwards said. “It was my goal to anchor something. I’d never done that. It was a senior moment. I started crying.”
However, the Purple and Gold’s success was still trumped by a rarely-seen technicality.
A frenzy of anger erupted amidst the crowd after the judges announced that they would give Kentucky’s Josie Angeny another attempt on her beam routine. The senior’s original performance was thwarted by an equipment malfunction.
While landing her dismount, the gymnast fell to her knees after supposedly pushing off the rubber stopper at the end of the beam. When the stopper came loose, the Kentucky coach once again made an objection.
Do-overs are rarely seen in collegiate competitions, and the fact that she fell before the malfunction created more controversy from Tiger fans. When gymnasts fall during a beam routine their scores usually only reach a maximum of 9.0. Without her second attempt, which she scored a 9.825 on, the Tigers would have garnered the win instead.
Of course, Clark disagreed with both rulings that were made in the Wildcats’ favor.
“That’s not a functional part of the beam,” a frustrated Clark said after the meet. “It’s cosmetic. It’s not something you dismount off of. She either hit it or it just popped out. I didn’t see it.”
The LSU gymnastics team and staff did not appear too disheartened after the meet though. Clark said he believed the technicality wouldn’t have mattered if they performed like they were supposed to.
“For me, that (ruling) is not the story,” he said. “The story is even with that, if we’d done what we were supposed to do, we wouldn’t be talking about that. We’d be talking about a win. I’m not mad at Kentucky and I’m not mad at the officials. They caught a break.”
The night wasn’t all so bad though, especially for star gymnast Haleigh Bryant. The sophomore topped every event except for floor, where she was only a quarter point away from the highest score. She scored a 39.750 in the all-around, breaking her career high in only a few weeks. She won the all-around title while competing against Kentucky’s Raena Worley, who began the season with the highest all-around average in the nation.
On the night LSU won the vault and all-around events while sharing the title in bars, floor and beam. Bryant scored a 9.95 on vault while she and Sami Durante matched that score in the next rotation on bars. Bryant also scored a 9.95 on beam with Christina Desiderio and freshman Aleah Finnegan following with a 9.90 each.
With one meet left in the season, the Tigers’ record stands 8-3 overall and 4-3 in the SEC. As far as rankings go, the Purple and Gold will still improve because Friday night’s score will cancel out a lower score from earlier this season.
LSU’s worries lie elsewhere for now though. Johnson is once again battling a chronic injury she’s endured since her freshman year. Compensating for the pain in her Achilles tendon, she has now strained the calf muscle on her opposite leg. The 2021 SEC floor champion decided to step out of the final two events after scoring uncharacteristic 9.825s on vault and bars.
“We were in the locker room after warmups when our trainer said, ‘I don’t think she can go.’ [Johnson] came out and said she thought she could go.” Clark spoke in the post-meet interview. “But I could see it in her eyes. I said, ‘Do not feel like you have to do this. I need you to be honest about where you are.’ ”
The purple and gold will close out the season at home next Friday against Utah at 7:30 p.m. The team will then prepare in the following weeks for the SEC Championship and NCAA Regionals.
