Diane Clare-Kearney travels over 1,000 miles once a year to see her daughter, LSU junior gymnast Ashleigh Clare-Kearney, perform. The elder Clare-Kearney’s most recent trip from Manchester, Conn., turned out to be worth the 20-hour voyage. Thanks to a 39.675 all-around score, which included scores of 9.900 on three of four events, Ashleigh Clare-Kearney led No. 6 LSU to a season-high score in a 197.175-196.275 victory over Pennsylvania State University. “[Ashleigh Clare-Kearney] was really special,” LSU coach D-D Breaux said. “Every other time that her mom has been here for a meet it has not been this good, and she really put together a great performance.” LSU started the meet slowly on vault, but seniors Kelly Phelan and Nicki Butler, along with Clare-Kearney scored 9.850, 9.900 and 9.975, respectively, to sweep the event and give LSU an early lead. Breaux said LSU’s early struggles allowed Penn State to stay close to the Tigers early. “We made it a meet because we gave them two-tenths by not competing our best on our best event,” she said. LSU took control of the meet on the uneven bars in the second rotation, scoring a season-high 49.300, taking a 98.575-98.075 advantage. Butler, Clare-Kearney, LSU senior Lisa Rennie and Nittany Lions senior Corissa Pirkl shared the title on bars with a 9.875. The Tigers also scored well in the third rotation on the event that has been the team’s nemesis all season -the balance beam. Clare-Kearney won the event for LSU with a 9.900, while Butler and Phelan each shared third place with 9.850. LSU suffered one fall on beam when one of the team’s most stable beam performers, freshman Susan Jackson, fell in the last position. Jackson still scored 9.400, which Breaux said proves Jackson had a good set. “I don’t really know what happened,” Jackson said. “I was a little off so I overcompensated, and I got a little crooked so my foot kind of slipped off.” Jackson did not need much time to recover, as she led off the floor rotation for the Tigers with a 9.850. “I had to move on to the next event,” Jackson said. “If I would have gone to the floor still really mad, I wouldn’t have done as well.” LSU had a season-high score on floor, a 49.500 to seal the victory. Each Tiger scored above 9.800 on floor, and junior Kristi Esposito’s 9.825 was dropped. “At our first meet, our highest score was a 9.825,” Jackson said. “But now we are dropping 9.825’s, so we’ve really moved up.” Clare-Kearney and sophomore Lauren Klein won the event for LSU with 9.925 scores. Butler and Phelan also performed solid routines for LSU with 9.900s. Breaux said the Tigers’ dominance on floor was because of enhanced difficulty of the team’s routines. With her all-around score of 39.675, Clare-Kearney now owns the No. 7 all-around score in LSU history for an individual meet. Clare-Kearney said the meet marks the best performance of her career. “I am definitely proud of myself for that,” she said. “I have been wanting to put together four strong events consistently, so it’s definitely a good feeling.” LSU returns to action next Friday against No. 8 University of Nebraska. Breaux said the Cornhuskers will be a step up in competition but that LSU is hitting its stride as the season comes to an end. “When somebody is happy and they are loving what they are doing, that is just a great combination,” she said. “And right now this is a happy little team.”
—–Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]