The No. 2 LSU gymnastics team is one win away from clinching the regular-season Southeastern Conference title. But a showdown with No. 3 Florida looms ahead.
With a win against Florida on March 5, the Tigers (11-1, 6-0 SEC) can clinch the SEC title. A loss would result in the splitting of the conference title.
“We started our season and we got to go to Alabama,” LSU coach D-D Breaux said. “We had a great meet there, so this one carries about the same amount of importance to us. You know it’s just another step in the journey to the national championships.”
Being a conference rival, the Gators are following closely behind the Tigers in the national rankings.
Considering Regional Qualifying Scores, LSU is ranked second with 197.695, while Florida is ranked third with 197.495.
“It adds a dimension of suspense,” Breaux said. “We’re not going into this meet a huge favorite, and I think Florida feels like they’re coming in as an underdog. I think the team that has a great competition is gonna be the team that wins.”
That being said, the Tigers plan on going into this meet like they have with every other one and are not treating it differently.
All through the season, Breaux and the gymnasts have focused on competing against every team in the nation every week and not worrying specifically about the team on the other side of the floor.
“It’s going to be the same thing we do every week,” Breaux said. “We’ve got to maintain our discipline and stay in the purple zone, not be concerned with what’s going on across the floor from us. Strictly be concerned with controlling the things that we can control.”
The Tigers are at a point in the season where they evaluate their past meets to prepare for the postseason. Breaux said, in terms of development, she thinks the team is where they need to be and where it wanted to be at that point in the season.
“For us, from what we see, we know that there are places that we can make corrections at and those are things that we’re focusing on in the gym,” senior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat said. “I think that every week we have takeaways, things that we can improve on and get better at. We’re not hyper-focused on those things, we’re focused on being true to who we are, but we want to make those corrections and we want to continue to get better.”
Gnat said winning the SEC is a slated goal for the team, and would be incredible to win, but it’s not at the forefront of their minds right now.
Breaux always hopes to take as many opportunities as possible to exercise her team’s depth, so lineups are never set in stone. Many different gymnasts have had the opportunity to compete this season, but the past never determines the future lineups for Breaux.
“I see the lineup being a reflection of how well our intersquad goes this week,” Breaux said. “The intersquad will be Saturday, so our lineup on Sunday will be a reflection of what happens on Saturday and how well they train during the week.”
A win on Sunday does more than just clinch the SEC title for the Tigers.
“Isn’t that enough?” Breaux joked. “I think that’s plenty. I think doing all of the things that [is] stated about winning the conference, and building consistency and building a team score that will [keep] us ranked either right under Oklahoma or being able to overtake Oklahoma going into our conference championships. But it also affects our seeding going into our regionals.”