After winning 53 individual event titles, eight perfect scores and two Super Six appearances, Ashleigh Gnat’s career is almost done.
As LSU finishes up its regular season against New Hampshire on March 10, the postseason will mean one last opportunity to finish her career with an NCAA championship and one last time to win one for her coach.
“The way that we respect her and honor her, the way that we compete, the passion, the energy, the pride, Gnat said about coach D-D Breaux. “Those are all things that come from her, and they stem from her personality, and that expands into your athletes, and I think that’s an attribute that all great coaches have. Just being able to compete for her is an honor for us personally, so we want to win for her.”
Gnat has been one of the most successful student athletes on campus during her time.
She’s cemented her place in LSU gymnastics history by having the second-most 10’s in LSU history.
“It’s something that needs to be recognized, to be noticed that what we’re doing is so much bigger than just one person,” Gnat said. “It’s an entire university, and we represent something so much bigger than ourselves; and like I said, that needs to have recognition.”
The 11-time All-American doesn’t like to think of herself as the exclusive leader of the team either. It’s not up to one person to push or inspire the rest of the team.
“Our coaches set the tone,” Gnat said. “The way that we handle our gymnastics is what really makes it what it is, and they encourage us, they push us; but they also encourage all of us to be leaders. It’s not one person that’s in charge of being the leader.”
Gnat, along with fellow seniors Sydney Ewing and Shae Zamardi, have contributed to the growth of the gymnastics program at LSU.
Everything from being vocal at practices to producing high scores in competition has contributed to a “rewarding group.”
“It’s been an amazing team effort,” Gnat said. “Every team that I’ve competed on has been so diverse and so different that we’ve been able to unify to create great scores. I would definitely say the team I’m a part of now has for me, personally, just been the most rewarding group of girls to be involved with and get to interact with everyday.”
Breaux said she always knew this would be a special group of girls from the beginning steps of their recruiting process.
“Every single person can do something to contribute to the big picture,” Gnat said. “I think that is something that we have all embraced- to be able to have our own roles and develop our own team chemistry to be where we are.”
In addition to her individual accolades, Gnat has been a part of LSU’s 27-straight home wins and helped LSU post the third-highest score in school history, against Florida on March 5.
But one of the biggest things for Gnat is being an inspiration for younger athletes.
“Our fan base is so young,” Gnat said. “It’s so important to leave an impression on those girls that you can be confident; you can be strong; you can be a fearless athlete. You want to leave the best impression on them. You want them to know that you can do anything, and that we were once them.”

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