Saturday was just not the LSU gymnastics team’s day.The Tigers (11-7-1) entered the 2010 Southeastern Conference Championship meet with aspirations of bringing home its first conference title since 1981 but left with a fourth-place finish.Florida won the meet, posting a 197.050. The Gators were followed by Alabama, Georgia and LSU.”Overall I think we were a little disappointed that we got fourth,” said senior Sabrina Franceschelli. “But we have to keep staying in the process. Like [Coach D-D Breaux] says, ‘It’s not where you start — it’s where you finish,’ so we’re hoping to finish up a little bit better than we did.”The Tigers started the meet on the uneven bars, where they posted a 48.850. Seniors Summer Hubbard and Susan Jackson were the leading scorers on the apparatus, each scoring a 9.85, and Franceschelli went 9.75.LSU posted a solid score on its second apparatus, the balance beam. Jackson again led the way, scoring a 9.90. Freshman Ericka Garcia posted a career-high 9.85, and freshman Shelby Prunty tied her career-high 9.80 on the beam.Third on the lineup for the Tigers was the floor exercise, which was the team’s downfall. The Tigers scored a 48.450, well below their season average of 49.025 on the apparatus. Franceschelli led the team on the apparatus with a 9.85, and sophomore Ashley Lee followed with a 9.75.But the day ended on a positive note for LSU as it posted a 49.300 on vault. The score gave LSU a share of the team vault title with Alabama, its first team event title at the SEC Championships since an uneven bars title in 2004.Breaux said the long season has taken a toll on her team, but she was surprised by its performance on the floor exercise.”We have used the same nine kids all season long, and they are tired and dinged up,” Breaux said. “But that is not an excuse we can use to explain why we fell short on an event we should do very well on.”Jackson’s score of a 9.90 on the vault gave her a share of the vault title along with Alabama’s Morgan Dennis and Georgia’s Hilary Mauro. The title was Jackson’s third SEC event championship. She won the vault title in 2008 and the balance beam title in 2009.She also garnered First Team All-SEC honors for the third consecutive year.But the greatest accolade was still to come for Jackson.She was named the 2010 SEC Gymnast of the Year at the meet.Jackson joins former LSU gymnasts April Burkholder and Ashleigh Clare-Kearney as the only Tigers to achieve that honor.”This is a huge honor for me,” Jackson said. “To be the athlete of the year in such a tough conference is huge.”Franceschelli said the team will use the fourth-place finish at the SEC meet as a driving force to perform well in the upcoming NCAA Regional meet.”We’re going to use this as motivation, and we’re going to work harder on the little things,” Franceschelli said.Breaux is optimistic the Tigers can advance to their third consecutive Super Six.”I believe with all my heart this team is good enough to qualify for the national championships and be in the Super Six,” Breaux said. “It is going to take working hard every day, knowing every time we go in the gym we are going to be closer and closer to that goal.”
 
 
 
—-Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]