LSU senior Susan Jackson stepped on the balance beam Saturday night for the final performance of her illustrious gymnastics career and stuck her landing atop the record books.Jackson posted a 9.9625 score on the beam en route to the national championship on the apparatus.The title was the second of the weekend for Jackson, who won the all-around national championship Thursday — the third of her career.”That was the best beam routine I’ve ever seen from Susan Jackson,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “It was such a fitting way for Susan to end her career.”The three individual national championships are the most in LSU history, ahead of Ashleigh Clare-Kearney’s two titles.”All the hard work has finally paid off,” Jackson said. “It’s definitely an honor because there are so many wonderful gymnasts that came before me — April Burkholder, Ashleigh Clare-Kearney — so it’s a great feeling to know I can contend with those girls.”Jackson also competed on the vault, where she won the 2008 national championship, and the uneven bars, placing second and fourth, respectively.But Jackson was not the only Tiger to compete in Saturday’s individual event championships.Fellow senior Summer Hubbard placed as the national runner-up on the uneven bars.”It was kind of surreal,” Hubbard said. “I basically hit the best bar routine that I had hit in my entire life, and it so happened to be the last one of my career. When my feet planted on the mat, I was kind of in shock, and I had nothing else to do but jump up with excitement and enthusiasm.”Breaux said Hubbard had high expectations for herself from her first day at LSU, and she accomplished them all.”I remember the first time she came into my office her freshman year, she looked at the shadowbox I have for [former LSU gymnast and national champion] April Burkholder, and she said, ‘I want one of those,'” Breaux said. “And now being here [in] her senior year as a three-event star, she gets a shadowbox.”The Tigers had another competitor vying for the vault national title alongside Jackson.Sophomore Ashley Lee — who began her career as a walk-on — finished ninth in her first appearance in the individual championships.”I didn’t know what to expect because I had never been there before, so I just kind of went out there and had fun,” Lee said. “It was a really fun experience, and I was just glad to be there.”LSU assistant coach and vault specialist Bob Moore was ecstatic about Lee’s performance.”The kid just has a tremendous heart,” Moore said. “It’s been a great experience for us with her … Whatever circumstance she finds herself in, she wants to be better than that in that moment. She never stops trying to grow.”Lee hopes she can take the experience she gained Saturday and use it to improve for next season.”This experience just drives me and makes me want to work harder,” Lee said. “Now I know I can do it, and next year I want to be back. This year was so rewarding — I want to feel those emotions again and drive the underclassmen to the same thing.”But the end of the 2010 gymnastics season centered around the senior star — Jackson, who also garnered the honor of National Gymnast of the Year.Jackson said she could not have envisioned a better ending to her career.”It’s been a wonderful ride,” Jackson said. “And to go out with a bang is just icing on the cake.”—-Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]