LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux stresses to her team it’s how they finish the season, not how they start, that determines success in a given year.But if early season scores are any indicator of future success for the Tigers, the rest of the season is looking bright.The Tigers averaged a 194.860 team score through their first two meets during winter break, marking a vast improvement from their 194.538 average through two meets last season — a season that ended in a trip to the Super Six.Although the Tigers’ record (2-2, 0-1) may not show much improvement over their 5-0 start last season, in collegiate gymnastics it’s about team scores, not team record.In addition, LSU has seen much individual success from senior Susan Jackson, who captured her second all-around title of the season along with three event titles in the Tigers’ third-place finish out of four teams in the Lady Luck Invitational in Las Vegas on Friday.The Tigers posted a 195.350 in the meet, nearly a full point improvement from their 194.375 in their first meet of the season.Breaux said after the invitational she sees areas where the Tigers will still be able to add valuable points to their individual scores.”We got a lot of positives out of this meet,” Breaux said. “The kids are fired up and excited and saw great things out of themselves. We will regroup, get some technical things straight on floor and bounce back.”The negatives came in the form of two gymnasts — sophomore Gloria Johnson and freshman Shelby Prunty — falling off the beam, a problem that haunted the Tigers last season.A few Tigers also had technical deductions on their floor routines, which allowed Missouri to capture the team title with a final score of 195.625 while Kentucky finished second at 195.525. Arizona State finished fourth with a 192.675.”The first two kids up on floor had some technical deductions in their routines that we are going to go home and fix,” Breaux said. “It was totally my miss and my fault, and it probably would have been enough to put us over the top in the meet even with the debacle on beam.”The third-place finish came on the heels of the Tigers’ season opening 194.375 – 190.625 victory against Maryland in the PMAC on Jan. 8.LSU took home individual titles on all four apparatuses in the Maryland meet.While Jackson won two event titles (bars and floor) and the all-around title, senior Kayla Rogers had a coming out party with a 9.875 to lead off the night on the vault en route to capturing her second career individual title (the other came on the floor).Rogers, who performed on all events except the beam, finished the night with the first-place finish on the vault and second-place finished on both the bars and floor.”I was pretty pleased,” Rogers said after the meet. “I was a little nervous going in, though … That first spot is a very important spot, and I know I’m going to have to be consistent all year in that spot.”Senior Summer Hubbard picked up the Tigers’ fourth event title with a 9.800 on the beam, her fifth career beam title.That event title came after Hubbard took a hard fall on the bars, statistically her best event last season.Overall, Breaux was pleased with the team’s effort in the meet, especially with tough judging.”Our seniors performed exemplary,” Breaux said. “The leadership and maturity they showed on the floor and the example that they set for the other young half of the team is very gratifying.”——Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]