If there’s one word to describe the collegiate careers of the LSU gymnastics senior class, it would be consistency.
Since her sophomore year, senior all-arounder Erin Macadaeg has led off the beam rotation and helped the Tigers become one of the strongest teams on beam in the nation.
LSU currently has an average beam score of 49.315 this season. In their last meet against Auburn, LSU set a season-high score in the beam rotation with a 49.525.
“I love being the leadoff performer,” Macadaeg said. “It’s been kind of my comfort zone. It just makes me feel good that my team feels confident in me going up as lead off. They always say that I set the tone.”
Macadaeg had competed on beam in all but one of her meets in her freshman year. One of the crowning moments of that year came in the meet against Georgia, where she set a career high score on beam with a 9.95.
But Macadaeg had a rough outing on beam in that year’s semifinal as she scored a 9.25 in the event.
LSU fell short in the 2015 NCAA Event Finals, and placed fifth out of six teams in the competition.
“At Super Six, we felt the disappointment of having to sit in the stands,” Macadaeg said. “I think that has given us a motivator to motivate ourselves and our team to not be in that same spot. We used that motivation to push ourselves every day in the gym.”
Senior all-arounder Lauren Li didn’t even go to school in Louisiana for her freshman year. Li transferred from Penn State and joined the Tiger roster in her sophomore year.
Li competed in the all-around at Penn State for her freshman year and had career highs on beam with a 9.90 and in the all-around with a 39.100.
At LSU, Li has provided depth in the beam rotation. She set a career high in the rotation with a 9.925 against George Washington and Iowa her junior year.
Fellow senior all-arounder Myia Hambrick* continues to be the top floor specialist in the nation. She scored the second perfect 10 of the meet on floor against Auburn, and helped LSU to another season-high score of a 49.700 in
the rotation.
Hambrick is currently ranked as the fourth-best all-arounder in the country.
As a freshman, Hambrick competed on floor five times and had an average score of a 9.580.
Since her sophomore year, Hambrick has had a career floor average of a 9.866 and has clinched multiple floor titles in that time span.
“We have some of the best crowds all over, and they just really love floor,” Hambrick said after the Auburn meet. “Floor traditionally is a really good event for LSU. It’s kind of been our event that we go to and say, ‘Oh, we can put up a big score no matter what.’”
Former Tigers that have had their shining moments on floor. Current student coach Ashleigh Gnat captured the floor national championship in her senior season at last year’s NCAA Semifinal with a 9.9625 and never scored below a 9.90 on floor last season.
Another former LSU gymnast, Lloimincia Hall, scored seven perfect 10s throughout her career in the rotation.
But while Gnat and Hall have decorated careers with the program, the goal for the senior class is to leave with their own honors.
The upperclassmen may be the veterans of the team, but Macadaeg defines LSU as having team-wide leadership.
That leadership goes into account for when the Tigers start setting the tone for what their upcoming season would look like.
“[LSU coach] Jay [Clark] always says every year that it’s a new team,” Macadaeg said. “Even though we have some of the people, we have a lot more people coming in. So we always have to adjust our approach every year slightly.”
While the senior class has the opportunity to go for a three-peat in competing in the Super Six to close out their collegiate careers, LSU coach D-D Breaux’s goal for the last two regular season meets focuses on timing, resting and having the seniors do the best that they can be for the postseason.
“It’s a great senior class,” Breaux said. “We’ve had a lot of great senior classes come through LSU, and this class is very highly decorated.”
*Editor’s Note: Myia Hambrick is a former employee of The Daily Reveille
