With their second consecutive Southeastern Conference championship under their belt, the LSU gymnastics team isn’t looking to be complacent for when the NCAA Raleigh Regional rolls around.
Five of the six teams in the Raleigh Regional are nationally ranked, including the second-ranked Tigers, No. 11 Nebraska, No. 14 Oregon State, No. 19 George Washington State and No. 20 North Carolina State.
But the key word of finishing strong in the postseason is consistency. Considering that doing the same routine each weekend in the regular season starts to take a toll on one’s body during the postseason, junior all-arounder Sarah Finnegan sees the postseason as a mental game more than anything else.
“It’s a cool time in the year because this is when the consistency really matters,” Finnegan said. “It’s really when your gymnastics is put to the test because each routine does matter.”
In order to avoid too much fatigue and maintain that consistency, the goal for the gymnasts is to continue giving it their all and not hold anything back.
Finnegan, who was recently announced as the SEC Gymnast of the Year, stresses the importance of focusing on execution rather than numbers in every routine.
“Championships are won by tenths and not by points,” Finnegan said.
The Tigers will be on floor to start the Raleigh Regional, followed by vault, a bye, bars, beam and another bye.
The floor rotation has been a strong suit for the Tigers this season, as their season-high score of 49.700 against Auburn has been one of the highest scores in program history. In the SEC Championships last weekend, the Tigers’ floor rotation score of 49.300 was the highest out of all of the teams.
The top floor specialist in the nation, senior all-arounder Myia Hambrick, likes the setup of starting on floor in the Raleigh Regional.
“We’ve been practicing this whole week about going in that order, so I think everyone has gotten used to it by now,” Hambrick said.

This isn’t the first time that LSU has started on floor in the postseason. The Tigers started on floor in last year’s Super Six and tied for fourth place with Alabama with a rotation score of a 49.325.
But the same podium that has been used in the SEC Championship will be the same podium that is used for nationals. Hambrick sees that as a benefit for her team, especially for the freshman that have never competed at nationals before.
“Everyone that got to do floor then will most likely be doing floor at nationals,” Hambrick said. “It’s just something that you pass along to people in case if they have never done it before.”
LSU coach D-D Breaux, on the other hand, prefers competing on floor last rather than first. The Tigers’ final rotation at home is on floor, and they were last to compete on floor in the SEC Championship.
“We worked all season long to earn that spot, and I felt like it worked to our advantage,” Breaux said. “But it is what it is. It’ll be nice because we get to warm up on the floor instead of warming up on the vaulting runway, which is not very functional.”
While Hambrick mostly had success in the floor rotation, she also had a few mishaps. After going four straight weeks of scoring a 9.975 on floor, Hambrick went out of bounds on her tumbling passes and scored below a 9.70 in two of her last four meets.
Breaux still has confidence in Hambrick and wants her to relax and be herself in order to succeed more in postseason.
“She’s had some inconsistencies because she’s trying too hard,” Breaux said. “All she has to do is to go out and do what she’s done for the last three years. Putting pressure on her and and saying ‘Hey, this is your last one! You need to go get it!’ is not what she needs to hear.”
Coverage of the Raleigh Regional will be on WatchESPN.