By salvaging a near-disaster in the Southeastern Conference Championship meet Saturday, the LSU gymnastics team was able to erase a poor start to the season as well.
The Tigers rebounded from an awful first rotation with two season-best performances en route to a 195.475 score and fifth-place finish at the conference championship.
The overall score was LSU’s second-best road score of the season, meaning it will count toward the team’s regional qualifying score and allow LSU to drop a 194.500 score from its second meet of the year.
In the past two weeks, the Tigers have drastically improved their RQS — which is used to rank teams and seed postseason meets — by dropping uncharacteristically low scores from their first two meets of the season.
LSU came into the meet on the heels of its first winless SEC season since 1993, and it showed in the team’s opening performance on balance beam.
A slew of deductions coupled with a fall resulted in LSU having to count a 9.30 score, and the 47.925 team score was easily the worst among the seven teams competing.
“It’s a bad draw we had to start out on beam, especially with a young team,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “Most of these kids have never been in this kind of arena before.”
With a bye between each event, the Tigers had time to collect their thoughts. Rather than launch into a tirade, Breaux said she let her team sort out its issues.
LSU responded with a 49.050 on floor exercise, highlighted by 9.85 scores from freshman Kaleigh Dickson and senior Sam Engle.
From there, the momentum picked up.
Engle, the team’s lone senior, decided to vault for the first time in her career after an injury against Alabama sidelined sophomore Ericka Garcia for the rest of the season.
Breaux sent a text message to Engle the morning after the Alabama meet saying that either Engle or sophomore Shelby Prunty, neither of whom compete on vault, needed to step up.
“She went to the gym and decided it was time for her to be the leader,” Breaux said. “I don’t know if it’s proud or what the emotion is, but she just really slayed a dragon to do that.”
Despite having a mental block that kept her from competing on the apparatus previously, Engle pulled out a 9.85 on her vault. Freshman Sarie Morrison’s 9.90 vault earned her Second-Team All-SEC honors and helped spark LSU to a season-high 49.350 score.
The Tigers carried their momentum in their final event, setting another season high with a 49.150 on uneven bars, in which four of the six gymnasts competing tied or set personal season-high scores.
“We’re going to go to regionals, and that’s a good thing,” Breaux said. “Our next goal is to hit at regionals and see where that brings us.”
 
 
 
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contact Ryan Ginna at [email protected]