The win column may not reflect it, but Friday night was a successful one for the No. 21 LSU gymnastics team.
LSU (2-7, 0-4) lost to No. 5 Georgia, 196.500 to 196.350, but its score marked the first time the team has broken the 196 barrier this season.
The score could go a long way in helping the Tigers when the Regional Qualifying Score rankings take effect.
When the RQS comes out — which takes a team’s top-three home scores and top-three road scores before dropping the top overall score to come up with an average of the scores from the other five meets — it will allow LSU to replace a 194.000 score from its first home meet of the season against Florida.
“Coming into the night, my goal was we had to break the 196 mark,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “We know what this team is capable of, we know what they do in practice. It’s unproven, it’s unestablished, we feel like we’re passing through this ranking and passing through where we are and establishing ourselves as a team that starts slow and finishes faster.”
LSU posted scores of 49.000 or higher in all four events, the first time it has done so this season.
And for the third-consecutive week, freshman Sarie Morrison claimed the competition’s all-around title.
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Morrison scored a 39.575 on the evening, highlighted by a 9.900 on the floor exercise and a 9.925 on the vault, both career highs.
“Going into the gym and hitting routines makes me feel more confident for the competitions,” Morrison said. “It really was an exciting moment to win the all-around again.”
Freshman Maliah Mathis ended the evening with a bang, tallying a 9.975 on the floor exercise. Mathis became the seventh gymnast in LSU history to post a score at or above that benchmark.
“I was just doing my job,” Mathis said. “I just went out there and did what I train for. And we know what kind of team we can be, so we were just doing our jobs.”
The meet was also the fourth annual Etta James Memorial Meet, which raises money for Foundation 56 — founded by former LSU and current Dallas Cowboys linebacker Bradie James to raise breast cancer awareness in the Baton Rouge area.
Foundation 56 raised $52,180 from the meet and helped draw in an attendance of 4,460 — the fifth-largest crowd in LSU gymnastics history.
“I lost my mom while I was here at LSU, during my playing days,” James said to the crowd following the meet. “Since then I’ve always wanted to do something to honor her, and here we are now.”
 
 
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]