If you build it, they will come.
LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux built an elite program, and 13,296 people came to the PMAC on Friday for then-No. 4 LSU’s 197.925-196.225 victory against then-No. 3 Alabama.
Amid Breaux’s hard-earned first sellout crowd, junior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat’s fourth perfect 10 and LSU’s season-high score, Friday night was about the seniors.
“The seniors on this team have been outstanding athletes and students,” Breaux said. “What you’re seeing in the air, the precision and the direction of our skills and the amount of difficulty that we’re doing is truly a tribute to our seniors.”
Nestled in the program-record crowd was each senior’s family. Breaux and the gymnasts dedicated the night to those parents, who paid tuition to gyms from the time their children were three years old and traveled great distances for meets.
“It just gets bigger and more of a burden on the family finances as they progress and go to a higher level,” Breaux said. “These kids have taken advantage of every opportunity that has been presented to them, and I just cannot express how much we appreciate the sacrifice that the parents make to enable them to get to this point.”
Senior specialist Michelle Gauthier’s family, from Mandeville, Louisiana, made the short trip down Interstate 12 for Friday’s meet. But for senior all-arounder Randii Wyrick’s and senior all-arounder Jessica Savona’s parents, a lot more went into it.
Wyrick said her mom promised to attend every meet this year before the season. Despite the expense of traveling across the country from Las Vegas, Nevada, every week, she has kept that promise.
Savona’s family traveled from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, just one of countless times they’ve made the international trip for a meet.
“My mom and my dad, they just do everything for [me],” Savona said. “That’s so commendable. Whenever I’m a parent, I want to be just like my parents. Everybody can speak to this. Their parents do everything for them.”
If it wasn’t already a special night, the last competition of their respective careers in the place they’ve called home for four years, the trio made it so with memorable performances on multiple events with their parents in attendance.
Savona went on vault first, scoring a 9.875.
The seniors’ efforts on bars were integral in LSU’s season-high 49.475 on the event. Savona went first, setting the bar high for the rest of the lineup with a career-high tying 9.90.
A two-time First-Team All-American on bars, Wyrick progressed through her bars set with minimal deductions, as she’s done countless times. With a stuck landing and emphatic celebration, Wyrick’s 9.925 tied her career high on the event.
“There’s a lot of teams out there that you kind of see the seniors fizzle, but we’ve had a tremendous amount of drive and leadership,” Breaux said. “They have demonstrated so much maturity and such a willingness to lead this team and make it be successful.”
Gauthier came off the beam during her flight series, though with encouragement from the Tiger faithful, she climbed back on the apparatus and gracefully completed the remainder of her routine.
Next came floor, where the Tigers posted a 49.625. Gnat was perfect, but it was Wyrick and Savona who earned the loudest ovations.
Savona, who won the 2013 Southeastern Conference Floor Championship but tore a ankle ligament, has limited her to just three floor performances this season, reminded fans of her tumbling skills. The former Canadian Olympian delivered with a career-high-tying 9.95.
With one last dab, Wyrick concluded her floor routine after three skillful tumbling passes. The senior once again tied her career high with a 9.90.
“It was definitely all that I could’ve imagined and more,” Wyrick said. “Being able to step out there and see 13,000 fans cheering us on was one of the best feelings ever. I couldn’t have asked for a better senior night.”

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Greta Jines

LSU all-around senior Randii Wyrick performs her floor routine Friday, March 4, 2016, during the Tigers' 197.925-196.225 victory against Alabama in the PMAC.