To LSU coach D-D Breaux, her departing seniors — Randii Wyrick, Jessica Savona and Michelle Gauthier — will leave behind a tangible and impalpable legacy.
Representing their four years in purple and gold, bonded to leadership and guidance, their careers dismounted and pushed LSU to its best finish in program history at the Super Six on Saturday as the National Runner-Up.
“They’re going to leave with trophies,” Breaux, in the “proudest” moment of her 39-season career, said. “They’re going to leave with incredible memories. The building blocks, and the foundation that they have laid, those three seniors have been through a lot.”
The trio was considered to Breaux as the “heartbeat” of LSU’s team.
Less through medals and perfect scores, but more to keep the team focused, chipper and prepared — the three senior all-arounders constructed a new meaning for successful LSU gymnastics, but in a different way than most senior classes have before.
“I can’t tell you what they mean to us,” Breaux said on Saturday.
Tangibly, Wyrick, Savona and Gauthier were critical pieces to three Super Six appearances, four Regional championships and two of LSU’s best finishes in school history at respective times — in third in 2014 and this past season in second.
The triad combined to accumulate 10 in-meet individual titles, nine SEC Academic Honor Roll awards, four NCAA Scholastic All-American honors and personal career-high scores of 9.950 on floor and vault for Savona, 9.925 on floor and bars for Wyrick and 9.875 on beam and floor for Gauthier.
Their gymnastics was stellar, and what they meant to the program is incomprehensible, Breaux said.
Unequivocally, they will leave the LSU gymnastics program in a better condition than they found it, LSU gymnasts and coaches said.
“It’s been so amazing to be a part of something so great,” Wyrick said.
In one case — to sophomore all-arounder Myia Hambrick — their influence in, and out, of competition has bettered her as a gymnast.
Everything they did was helpful and exemplary, she said.
“Even now, they’re like, ‘this is so great, I don’t want to leave,’” Hambrick said. “Speaking wise, and through actions, everything they did was an example … That will be missed.
When asked about looking back at the four-year struggles of leaving their respective homes in Las Vegas (Wyrick), Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, (Savona) and Mandeville, Louisiana, (Gauthier), Breaux summed up their four-year experience with a smile saying the chance was a “gift.”
“Being able to come to a community that so much bigger than myself,” Wyrick said. “Being able to represent an awesome University. Everything that LSU embodies, it’s an honor to be able to wear those three letters on my chest.”
Looking forward, Wyrick said she expects LSU’s gymnastics program to continue its growth toward one of the nation’s most elite programs.
Similarly to the program’s status before they arrived — it is on the rise.
“Great things are to come,” she said.
With Wyrick, Savona and Gauthier leaving, LSU will lose five, and infrequently six, of its primetime routines — Gauthier’s occasional beam, Wyrick’s bars, floor and Savona’s floor, vault and bars.
Junior all-arounders Sydney Ewing, Shae Zamardi and Gnat are to become the team’s new leaders after April as succeeding seniors.
“I’ve got big shoes to fill,” Gnat said.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Javier Fernández

LSU senior all-arounder Randii Wyrick celebrates during the Tigers 197.4500 score for second place in the National Championship on Saturday, Apr. 16, 2016 in Dallas Fort Worth.