FORT WORTH, Texas — To LSU coach D-D Breaux, Friday’s second-place, Super Six qualifying performance was both “beastmode” and “not good enough.”
The third-ranked Tigers posted their highest Semifinal team score in program history at 197.3375 in the opening Semifinal, which advanced them to compete for their first National Championship at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Fort Worth’s Convention Center.
All of which thrills junior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat.
“We’re really excited to be able to perform again tomorrow,” Gnat said. “It’s survive and advance. We did great today, tomorrow is going to be even better.”
After LSU opened with a team score of 49.3250 on bars and 49.3000 on the balance beam, Breaux said LSU had to channel its inner “beastmode,” which was also her message to the team prior to the competition.
Although LSU was proud of its performance on beam and bars, the “beastmode” had yet to come out for the Tigers as they headed to floor, then vault.
“The message was, ‘let’s go to floor and be beasts,’” Breaux said.

LSU did just that.
It posted a 49.3750 on the event, which was followed with a 49.3375 on vault.
None of which, though, will be good enough to earn a national title on Saturday, Breaux said.
“What we did today won’t be good enough,” Breaux said. “We’ve got to be a little bit better. This team knows that. It’s hard to get into this, but once you get into this, you’ve got to just let it go.”
Minutes before plopping in a recuperating, 50-degree ice bath, Gnat said LSU has much to improve on before tomorrow’s competition.
“Gymnastics is a tit-for-tat sport,” she said. “There’s always room for improvement. Being able to go out there and step it up a little bit more tomorrow is going to be important to us.”
You can reach Christian Boutwell on Twitter: @CBoutwell_TDR