All 12 teams competing at the NCAA Championships this weekend are capable of winning the national title, said LSU gymnastics associate head coach Jay Clark.
Stepping onto the national stage for a shot at the NCAA championship is the No. 3 LSU gymnastics team, which will compete in NCAA Semifinal I beginning at 1:00 p.m. today at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
LSU is one of six teams in the first of two sessions vying for a top-three finish for a NCAA Super Six berth on Saturday. Joining the Tigers (18-4) are No. 2 Florida, No. 6 Auburn, No. 9 Georgia, No. 14 Minnesota and No. 18 Stanford.
“If we can compete free of mind, we should be fine,” Clark said. “If we’re not confident, then who is? We believe this team is really prepared. We know these kids, based on their body of work, they deserve to win.”
But it’s impossible to ignore the elephant that will be in the Convention Center when LSU steps onto the competition stage.
That elephant, of course, is LSU’s dismal beam performance in last year’s competition that thwarted its bid for the first national championship in program history.
Fortified with four regular-season All-Americans, LSU started strong in the first two rotations, scoring a 49.375 on vault and 49.425 on bars, putting the Tigers in prime position to advance to the Super Six when it rotated to beam. But those lofty championships ambitions were shot down when the Tigers unravelled, suffering two falls and an additional 9.30 on the fickle, four-inch wide apparatus.
But the coaches and gymnasts insist last year’s performance is long behind them and isn’t representative of LSU’s potential.
“That performance, that night, was not indicative of what this team can do,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux.
“This is a new team, a new year,” said senior all-arounder Randii Wyrick. “We’re just focused on everything we can control and everything that we are. As long as we stay true to ourselves, everything will go in our favor.”
This time around, the Tigers are granted the gift of familiarity. They’ll be competing in the same rotation of events as the NCAA Athens Regional, when they posted the second-highest regional score in the nation, 197.300.
Beginning with a bye, LSU’s first event is bars. The Tigers will then rotate to beam before another bye rotation. LSU will finish the semifinals on floor and vault, the events for which it ranks No. 2 and No. 1 in the nation, respectively.
Junior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat said the Tigers are well-rested and well-prepared for this weekend following a bye week after the regional meet. In lieu of an official meet, LSU held two intrasquad meets in the new LSU Gymnastics Training Facility.
“We focused on exactly what we needed to focus on and went into the intrasquads and just absolutely dominated two days in a row,” Gnat said. “We’re very well prepared for this week.”
Breaux doesn’t view today’s competition as a chance to make up for last season’s deflating loss, but rather for this year’s team to prove it’s among the best in the nation on the biggest stage in the sport.
“You know the old adage, ‘Talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?’” Breaux said. “This team walks the walk.”