The No. 6 LSU gymnastics team enters its main Southeastern Conference stretch as the Tigers (6-1, 2-0 SEC) face No. 8 Arkansas (3-3, 2-1 SEC) at 7.30 p.m. tonight in the PMAC.
The Mardi Gras themed matchup marks LSU’s second top-10 home meet of the season after defeating then-No. 1 Oklahoma on Jan. 9, but much has changed since then.
Despite battling injuries, one or more of the Tigers’ No. 1 freshman class has competed on each event in the past two meets, making major contributions like Lexie Priessman’s 9.925 on bars against then-No. 20 Kentucky on Jan. 22 and Sarah Finnegan’s 9.900 on floor in the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, last week.
The team’s underclassmen have lived up to the all expectations of their highly-touted class and mark an exciting time for the program and its future.
“We’re getting a lot of scores from young kids and even Myia Hambrick, who is a sophomore, but didn’t have a whole lot to draw from,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “She didn’t compete in a lot events last year, so we’re really excited about what we’re getting from everyone.”
The Tigers, who are undefeated at home since March 8, 2013, come off a 196.750-point performance at the Metroplex Challenge.
Although Finnegan didn’t stick her triple wolf turn for the first time as a Tiger — nearly breaking her toe — the team’s overall performance fuels momentum into Friday’s meet.
“The last meet was a really good springboard heading into this SEC period for the whole team,” said junior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat. “We’ve learned a lot over the past couple of meets, so I think we’re going to take all of that, grind it out and be extremely successful.”
A big contribution to the team’s confidence is Gnat’s two-game streak of a perfect ten on vault.
After finishing last year`s regular season with an average vault score of 9.875 that ranked 48th in the nation, Gnat’s strong start hints to an even more successful season, as her double Yurchenko hasn’t received lower than a 9.900 and averages the highest score in the nation at 9.950.
“It gives you an emotional boost of excellence and performance and that momentum is a really dangerous thing,” Breaux said. “When you have it, you can really go with it. It gives you momentum to go into the next event. At the end of the meet it gives you something to rally around.”
For Arkansas, Friday’s matchup marks the final sprint of the heavier part of their schedule.
The Razorbacks proved themselves against top ten competition after defeating then-No. 4 Alabama, and then-No. 9 Auburn in their last two meets. Now they prepare for their fourth straight top ten matchup before heading to Gainesville, Florida to face No. 1 Florida the following week.
“Arkansas has a lot of success and momentum coming into this meet,” Gnat said. “I think we’re ready to put a stop to that and to put our foot down and show them what we’ve got.”
You can reach Markus Hufner on Twitter @Hufner_TDR