The gymnastics team may have been eliminated from team competition, but three LSU gymnasts continued their quest for individual honors at the NCAA Championships Saturday.
Junior April Burkholder finished off this season on the vault and floor routines. The nine-time All-American had the top individual finish for the Tigers this weekend with a 9.8875 average on vaults. The score placed her in third overall.
Burkholder was outperformed by Olympic veteran Kristen Maloney of UCLA who took first place, followed by Iowa State’s Janet Anson in second.
Burkholder’s floor routine was not as promising. In her final tumbling pass, she fell and so did her scores, to a 9.2625 which retired her in 13th place in the event.
“April has practiced that last pass, but never competed it,” said coach D-D Breaux in a news release. “The plan all season long was to be ready to throw it here. If it would have worked out it would have separated her out, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.”
Burkholder was surpassed by three SEC finalists, including Alabama’s Ashley Miles who placed second with a score of 9.9750. Two Georgia gymnasts tied for fifth as well.
Tigers senior Annie Gagnon performed on the bars with a 9.3375 score after a single fall proved to be costly. The score gave her an 11th-place finish overall.
While Gagnon was competing on the bars one final time, sophomore Lisa Rennie experienced her first event finals on the bars. Rennie placed 11th place with a 9.8250 score.
“Lisa was very solid,” Breaux said. “She stayed in her success zone, executed well and threw as good a routine as she has done all year.”
The bars competition went to SEC opponent Terin Humphrey from Alabama. Humphrey scored a 9.9375 to seal the victory. The Alabama gymnast also placed tied for fifth in the bar competition.