The No. 15 ranked LSU gymnastics team will face-off against No. 8 Utah tonight at 8 p.m. at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
The Tigers came close to upsetting No. 5 Georgia last week but fell short 196.475-196.350. The Tigers feel like they gained momentum from last week’s meet.
“We felt like we could of won, and we had a moral victory,” said head coach D-D Breaux. “They realized they’re a whole lot better than they thought they were.”
Vault was a concern for the Tigers, and they have spent the week working on fine-tuning their vault routines and sticking their landings.
“We’re going to try to do everything we can do, and hopefully it will reflect in our scores,” said sophomore Jade Jenkins.
Breaux said she has changed some of the dismounts in an attempt to improve the scores by adding more difficulty while giving judges fewer areas to use their opinions in scoring.
“I want to eliminate their opinion,” Breaux said. “I just want their judgment.”
Freshman Rikki L’Heureux said she was encouraged by the teams practice on the vault.
“We practiced the vault lineup,” L’Heureux said. “We usually count off about five-tenths, and it was only about two-tenths today. So hopefully that will improve our score.”
Junior Chelsea Richard also says the vault scores will improve tonight.
“We had a really good practice today on vault,” Richard said. “I think vault will be good for us.”
Some Tiger gymnasts start with a 10.0 start value on the vault while others start with a 9.9 due to routine difficulty. Jenkins said it is even more important for those who start with a lesser score to stick their vaults.
“My start value is 9.9 so it’s really important that I stick it and get the highest score possible,” Jenkins said.
Breaux was also considering putting freshman Lindsey Thompson in the vault lineup. She wanted Thompson to have 10 more good vault performances in practice before she would make the change.
She also is considering adding junior Lindsay Beddow on the floor along with Thompson and possibly sophomore Annie Gagnon. Gagnon has not been competing due to a foot injury, but Breaux said her foot is improving.
“If we make changes that is what it will be,” Breaux said.
She expects to keep the bar and beam lineups the same as last week. She had been considering removing sophomore Katherine Hilton from the uneven bars due to inconsistencies in competition, but she said Hilton is currently the frontrunner for the spot with freshman Kelly Lea as a backup.
“We want to use Kat because she’s clean and her execution is beautiful,” Breaux said.
Beddow expects the team will improve every week and says the team will benefit from freshman April Burkholder continuing to regain her strength from her injury.
“I think April is stronger than she was last week,” Beddow said. “We get more confidence every week.”
LSU needs to score consistent high scores to improve in their national rankings and be seeded higher for regionals. Regional qualifying scores require good road scores, and Breaux sees tonight’s meet as a great opportunity to improve their bid.
“They’re will be 10,000 fans there for Utah, and I think this will be a great competitive opportunity for us to go out and do a good job,” Breaux said.
Breaux hopes to score between 196.5 and 197. Richard believes the team can pull off their highest road score of the season tonight.
“We know that we’re good now,” Richard said. “I think we’re going to do it this weekend.”