The No. 12 LSU gymnastics team hits the road again this weekend after achieving its highest road score of the season last weekend in Utah. The Tigers will be in Shreveport today to face Centenary and Texas Women’s University at 7 p.m. in the Gold Dome.
Tonight’s meet and the Southeastern Conference Championship meet next weekend are the Tigers’ last opportunities to improve their road scores for their regional qualifying scores.
“We’re really trying to get a good away score so we can get higher in the regionals,” said senior gymnast Brooke Cazeaux.
Tonight’s meet is the Tigers’ first against an unranked team since defeating Arkansas in February.
“I started practice today [Wednesday] by telling them this was the most important and one of the hardest meets of the season because of the level of competition,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux.
Sophomore Jade Jenkins believes the meet is important, and the Tigers just need to focus on their performance.
“It’s not really about the other team right now,” she said. “We really want to come up with a 197.”
The Tigers focused on improving their landings and doing all the little things right in practice this week according to sophomore Lauren Companioni.
“I think D-D put it perfectly when she said we got the big stuff down,” she said. “We can get a point better by just sticking our landings.”
Freshman April Burkholder thinks the Tigers’ ability to stick their landings will be the difference.
“Our landings are going to determine whether or not we make it to nationals,” Burkholder said.
Breaux is confident in the team’s ability to perform, but consistency in floor and vault is what the Tigers need most.
“We got a good vaulting lineup, and we’re deep on floor, but we got to find some consistency,” she said.