LSU freshman gymnast April Burkholder set a school record 39.875 in the all-around competition and helped the No. 12 LSU gymnastics team achieve their highest score of the season, 197.225, to defeat Centenary (194.600) and Texas Woman’s University (194.575) at last Friday’s meet in Shreveport.
“We competed lights out tonight,” said head coach D-D Breaux. “April truly competed at the level she was cable of, she couldn’t be denied tonight and was absolutely phenomenal.”
Burkholder began the meet by scoring 9.950 on the uneven bars, then recorded her career-high score 9.975 on the beam despite facing an unforeseen obstacle in her routine.
“My beam shoe came halfway off, and I had to finish it like that,” Burkholder said.
Then on the floor exercise, she became the third gymnast in LSU history to earn a perfect 10.
After capturing the event title in the first three events, Burkholder grabbed the vault and the all-around title, scoring a 9.950 on the vault.
Burkholder said setting the school record was not a goal she set for herself, but she wanted to keep improving her scores and out do her previous performances.
“I’m not going to stop there, I want to keep improving,” Burkholder said.
LSU’s season high performance on the vault led the team to its highest score of the year. The Tigers have not been happy with their vault performances and spent much time practicing on the apparatus in recent weeks.
“The excitement from floor carried over to the vault,” said junior Lindsay Beddow.
The regional qualifying score does not count a team’s top score, but LSU’s previous high-score 196.700 will count.