The No. 14 LSU gymnastics team departed campus early yesterday morning for the NCAA Regionals in Seattle.
The Tigers must finish in the top two Saturday to advance to the national tournament in Lincoln, Neb.
“It’s our only shot at nationals,”coach D-D Breaux. “We’re excited about, and I think we have a great opportunity.”
No. 11 Washington is hosting the event while No. 2 Nebraska is the highest ranked team of the field. Three other teams will join the Tigers in Seattle, No. 36 Boise State, No. 42 Cal State Fullerton and No. 45 San Jose State.
“We want to finish in the top two, and it’s not going to be easy to do that at Washington,” said sophomore Jade Jenkins. “Because we’ll have to beat them at their home arena.”
The Tigers have had two weeks off since the Southeastern Conference Championship to prepare for regionals. Jenkins said the team has been working on perfecting the small things and perfecting its routines, especially the landings.
“We definitely want to finish all our routines with stuck landings because it’s the last thing the judges see,” Jenkins said.
Sophomore Lauren Companioni said the team set goals during the week to raise the level of their performances.
“We worked as a team this week on setting a higher standard,” Companioni said.
Although the stakes are much higher than the beginning of the season, the Tigers have not been spending as much time working in the gym. Breaux said the team has been completing their routines quicker and better than weeks ago.
“Practice has been shorter but more efficient,” said senior Brooke Cazeaux.
If the Tigers’ season concludes Saturday, it will be Cazeaux’s last meet. Cazeaux said she is not allowing that to add additional pressure.
“I am just going to be thinking about doing my routine,” Cazeaux said.
LSU’s rotation at regionals is the same as their home rotation. They will begin on vault, then move to bars, beam, and finish on floor.
“It’s a super rotation for us,” Breaux said.
Breaux said she may only make slight changes in the lineup. She was happy with Cazeaux’s performance on beam during practice and hopes to get her in the lineup.
“We’re going to go with the kids who have been giving us high scores,” Breaux said.
The biggest challenge for the team this weekend will be not to count a fall and staying consistent according to Breaux. She said she is confident with the freshmen’s ability to compete.
“Our freshmen have really stepped up and are pretty tough,” Breaux said.
Freshman April Burkholder is confident and feels good about their chances.
“I feel we have a really good shot at making it to nationals,” Burkholder said.
Jenkins said the team can not concentrate on the competition and needs to solely worry about doing what is in its control to win.
“It’s definitely going to be hard to do what we have to do, but we’re not going to give up,” Jenkins said. “We’re going to give it all we have.”
Breaux hopes this weekend will be a solid building block for the gymnastics program’s future, especially the future of this young team.
“I would love to go to nationals with this team so they can build on this experience, and we can be a real contender for a national title next year,” Breaux said. “But I’m not looking ahead. I’m very pleased with where we are.”