The No. 15 LSU gymnastics team returns home tonight after a two-week road swing to face Arkansas at 7 p.m. in the PMAC. Arkansas is in their first year of their program and ranks No. 31 in the country.
“I have a lot of respect for their coaches and know they will have a lot of success,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux.
The Lady Razorbacks highest score is 194.975 while LSU has scored above 196 three times. LSU sophomore gymnast Katherine Hilton sees tonight’s meet as an opportunity to have fun and prepare for next week against No. 7 Georgia.
“I’m sure we’ll do well,” Hilton said. “We’re going to beat them. I think it will be a meet for us to work on getting better and to have fun. It’s a good one to have before Georgia.”
Last week the Tigers scored 196.025 without freshman standout April Burkholder. She is still suffering from her ankle injury but has been working in practice to return to the lineup.
“We’ve been working pretty hard to get her back in the lineup, but we’re not going to push it this week,” said athletic trainer Greg Penczek.
Although Burkholder is not expected to be an all-around performer tonight, she may compete in two events.
“We’re hoping to get her to do vault and bars,” Breaux said.
In each event Burkholder is not competing in, Breaux has to change the lineup. She thinks they may benefit the team in long run by giving more gymnasts competitive experiences.
“Obviously we’re a better team with her, but we’re taking advantage of the opportunity to put some other people in the lineup,” Breaux said. “Hopefully in the end we’ll have a better team and April at 100 percent.”
Besides making changes in the lineup for Burkholder’s injury, Breaux plans on changing the floor lineup drastically for tonight’s meet.
“We’ve got a lot of depth,” Breaux said. “We want to give them the opportunity to compete and see if they can outscore some of the ones we’ve been using.”
When the Tigers compete at home, they compete on floor last. Last weekend the Tigers performed floor routines first and were unhappy with the scores. Junior Lindsay Beddow feels this offers a greater advantage and makes a big difference.
“It’s so much easier to do floor when you’re at home, and it’s not your first event,” Beddow said.
Breaux also wants to get senior gymnast Brooke Cazeaux more involved in competitions.
“I want very badly to get Brooke Cazeaux into our beam and floor lineup as soon as possible,” Breaux said. “We may try to make that change this week. We want to have her in three events by Georgia.”
Last weekend Burkholder did not even make the trip with the team to Nebraska. She used the time to catch up on academic work and says she has not let her injury bother her too much. Her goal is to be as close to 100 percent as possible for next weekend’s meet against Georgia.
“We’re not sure yet all I’m going to be competing on, but I’ll do as much as I can do,” Burkholder said. “I just want to be ready to do all four events next weekend.”
Competing without Burkholder last weekend the team scored its highest scores of the season on beam and its second highest on bars. Prior to that meet, the Tigers had performed poorly on the road.
“To go into a competitive arena and not have success is inexcusable,” Breaux said. “We’ve had a lot of inexcusable performances.”
Breaux agrees with some of the gymnasts that last week was a turning point for the team. She said she challenged the team before the meet to come together, show maturity and compete to the level they are capable of.
“I think we’ve had a turning point in our season where we’ve really been coming together as a team,” said freshman gymnast Lindsey Thompson.
Junior Chelsea Richard feels that the turning point they experienced last week will help them immensely tonight.
“I think we’ll take great strides from last week,” Richard said. “I think we’ll have our highest score of the season.”
Breaux said she did not know if the team would score their highest of the season but believes they are capable. She says the key for the team is to compete in the meet like they practice.
“They’ve got to compete with reckless abandon,” Breaux said.