Mention the words “trouble” and “bars” to most LSU students and their thoughts usually include a few brawls and a lot of drinks.
However, the No. 14 LSU gymnastics team will try to cure troubles of a different kind on the uneven bars today when they take on No. 13 Arkansas in Fayetteville at 7 p.m.
The Tigers (4-3, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) are fresh off a tri-meet win against Centenary and Texas Woman’s last weekend. LSU posted a score of 196.500, but struggled on the uneven bars, only managing a season low score of 48.375.
The bar event has proven to be the Tigers’ Achilles’ heel this season with low scores coming at the Michigan State Quad Meet and at Florida.
While the team is still trying to find consistency on the bars, there have been no complaints about the performance of junior Annie Gagnon.
A 2003 All-American on the uneven bars, Gagnon has continued to put up high scores this season. The junior gymnast from Montreal has steadily improved her scores every meet and currently ranks 19th in the nation on bars with an average score of 9.875.
Gagnon turned in her best performance in last week’s tri-meet with a first-place score of 9.925.
LSU coach D-D Breaux said she was impressed by Gagnon’s routine.
“She did a great job,” Breaux said. “She’s been very consistent and we’re trying desperately to get her into other events. She’s still recovering from a foot injury. That’s just a slow process, but her bar performance has been very, very good. Basically we trained that routine all last year knowing this would even be a better year for her.”
Gagnon said she was pleased with her efforts this season but still needs to try to improve.
“I was very happy with my performance, but I think we have a lot of work to do,” Gagnon said. “I think that we’re going to change the lineup and see what happens, and hopefully we’re going to be able to put up six successful routines.”
Breaux said she was contemplating changing the bar lineup for today’s meet at Arkansas but would not decide until before the competition.
“I would like to see [Nicole] Butler go into that lineup,” Breaux said. “I would like to see Kelly Phelan get her routine back together because I think that both of those routines could score above a 9.8. And that’s what we need to compete at the level we compete at.”
The Tigers will need to compete at a high level when they travel to Fayetteville today to take on the Razorbacks. Although the Arkansas gymnastics program is only in its second year, the No. 13 Razorbacks are having a strong season, going 5-1 with their only loss coming against No. 2 Georgia.
Breaux said she believes the Tigers are up to the challenge following back-to-back home meets.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Breaux said. “We’ve never been to Arkansas and they’re ranked right there with us. I am looking for the very best performance out of this team. I think the kids are ready to compete on the road again.”
Sophomore gymnast April Burkholder said she thinks the Tigers’ problems on bars last week will not follow them to Fayetteville.
“I definitely think that was just a fluke,” Burkholder said. “We had one mistake that led to another, and it just kind of crashed down, but this week it’s been real consistent.
“I think that we can build a lot of momentum. We had a good, consistent practice week, and all we really need to do is hit to get our average back up.”