LSU Gymnasts Kaliya Lincoln and Emily Innes spoke to the media ahead of taking on No. 17 ranked Auburn Tigers.
Coming from Washington, Innes has joined the LSU Gymnastics program and let’s just say, it’s a lot more different than what she expected, but she’s having fun and using that crowd energy as she competes her Floor routine.
“Competing here is a lot different with the crowd and the fan base we have,” Innes said. “It’s so fun, especially with this team. It’s a lot easier to get on the floor and be calm because I know my team trusts me, so I might as well trust myself. It’s easy to lean on my team and have fun out there. The energy that the crowd brings and the energy that the team brings make it a lot of fun. I don’t think I ever had as much fun competing as I am doing now.”
Fresh off the win against Penn State, the Tigers will be back in the PMAC against Auburn. Back-to-back meets can be a bit hectic, but Lincoln and Innes love competing at home.
Having the crowd by their side is always a great thing, plus it gives them a chance to be back at home for one more week before getting back on the road.
“I definitely think it’s nice having back-to-back meets for us,” Lincoln said. “Our crowd and our fanbase really give us so much confidence and help us have fun out there, so I’m excited to have these back-to-back meets.”
“I think with starting off the season traveling as much as we did, it’s a nice break to be at home back-to-back and just experience the PMAC,” Innes said. “Like we talked about earlier, it has a lot of energy and helps us have fun and do great gymnastics and I think it’s a great opportunity for us to keep building and adding from meet to meet.”
LSU Gymnastics is known for having heavy hitters in their floor rotation, Lincoln is one of LSU’s floor standouts. Coming off of a shoulder injury last season, she felt a bit scared about how the road to recovery will go, but now, she’s back and anchoring for the Tigers in the floor event and although the journey was a bit hard, she’s at a peak moment in her gymnastics.
“The journey has been great,” Lincoln said. “Obviously, it was a little bit hard in the beginning because I felt a little discouraged and scared and feeling like I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back to where I was before, but just having my teammates, my coaches, our athletic trainers helping me along the journey has been great and iIm just glad to be back out there with my team. This is definitely one of my high points and I feel great right now.”
LSU Gymnastics will compete against Auburn in the PMAC Friday, Feb. 9 at 7:45 p.m., where you can watch on SEC Network.
