After facing the crushing cancellations of their last two meets, LSU gymnastics didn’t seem fazed at all when stepping into the Stegeman Coliseum on Friday night in Athens, Georgia. Not even a crowd of Bulldog fans, reeling off a national football championship win, could diminish the spirits of the Tigers, who’ve been waiting for this moment since the NCAA Championships concluded last spring.
The No. 6 LSU gymnastics team defeated Georgia in its SEC opener 196.850–196.100 for the sixteenth straight time, crushing the Bulldogs in every event except for vault. Oddly, the Tigers just couldn’t put up their usual scores on their best rotation. 2021 NCAA and SEC Vault Champion Haleigh Bryant put up a 9.85 while Kiya Johnson capitalized with the highest vault score at 9.875.
“I think we knocked off some rust tonight,” spoke head coach Jay Clark after the meet. “Given that we haven’t competed in three weeks and it was the first road meet I was happy that we grinded it out and got the win. We missed some opportunities, but overall I was proud of this team because they never gave up the fight.”
The team started the night off on bars, finishing with its highest score for an SEC opener in four years. Officially back in action after two years, Kai Rivers proved that she can make the exact impact that LSU needs this year. Along with Johnson and Bryant, Junior Rivers scored a 9.90, the highest bars scores of the night.
The scores between both teams were a tight race until the purple and gold stepped out on floor. Alyona Schennikova won the floor event along with Georgia’s Soraya Hawthorne. Freshman KJ Johnson stayed consistent with her performance thus far, fueling the Tigers with the top spot after the leading pair. Sophomore Olivia Dunne made her debut on floor with a 9.8, officially marking her second rotation to compete in as a collegiate gymnast.
The only hiccup of the rotation was Elena Arenas’s routine, ending with a 9.2 after she failed to complete her final pass. The pressure of performing on the same stage that her mother, whose face was painted on the walls surrounding the arena, made history in, was likely difficult to overcome. Kim Arnold was a 2x NCAA All-Around Champion during her collegiate career in the nineties. Another Georgia native, Sami Durante, meanwhile finished with 3-0 record tonight in Athens.
Christina Desiderio opened up the final rotation of the night with a 9.9, the fifth-year senior’s highest beam score at the start of a season in her collegiate career. Johnson sealed the win by matching Desiderio’s score as the anchor of the event, topping last year’s season average in just the first SEC meet. Schennikova was the sole all-arounder of the night, earning her second all-around win in only two meets in total.
“Alyona Schennikova responded tonight and got a 9.90 on floor when we needed it the most. That is some real growth,” Clark commended. I also cannot say enough about Christina Desiderio and what she did on beam to start in that last rotation. She has a way to settle the team and she did it again tonight.”
LSU’s greatest gymnast in program history, Sarah Finnegan, also showed out at the meet to support her younger sister’s debut for the Tigers. Aleah Finnegan missed out on the first meet of the season due to past injuries but managed to perform in perfect condition on beam tonight. The freshman recorded a 9.875 as her first score in her collegiate career.
LSU gymnastics will return next Saturday, February 5, to face Auburn in Baton Rouge. The Tigers are overdue for an appearance in the PMAC after an abrupt postponement of their meet against Arkansas. The meet will start at 2:45 p.m. CST and will stream on ESPNU.
