The No. 2 LSU gymnastics team will have a chance to avenge last year’s Super Six Championships loss to No. 1 Oklahoma in a battle of the top teams in the NCAA.
LSU (4-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) will face Oklahoma (4-0, 0-0 Big 12), No. 8 Arkansas and Iowa State in the Metroplex Challenge at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
The matchup likely will be a preview of the 2015 Super Six Championships, which will be held at the same venue.
LSU and Oklahoma competed against each other four times last year. The Tigers won the first matchup 197.650-197.325, but the Sooners came back with a vengeance and won the Metroplex Challenge, 198.125-197.875.
Oklahoma also outscored LSU at the NCAA Semifinals, 197.500-197.100, and again at the Super Six Championships when it tied Florida for a share of the NCAA title, while LSU finished in third place.
But it’s a new season, and LSU’s gymnasts said they believe they improved more than Oklahoma since their last meeting.
“We just want to get out there and do what we have been training, because if we do that, we will beat them,” said LSU senior all-arounder Rheagan Courville. “I don’t think that they are a better team than us. They haven’t done more practice than us and they’re not more confident than us. It is just going to be how we carry ourselves in this competition.”
LSU is also familiar with the talent Arkansas (1-2, 1-1 SEC) is bringing to the meet.
The Tigers defeated the Razorbacks, 197.225-196.275, and Arkansas finished four spots behind LSU’s No. 3 finish at the 2014 SEC Championships.
Iowa State (1-3-1, 0-0-1 Big 12) enters the matchup narrowly missing out on a top-25 national ranking. The Cyclones average a 194.758 per meet, and their beam lineup is No. 17 in the nation, while their bars lineup is No. 25.
“I think the competition is going to have to be played out,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “It’s a game of consistency. The team that is most consistent and can stick the most dismounts will ultimately be the team that wins.”
Oklahoma has done the best job of sticking landings through the first three meets of the season.
LSU and Arkansas are coming off meets where they scored their highest total of the season, but Oklahoma is too, and its 197.850 team score on Jan. 23 is the highest score in the nation so far.
Heading into the Metroplex Challenge, the Sooners rank in the top-four in every event. LSU eclipses its mark only on beam, where it averages the highest score in the nation.
“I think somebody that really studies the numbers and looks at this stuff on paper would say Oklahoma is a favored team,” Breaux said. “They are ranked No. 1 and we are No. 2, which is perfectly okay with us. We will go in as an underdog having to fight and scrap a little bit. That’s what we do. We are tigers.”
You can reach Jacob Hamilton on Twitter @jhamilton_TDR.