The No. 3 LSU gymnastics team’s 197.350-192.675 victory against Southeastern Conference foe Missouri on Saturday was a night characterized by season-highs.
LSU (4-0, 2-0 SEC) scored its highest team score of the season in front of 7,267 fans — the largest crowd of the season and fourth largest in the program’s history.
“The crowd definitely plays a huge role in how we perform,” said junior all-arounder Randii Wyrick. “When the crowd is riled up, it gets us riled up and allows us to relax knowing that we have a whole fan base behind us.”
Sophomore all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat’s vault of 9.875 started the barrage of season highs for LSU.
Senior all-arounder Rheagan Courville, the two-time reigning vault national champion, followed Gnat with a season-high of her own, scoring a 9.950.
After scoring well on bars, LSU moved to beam where four gymnasts set or tied their season high en route to tying the highest team total of the season in the event with 49.325.
Senior all-arounder Lloimincia Hall led off by tying her season high of 9.825, but she was followed by freshman all-arounder Erin Macadaeg, who fell off the beam and scored her lowest total of the season.
But sophomore all-arounder Sydney Ewing picked up where Hall left off and tied her career-high with a 9.900.
“I try not to watch people in front of me, but of course you hear the crowd when someone in front of you falls,” Ewing said. “But I just tried to think of it no different than if she hit it because the way I do my routine doesn’t really matter how she did it … There are six people up and only five count, so that’s what is most important.”
Courville and senior all-arounder Jessie Jordan finished the beam lineup, where Courville scored a season-high 9.875 and Jordan tied her season-high with a 9.925.
LSU set the second-highest floor routine score in the nation with a 49.500 in its last event of the night.
With victory all but guaranteed, the crowd was loudest during the floor routines.
During a prolonged TV timeout, “Let’s go, Randii” chants echoed inside the PMAC just moments before Wyrick scored a career-high 9.850 in her first appearance on the floor this season.
“It was really uplifting,” Wyrick said. “I gained some confidence while I was just standing there waiting. I knew I was going to be able to hit my routine.”
As if the confidence boost carried over to the next performance, Gnat executed her routine flawlessly to one judge and earned a career-high 9.950. The score bested her season high by .075.
Courville consummated her all-around title by scoring a season-high 9.850 on floor, enough to tie the highest all-around score in the nation of 39.625.
“It was amazing to be able to fix a little bit more than I had done the week before,” Courville said. “I feel like my confidence improved because of everyone around me.”
Hall’s routine in the anchor spot induced roars of seismic proportions and yielded a season-high 9.975 for the three-time reigning SEC floor champion.
In spite of the team’s success in three meets, LSU coach D-D Breaux remained unsatisfied with the team’s success, citing it has performed better in practice. But Breaux said the bevy of team and individual bests are a good start.
“I feel like we are underperforming in some areas,” Breaux said. “From what we see in the gym, when we have that break out, it’s going to be great.”
You can reach Jacob Hamilton on Twitter @jhamilton_TDR.