The No. 11 LSU gymnastics squad is set to make its 23rd NCAA Championships appearance today when it competes in Semifinal I in Duluth, Ga.
The team will perform in the afternoon along with No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 6 Nebraska, No. 7 Utah and No. 10 Stanford.
Should the Tigers (14-12) place within the top three of their pool, they will move on to the NCAA Super Six Finals on Saturday, which LSU coach D-D Breaux has pegged as her team’s ultimate goal all season.
“Our preparation and the mental outlook of the team … has been very beneficial,” Breaux said. “If everything continues to happen in a positive way, I think we’re good enough to be a Super Six team.”
If successful, it will be the third time LSU has reached the Super Six following the team’s recent appearances in 2008 and 2009.
Those teams featured decorated LSU gymnasts Susan Jackson and Ashleigh Clare-Kearney, but Breaux said the overall depth of the current squad surpasses its recent predecessors with “more kids that can score higher.”
With that depth comes inexperience, though. Only four of the 15 gymnasts on the 2012 roster have been to the nationals meet – one of those being junior Shelby Prunty, who is nursing a bone spur and may be held out.
Another is senior Ashley Lee, who earned All-American honors on the vault at the same meet in 2010. Lee said the thought of the last meet of her collegiate career is starting to set in, but it won’t hinder her performance.
“We’ve put in so much hard work, and we’ve done as much as we can do,” Lee said. “We’ve sacrificed so much just to be sure that we put ourselves in the best position going into this meet.”
LSU has leaned on that youth, particularly outstanding freshmen Rheagan Courville, Lloimincia Hall and Jessie Jordan, who all ranked nationally in the all-around this season. Jordan, like Courville, has not missed an event all season but is now being hampered by several ailments to her elbow, foot and skin that will keep her limited.
Breaux said Jordan won’t compete on the uneven bars, but said she would like to see her in the balance beam lineup “a lot.” She named junior Britney Taylor and sophomore Lainie Fleming as possible alternates on bars.
The coach said she still has heavy expectations for the freshmen.
“I’m expecting [the freshmen] to be enthusiastic,” Breaux said. “I’m expecting them to have the best meets of their lives.”
Hall won the Southeastern Conference floor title at its championship meet on March 24 but was one of many LSU gymnasts who underperformed two weeks later at regionals to squeak into the NCAA meet by .25 points over Washington in the final rotation.
The freshman said she feels the experience will be beneficial in the end.
“I was not as on top of my floor routine, but it was definitely things that were fixable,” Hall said. “I feel like I’m ready for nationals because of the things that went on at regionals.”
Breaux said she was expecting higher than a No. 11 seed going into regionals, but that the placement, because of the national meet’s structure, should have no effect on her team. Courville and Breaux both said it was the toughest meet of the season judging-wise.
Whatever the outcome, Lee said she’s just looking to soak it all up.
“I want to get another All-American and another Super Six ring,” Lee said. “That’s obviously what everyone wants, but I just really want to enjoy this experience to its fullest.”
 
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