The LSU gymnastics team is giving a new meaning to athlete’s foot.
Four gymnasts have battled foot injuries early this season, causing most of them to miss time in competitions.
Sophomores Maliah Mathis, Sarie Morrison and Kaleigh Dickson and senior Ashley Lee all missed events through the first six meets of the season due to foot or ankle injuries.
Mathis, who missed the season-opening Cancun Classic on Jan. 6 with an injury to the back of her foot, tied for the nation’s top score on floor last season with a score of 9.975 against Georgia, marking the highest score for any LSU gymnast on any event last year.
She’s competed on vault the last four meets and was added to the floor routine in LSU’s last meet Friday against Kentucky, where she scored a 9.775.
“It wasn’t the best floor routine, but I’m getting there,” Mathis said. “I’m getting back in the lineup.”
Mathis competed in both events again this weekend and said she plans on adding further events in the weeks ahead.
“It’s not like any other sport where if you twist your ankle, you can still do football, you can still do track,” Mathis said. “You have to pound, and it’s not easy.”
Morrison’s injury held her out the last two meets before Friday, when she scored a season-high 9.875 on bars but was unable to compete in any other event. She was originally expected to return in four to five weeks after tearing cartilage in her ankle.
“If the trainers and the doctors tell you four or five weeks, you always want them back in two or three weeks,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux.
Morrison, LSU’s best all-around performer last year, hasn’t competed on floor this season, and the Cancun Classic is the only meet in which she competed in more than one event. She said it’s difficult to know when an injury is serious because of her high pain tolerance.
“Next week, I’m going to start trying to do some tumbling and things on the trampoline and hopefully getting back before the four to five weeks that was expected,” Morrison said.
Dickson missed the Auburn meet Jan. 13, and Lee hasn’t competed on floor since injuring her foot in practice two weeks ago prior to LSU’s meet against Kentucky on Feb. 3.
The sophomore class has been particularly plagued by injury, and Morrison said it’s because the team relied heavily on that group last year.
“A lot of the freshmen last year had to do more work, so I think that this year it’s kind of showing a little more that we’re a little tired,” Morrison said. “But I think we’ve all been coming in the gym and working really hard. Injuries are always going to be there in gymnastics.”
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]
Gymnastics: Foot injuries sidelining gymnasts
By Rowan Kavner
Sports Contributor
Sports Contributor
February 13, 2012