LSU gymnastics’ season-high tally of 196.325 on Friday wasn’t enough to overcome a school-record setting by Arkansas.
A record crowd of 5,537 watched the Lady Razorbacks (6-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) post a program best 197.225 to defeat the Lady Tigers (1-5, 1-1 SEC) at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
The meet commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Arkansas gymnastics program. With the original 2003 team on hand and the fans rocking, LSU’s best performance of the season was muted by the Razorbacks’ insurmountable momentum.
“I’m very pleased with how we performed tonight,” LSU coach D-D Breaux said in a news release. “Our gymnasts showed a lot of resolve after a lackluster showing in warmups. We came out with a solid team score with great effort and performances throughout the meet.”
That effort included a team score of 49.500 on vault, No. 6 in school history and the best vault score since 2008.
Sophomore Kaleigh Dickson, who didn’t compete against Auburn last week, and freshman Jessie Jordan marked career-highs of 9.875 and 9.850, respectively.
Senior Ashley Lee and freshman Rheagan Courville split the vault title, both scoring career-best scores of 9.950.
Courville and Jordan joined fellow freshman Lloimincia Hall to once again lead the relatively inexperienced squad. The trio came in third, fourth and fifth in the all-around with scores of 39.375, 39.325 and 39.300, respectively.
LSU’s youth was overtaken by Arkansas’ experience. All-American sophomore Katherine Grable and All-American senior Jaime Pisani combined for four scores of 9.950 to top the all-around for the meet.
Breaux said the meet was in reach in spite of Arkansas’ two powerful performances. LSU took two of the four events, winning vault by a margin of 0.100 and balance beam by 0.075, but the distance Arkansas created on the uneven bars and floor routines proved too much.
“It was a very good team that beat us tonight, but this was a winnable meet for us,” Breaux said. “We overcame clutter before the meet, and I was really pleased with how we fought. Now, we need to go in the gym, develop some consistency, work on our landings and keep getting better.”
The Lady Tigers will travel to Georgia on Friday to take on the No. 6 Gym Dogs at 3 p.m. at Stegeman Coliseum.
 
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Contact Alex Cassara at [email protected].