Coming off its first loss of the season, LSU gymnastics enters a crucial stretch of the season in which staying focused and positive is more important than ever.
In last week’s meet against No. 1 Florida, LSU lost by a score of 198.150-198.050. These scores were the two highest in the country so far this season, and both teams put on a great show for fans watching. LSU Head Coach Jay Clark felt that even though the Tigers lost, it was a great event to be a part of.
“That was a heck of a meet,” Clark said. “It’s a shame anybody had to lose that one because that was a heavyweight boxing match out there tonight.”
The meet was an impressive showing for LSU despite the loss. The Tigers set season-high scores in vault, bars and beam. As well as just individual season highs, LSU’s 198.050 score goes down as the 13th-best score in school history. Clark emphasized after the match that despite the loss, this meet was a success for this LSU team.
“There’s nothing about this that is a failure,” Clark said. “We’re every bit as confident as we were coming in, and we can look at it and the logic says that we can beat that team.”
The energy within the LSU team was positive after the meet, which is a good sign for the team going forward. It is crucial for this team to keep its focus and stay positive as it heads into the final stretch of the season. With the postseason not far away, LSU is setting its focus on the bigger picture which is a message Clark has preached to the team all season.
“We told our kids that no matter what, this meet was not going to be our final destination,” Clark said. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to get to March and April.”
LSU senior Sami Durante has taken a leadership role on the team this season and had similar things to say about the mindset of the team after the meet.
“We still have the SEC Championship,” Durante said. “We have another chance, and we are going to use that to our advantage.”
Durante had another good showing at last week’s meet, putting up scores of 9.950 and 9.925 in vault and bars. Despite the loss being a minor setback for LSU, Durante ensured that the team’s morale was still high after the meet.
“I don’t think we have any reasons to be upset,” Durante said. “I think tonight we were just coming in trying to improve ourselves and not worrying about the other team and we did that.”
LSU did show improvement in this meet, and the season high score is a perfect example of that. Although this meet will go down as a loss, LSU’s score will help them in the rankings and boost their season average. With how close LSU was able to hang with the No. 1 team in the country, there is plenty of optimism heading into the rest of the season.
“You score that at a national championship, you’re going to win away,” Clark said. “We just put up a score that was far and away the highest score in the country except for the team we shared the floor with.”
Although last Friday’s meet may have ended in disappointment for many LSU fans, there is still plenty on the line for the Tigers this season. There is still plenty left to achieve, and despite the loss, LSU has nothing but positives to take away from the meet with Florida.