After being named an All-American her freshman year and Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Week in her sophomore year, junior gymnast Lauren Companioni is nding it very hard to get into the lineup of the No. 7 LSU gymnastics team because of younger talent.
Companioni said she knows why she has not been in the lineup much this season.
“The coaches don’t think I’m ready yet,” Companioni said.
Coach D-D Breaux said Companioni has not performed as well as she should.
“She’s not been ready [and] she’s not been at the level that her performance and her history indicate that she should be at,” Breaux said. “It’s sometimes a tough decision, but sometimes you have to do what’s right for the overall progression of the team.
“We’ve been blessed with pretty good depth and pretty consistent performances since about the rst third of the season, and due to that fact it’s been difcult to move people in and out of the lineup as much as we had been able to do in the past. With the standard that this lineup has established and the consistency that we’ve established, to take someone out of that lineup to put someone in as been very difcult.”
Breaux said Companioni’s 9.85 oor performance at Centenary on March 12th needs improvement.
“I thought her performance was OK,” Breaux said. “She over rotated on her last tumbling pass, which in a higher level meet would’ve been a costly mistake. But her having the opportunity to compete was good in an event we need her in our post-season competition.”
Companioni said she feels as though she is doing what she needs to do to possibly get into the lineup.
“I’m hitting my sets every day in the gym,” Companioni said. “I think I’m doing really good sets too so it’s up to the coaches and whether or not they want to put me in, but I know I’m ready and I can go out there and hit.”
Breaux said she would feel comfortable putting Companioni in the lineup if she needed to.
“I think if we did nd ourselves in a situation where we needed to make substitutions, I think she would be ready,” Breaux said. “She’s more ready now than she was at Centenary meet when we put her in.”
Jade Jenkins said having Companioni as a temmate has been a wonderful experience.
“She is so great,” Jenkins said. “I just love it because we get to be teammates and roomates. She just makes it so much fun in everything that we do in the gym and outside. She’s like the light at the end of the tunnel. Whenever you’re having a bad day, she’s always positive, she’s always up and she’s great. I’ve been so blessed to have her as a best friend and a rommate and a temmate, and we’re going to stay best friends forever because we met here and had such a great experience.”