Though gymnastics competitions are usually defined by leadoffs and anchors, No. 3 LSU had a rather different story against No. 14 Penn State on Friday.
LSU still found a 197.525-196.125 win over the Lions in their return to the PMAC, but it was clear that the night’s difference maker were the midrunners of the Tiger lineups, and the electricity that opened and closed the meet in the first and last rotations.
Despite a rather solid start to the meet, LSU saw struggles through the middle stretch, something that’s uncommon for the team, as it saw its lowest season scores on both beam and uneven bars.
“I thought there were a lot of bright spots, a lot of good things, but I thought we were inconsistent,” head coach Jay Clark said. “We just never really gained any momentum.”
Bar is usually known as one of the Tigers’ strongest events since the start of the season, but that wasn’t exactly the case tonight for the Louisiana team when they took on the second rotation.
Early in this second rotation, the LSU bar lineup saw the long-teased season debut of fifth-year senior Alexis Jeffrey. Despite an awkward landing, an otherwise flawless routine saw a score of 9.675.
“That girl is amazing,” said junior Kylie Coen. “She has been so excited this year, and she was so diligent with her rehab, and with how she was going to come back. She was foot on the gas all preseason. We are just super proud to watch her, and I’m super excited to see where she goes this year.”
It was clear that the home team was struggling to find its rhythm throughout this event, and it wasn’t until a season-high score for Madison Ulrich that the Tigers saw a slight momentum shift in the rotation.
Coen found herself leading the Tigers into a very consistent but still slightly uncharacteristic beam rotation. There wasn’t a score above a 9.875 until anchor Kailin Chio put up a 9.925 to close out the rotation, making for a season-low scoring beam rotation.
The Tigers still put up a solid performance on the event. Yet to see a fall on the beam thus far, they had managed to win the third rotation 49.225-49.175, ensuring a lead over the Lions.
LSU has shown its strength across every rotation time and time again, but something about leg events, such as vault and floor, has proven slightly more difficult for the team to find consistency early in the season.
“We paced our kids differently on the leg events, and you can see that happening now, with vault and floor both coming up,” Clark said.
As of late, however, that trend has begun to change, as was the case on Friday night. Once again in her designated spot as leadoff was sophomore Lexi Zeiss, who found yet another stick on vault.
While the event only saw two scores above 9.875 in the first rotation, the high nine scores across the rotation allowed the Tigers to still find themselves ahead of the Lions by half a point. The rotation’s final score also saw the Tigers’ highest vault score of the season, with a final of 49.475, trumping the recently earned 49.425 against Mizzou.
LSU’s floor exercise has seemed to be strengthened under the lights of the PMAC. LSU previously set a season-high composite score of 49.600 on the event the last time it was at home against Kentucky, the Tigers posted another high-scoring floor rotation of 49.550 on the night.
Running the same floor lineup as in Mizzou, LSU has shown growth on the floor exercise since the start of the season.
Season-high scores from Coen and Amari Drayton really gave the Tigers the edge in the rotation, making the event the most heavy-hitting of the night to close the competition out with a bang.
“We know this is our house. The fans were giving us all the energy,” Coen said. “I just did what I did every single day in the gym.”
It was clear that opening and closing rotations were what gave the Tigers the competitive edge over the Lions, and the midrunners seemed to be a saving grace in spite of shaky leadoff scores on the night.
Leaving the PMAC with another win, LSU now looks towards its next meet, where it will take on the No. 12 Auburn Tigers once again in front of a home crowd at 7:45 p.m.
