SALT LAKE CITY — LSU gymnasts Colleen Barger, Shanyn MacEachern and Stacey Wegener represented the Tigers at the NCAA Individual Events Finals with a pair of seventh-place finishes and 10th-place finish, respectively.
“We got squeezed out of the Super Six as a team by five-hundredths of a point, but this showing in the event finals really gives our program and these girls a wonderful end to a great season,” LSU head coach D-D Breaux said.
MacEachern, a former Canadian Olympian who finished 14th at the 1996 World Championships on vault, took her best shot at her best event, and landed one spot off the awards stand with a seventh-place finish.
“I felt like I gave it all that I had, but I would have really liked to have made the top six,” MacEachern said. “I hope to be back here next year.”
MacEachern’s scores of 9.800 and 9.725 gave her an average of 9.7625, just 0.125 points away from a sixth-place finish.
On vault at the Individual Event Finals, the event is scored by averaging a gymnast’s two vaults, which have to be different. Thirteen vaulters qualified for the event finals by finishing in the top four in Thursday’s preliminary sessions.
UCLA’s Heidi Moneymaker won the vault individual national championship with an average of 9.8625, .025 points ahead of second-place finisher Theresa Kulikowski of Utah.
On beam, Barger and Wegener drew the 12th and last positions, thus giving these two Tigers a good chance at earning high scores. Each hit her routine, however, a few glitches in the routines cost each a spot on the awards stand.
“My dismount,” Barger exclaimed when asked what separated her from the top six. “The step on my dismount cost me, but I’m happy to have made it this far.”
Barger finished seventh, scoring a 9.800. After being named second-team All-American all-around during her freshman season in 1997, this was Barger’s second All-America honor.
With a major wobble on her turning pass, Wegener finished in a tie for 10th place on beam with a 9.700.
“Besides that, everything else felt really good,” Wegener said. “Next year, I want to compete all-around and make it back here to the event finals in a few more events.”
For the past three seasons, Wegener has competed on bars, beam and floor and hopes to add vault to her repertoire in the off-season.
The three athletes in the Individual Event Finals was the largest showing by an LSU team in the school’s 12 trips to the NCAA National Championships.
Nine-time All-American Jennifer Wood competed in three events for the Tigers in 1996. The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship Finals will be televised Saturday, May 8, at 1 p.m. CDT on CBS.