BATON ROUGE- Fresh off a near upset of powerhouse Georgia on Sunday, the LSU gymnastics team moved up four positions in the national rankings Wednesday to the No. 6 spot, the Tigers’ highest ranking of the season.
Furthermore, the Tigers’ opponent on Friday evening, Utah, replaced UCLA as the new No. 1 after holding the third spot in last week’s poll. The Utes claimed the top spot based on the highest season average after blowing out Utah State and Minnesota in their first two outings of the season.
Utah, a perennial power that has won more national championships than any other gymnastics program, will be the first No. 1 team to compete in Baton Rouge since the Tigers battled to a tie with Georgia in 1997.
The Tigers’ next opponent following the Utah showdown, Alabama, remained in the No. 2 spot for the second consecutive week. Michigan moved up to the No. 3 spot, while Georgia moved up one spot to fourth and previous No. 1 UCLA fell to fifth.
LSU is ranked in the top 20 in the nation in season average in each of the four disciplines, ranking eighth on the vault, ninth on the uneven bars, 10th in the floor exercise and 11th on the balance beam.
Three individuals are ranked in the top 20 in the nation in the beam, as freshman Rebecca Lightsey ranks second after her 9.90 outing at Georgia, while Abbey Burns is tied for the 13th spot and Stacey Wegener is tied for 19th.
The Tigers and Utes square off at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Friday at 7 p.m. Warm-ups are open to the public beginning at 5:30 p.m. Live scoring from the meet will be available here.
Tickets for Friday night’s meet with the top-ranked Utes are available at the LSU Ticket Office now. Fans are encouraged to pick up coupons at EATEL locations in Baton Rouge, Gonzales and Denham Springs to receive 2-for-1 admission to the meet.
Gymnastics National Rankings
*As of 1/25 – Based on season average
| Rank/Team | Avg. | |
| 1. | Utah | 196.125 |
| 2. | Alabama | 195.800 |
| 3. | Michigan | 195.616 |
| 4. | Georgia | 195.575 |
| 5. | UCLA | 195.150 |
| 6. | LSU | 194.483 |
| 7. | Nebraska | 194.408 |
| 8. | Penn St. | 194.063 |
| 9. | Iowa St. | 193.813 |
| 10. | Stanford | 193.775 |
| 11. | Arizona St. | 193.600 |
| 12. | Denver | 193.592 |
| 13. | New Hampshire | 193.442 |
| 14. | Cal. State-Fullerton | 193.300 |
| 15. | Minnesota | 192.975 |
| 16. | Ball St. | 192.950 |
| 17. | Kentucky | 192.838 |
| 18. | Maryland | 192.808 |
| 19. | Florida | 192.575 |
| 20. | Washington | 192.513 |
| 21 | Towson St. | 192.508 |
| 22. | Auburn | 192.425 |
| BYU | 192.425 | |
| 24. | N.C. State | 192.400 |
| 25 | Oklahoma | 192.363 |