BATON ROUGE — The LSU gymnastics team will try to qualify for its fifth consecutive NCAA Championship appearance Saturday night at 5 p.m. when the Tigers travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., for the NCAA Northeast Regional at Crisler Arena.
The 18th-ranked Tigers will be the third highest seed on hand, as they will compete with No. 6 Stanford and No.7 and host Michigan. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and UMass round out the six-team regional. The top two teams advance to the 12-team NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga., from April 19-21.
With only the top two teams going, the Tigers will have to pull a major upset on Saturday night. Stanford won the Pac-10 title in Seattle two weeks ago by shocking No. 1 UCLA, while Michigan picked up its third consecutive Big 10 title the same weekend.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us, this is a very tough regional,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “You’re going to have to beat them sooner or later, why not now? They obviously deserve to be where they are by virtue of what they’ve accomplished but we’ve improved tremendously throughout the season. We’ve gotten better each and every week and we’ll have to be at our absolute best on Saturday.”
LSU will be attempting to make its fifth consecutive NCAA Championship appearance, a first in school history. The Tigers have finished second each of the past two years. In Baton Rouge in 1999 the Tigers thought they had won their first regional title since 1986, but an inquiry gave the title to Stanford in the only other meeting between the two schools.
Last year the Tigers advanced in dramatic fashion at the NCAA Region III Championships in Tucson, Ariz. Trailing Arizona State heading into the final rotation, the Tigers put together a near flawless floor rotation capped off by a 9.95 by Nicki Arnstad to clinch second place.
The Tigers finished fourth at the SEC Championships in their last outing on March 23, but the score is somewhat deceiving, as they posted a solid 196.300, their third highest score of the season and third highest ever at an SEC Championship.
“It’s going to take that kind of performance and then some this weekend,” said Breaux. “Last year we were able to advance at the regional meet with a mid-195 score but it will probably take a lot more this time around.”
If the Tigers are to advance once again, they will rely heavily on Arstand, the junior all-arounder who has been their top performer throughout the season. Arnstad has 10 titles to her credit this season — six on floor, three all-around and one on beam.
Senior Sharene Mamby is coming off a strong showing at the SEC Championships where she gave the Tigers two solid scores, registering a 9.90 on bars and a 9.825 on floor.
Beth Boudreaux, Marina Degteva, Brooke Cazeaux and Lindsay Beddow will all be critical to the Tigers’ chances on Saturday as each will be counted on to provide quality scores in two to three events depending on which lineup Breaux goes with.
The Tigers will be looking for their first NCAA Regional title since 1986. The Tigers have not finished lower than third since 1992.
Those wishing to follow the meet can follow the scores live on the University of Michigan’s official web site, www.mgoblue.com beginning at 5 p.m.