BATON ROUGE — LSU gymnastics head coach D-D Breaux saw two sides of her team in the Tigers’ season opening trip to the Super Six Challenge. She saw a nervous, tentative team for half of the meet, as the Tigers’ struggled. Over the course of the second half of the meet, however, she saw a team that belonged with the nation’s elite.
She saw the latter of the two teams on Friday night, as the Tigers exploded, scoring a 196.200-194.775 victory over Auburn. The victory over Auburn was LSU’s 19th consecutive victory in the series dating back to 1993 and it marked the earliest point in a season that LSU has ever gone over 196 points.
“That’s a great score, it’s the earliest we’ve ever done that,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “We didn’t count any falls tonight, so it was a great meet for us.”
LSU got off to a solid start on vault, posting a score of 48.725. Kristin Uransky looked sharp for the second consecutive week, claiming the second title of her career with a 9.850 in the sixth spot, while Marina Degteva came up with a 9.825 to pace the Tigers.
The Tigers turned it up a notch on the second rotation, however, scoring an impressive 49.450 on bars. Sharene Mamby capped a near flawless rotation with a 9.925 in the sixth spot to win the eighth bars title of her career. Degteva added a 9.90, while Brooke Cazeaux and Beth Boudreaux chipped in scores of 9.875 and 9.850 respectively to give LSU a commanding lead at the midway point.
As LSU turned to the beam, an event it struggled on last weekend, the Tigers extended their lead. Nicki Arnstad led the way with a 9.850, while Boudreaux contributed a 9.80 as the Tigers scored a 48.875, nearly two points higher than their total at the Super Six Challenge last weekend.
“That was huge for us to rebound on bars and beam tonight,” added Breaux. “We really struggled last week and those two events were critical for us putting together a complete meet.”
With a 196 score in their sites, LSU was sharp on floor behind a victorious 9.90 from Arnstad. Chelsea Richard finished second with a scored of 9.850, while Lauren Companioni and Shanyn MacEachern tied for third with identical scores of 9.825.
Arnstad also won the all-around title with a score of 39.350.
LSU returns to Gainesville, Fla., for the second time in three week next Friday when the Tigers take on Florida in a dual meet at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. The Tigers return home on Feb. 1 to take on fourth-ranked Utah, followed by a home meet with No. 6 Alabama the following weekend.
Team Scoring
1, LSU, 196.200; 2, Auburn, 194.775.