BATON ROUGE — The 15th-ranked LSU gymnastics team travels to Salt Lake City to take on the seventh-ranked Utah Utes Friday night at the Huntsman Center. The meet is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. (CST).
LSU (8-6, 2-4 SEC) is coming off a narrow 196.475-196.350 loss to fifth-ranked Georgia a week ago. The Tigers have been on fire on the beam the last three weeks recording three straight scores of 49.225 or better, including a school record tying 49.475 performance against Arkansas, March 28.
Individually, the Tigers will look to freshman all-arounder April Burkholder and junior Lindsay Beddow to pace the squad in Salt Lake City.
After sitting out two meets and seeing limited action in a third due to a sprained ankle, Burkholder returned to all-around action against Georgia scoring an impressive 39.325, behind a career-high 9.925 on the balance beam.
Beddow, a solid two event threat for the Tigers, finished second on the bars and third on the beam against the Gym Dogs last week, turning in scores of 9.900 and 9.875, respectively.
Utah enters the meet with overall record of 5-4, including a 2-3 home slate. Until this season the Utes had been practically unbeatable on their home turf, having owned a 23-year old, 170-meet home win streak. The streak was broken in Utah’s season-opening 197.225-196.750 loss to UCLA on Jan. 10. Since that meet the Utes have lost two additional meets at the Huntsman Center this season.
Following LSU’s meet with Utah the Tigers will close out the regular season with a tri-meet featuring Centenary and Texas Woman’s in Shreveport, March 21.