BATON ROUGE — The first glimpse of the 2003-04 LSU Gymnastics team looked promising as the Tigers scored a 196.100 in their preseason intrasquad Friday evening at the LSU Gymnastics Practice Facility.
The team divided in half and competed four athletes on each event to simulate a meet situation, however, the Tigers’ top six scores, regardless of team division, were added together to produce the 196.100 mark.
LSU eclipsed the 49.000 barrier on three of the four events, scoring a 49.000 on the beam, a 49.050 on the vault and a 49.200 on the floor, while rounding out the scoring with a 48.850 on the bars.
Sophomore Terin Martinjak turned in one of the most successful outings of the evening, pacing all Tigers on the balance beam with an outstanding 9.900 performance. She later matched that mark on the floor exercise after also adding a 9.750 on the vault.
On the vault, sophomore April Burkholder and freshman Nicki Butler recorded identical marks of 9.850 to lead the team. They were followed by sophomores Brittany Brown and Lindsey Thompson who each scored 9.800s.
The uneven bars saw senior Lindsay Beddow, junior Kat Hilton and Nicki Butler all recorded marks of 9.800, while the beam rotation was headlined by Martinjak’s 9.900 and freshman Kelly Phelan’s 9.850.
The Tigers’ were most impressive on the floor exercise, not counting a score below 9.800 as Martinjak and Burkholder each notched marks of 9.900 and Brown, Butler and Phelan all tied with scores of 9.800.
The Tigers will begin the 2004 campaign Jan. 9 when they travel to East Lansing, Mich., for a quad meet featuring host Michigan State, Arizona and Western Michigan.