BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 16th-ranked gymnastics team opens the 2004 SEC schedule Friday night when it travels to Gainesville, Fla., for a dual meet with eighth-ranked Florida.
The meet will be held at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center and is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. (CST).
The Tigers (2-1, 0-0 SEC) are coming off a second-place finish at the season-opening Michigan State quad meet. LSU posted the highest season-opening score in school history, 194.875, but were upended by eventual meet champion, Arizona (195.425).
Individually, the Tigers were led by sophomore April Burkholder who won the vault with a near perfect 9.950, while also finishing second in the all-around (39.250) and on the floor exercise (9.850).
Florida (4-1, 0-0 SEC) returns to action after finishing second at the Super Six Challenge a week ago. The Gators second-best season opening score in school history (195.950) was enough to defeat Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon State and Denver, but not quite enough to overcome Alabama’s 196.725.
The Gators will likely be lead by all-arounders Orley Szmuch and Breanne King, who finished second and third, respectively, in the all-around at the Super Six Challenge.
The Gators lead the all-time series with the Tigers, 41-25. Despite the lopsided appearance of the all-time standings the UF-LSU rivalry has intensified in recent years as eight of the last 11 meets have been decided by less than one-half of a point.
Following LSU’s trip to Gainesville, the Tigers return to Baton Rouge to open the home schedule against No. 2 Alabama, Jan. 23, in the PMAC.