BATON ROUGE — LSU’s gymnastics team is ranked 10th in the country for the second straight week according to the latest national rankings released Monday.
For the first time this season the rankings, which were previously based on a team’s season average, where determined by regional qualifying score (RQS).
A team’s RQS is calculated by adding together its top three road score plus its additional top three scores from either a home or away meet. The team’s high score is then dropped and the remaining five scores are averaged to determine the final RQS.
UCLA dethroned previous No. 1 Alabama for the top spot with an RQS of 197.745. Georgia held steady at No. 2 (197.395) and the Crimson Tide slipped to No. 3 (197.285). Utah (196.810) and Florida (196.670) rounded out the top five, while Tigers capped the top-10 with an RQS of 196.525.
LSU is ranked among the top-15 on each of the four events for the first time this season. The Tigers are listed at sixth on both the vault (49.225) and floor (49.355), 14th on the bars (49.000) and 15th on the beam (48.955).
Individually, sophomore April Burkholder shot up five spots to No. 2 in the all-around rankings. The Houston native’s RQS of 39.575 is second only to UCLA’s Jeanette Antolin who tops the standings with a 39.750.
Burkholder is also ranked second on the floor (9.960), fifth on the vault (9.925), and 13th on the beam (9.885).
Junior Annie Gagnon also improved in the national rankings, moving up one spot, to ninth, in the bar standings with an RQS of 9.905.
The Tigers return to action tonight when they take on No. 11 Arizona and Texas Woman’s at 7 p.m. in Denton, Texas. Following the tri-meet, LSU returns to conference action, hosting No. 18 Auburn Friday at 7 p.m. in the PMAC.