BATON ROUGE — A school record 49.675 on the floor exercise in the final rotation propelled the fourth-ranked LSU gymnastics team to a, 197.525-195.600, win over Ohio State Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers, who didn’t count a score below 9.900 on the floor, where led by sophomore sensation April Burkholder who notched a near perfect 9.975 to win her sixth title of the season on the event.
Fellow sophomore Brittany Brown finished in second with a career-high 9.950, while Terin Martinjak and Kelly Phelan rounded out the top three with identical marks of 9.925.
“I can not emphasize enough how hard this team has trained, doing stadiums, doing sprints and all the work in the gym,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “I feel like now they are finally reaping the benefits of their labor.”
The Tigers’ final team score matched the second-best total in school history and extended LSU’s streak of consecutive scores of 197.100 or better to five straight meets.
Burkholder continued her dominance in the all-around, winning her seventh straight meet title with a 39.700. The Houston native also took home a share of the beam honors, tying freshman Lisa Rennie with a 9.925.
All-American Annie Gagnon turned in three exceptional performances for the Tigers. In addition to winning her sixth bar title this season (9.950), the Montreal, Quebec, native notched a 9.950 in her collegiate debut on the vault to share first-place honors with teammate Nicki Butler.
Gagnon concluded her meet with a solid 9.800 on the beam.
LSU wraps up the regular season next Friday when it travels to Shreveport, La., for a dual meet with Centenary at 7 p.m. in the Gold Dome.
TEAM RESULTS
1. LSU 197.525
2. Ohio State 195.600
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Event winner plus all LSU competitors)
Vault – t1, Nicki Butler, 9.950. t1, Annie Gagnon, 9.950. 3, April Burkholder, 9.925. 5, Rikki L’Heureux, 9.825. 8, Lindsey Thompson, 9.700. 12, Kelly Phelan, 9.450.
Bars – 1, Annie Gagnon, 9.950. 2, Lisa Rennie, 9.900. t3, April Burkholder, 9.875. t3, Nicki Butler, 9.875. t9, Katherine Hilton, 9.725. 12, Lindsay Beddow, 9.550.
Beam – t1, April Burkholder, 9.925. t1, Lisa Rennie, 9.925. 3, Terin Martinjak, 9.900. 5, Annie Gagnon, 9.800. 10, Kelly Phelan, 9.625. 12, Lindsay Beddow, 9.175.
Floor – 1, April Burkholder, 9.975. 2, Brittany Brown, 9.950. t3, Terin Martinjak, 9.925. t3, Kelly Phelan, 9.925. 5 Lisa Rennie, 9.900. 6, Nicki Butler, 9.875.
All-Around – 1, April Burkholder, 39.700. 2, Elizabeth Meaney, OSU, 39.275. 3, Brittany Livingston, OSU, 39.075. 4, Kaylin Schiecht, OSU, 38.925.