BATON ROUGE — LSU’s gymnastics team posted a 196.175 in its quad meet victory last Friday, but it wasn’t enough to maintain the Tigers’ position in the national rankings as they dropped two spots to No. 4 this week.
Utah took over as the No. 1 team in the nation after improving its regional qualifying score to 196.800. Last week’s top team, Nebraska, dropped one spot to No. 2 (196.720). Alabama (196.670) catapulted four spots to No. 3 and is followed by LSU (196.660) and UCLA (196.610).
Once again the SEC has all seven of its teams ranked in the top 25. Florida and Georgia remain at sixth and eighth, respectively, with scores of 196.605 and 196.355. Arkansas follows in 15th (195.075), while Kentucky is 17th (194.765) and Auburn is 22nd (194.510).
In the individual event rankings, LSU is the country’s top-ranked team on the floor for a third straight week. The Tigers are also listed at No. 4 on the beam, No. 5 on the vault and No. 6 on the bars.
LSU once again has seven individuals ranked among the top 25. Sophomore Lisa Rennie owns the Tigers’ top ranking this week. She is listed at No. 3 on the beam in addition to being No. 17 on the bars.
Junior April Burkholder is No. 4 on the floor, No. 17 on the vault and No. 25 in the all-around.
Freshman Ashleigh Clare-Kearney, senior Annie Gagnon and sophomore Kelly Phelan also own top 10 rankings. Clare-Kearney is listed at No. 9 on both the vault and floor, Gagnon is No. 7 on the bars and Phelan is No. 9 on the beam. She is also ranked 22nd on the floor.
Also in the top 25 are sophomore Nicki Butler and junior Terin Martinjak. Butler is listed at No. 15 on the vault, while Martinjak is 25th on the floor.
The Tigers return to action this week when they hit the road for two meets in three days, traveling to Tulsa, Okla. to face No. 9 Oklahoma on Friday before meeting up with Texas Woman’s on Sunday.
| National Rankings – MAR. 7 | |||
|
Rank |
Team Name |
Team RQS | High Score |
| 1 | Utah, U. of | 196.800 | 197.675 |
| 2 | Nebraska, U. of | 196.720 | 196.800 |
| 3 | Alabama, U. of | 196.670 | 197.175 |
| 4 | L.S.U. | 196.660 | 197.250 |
| 5 | UCLA | 196.610 | 197.850 |
| 6 | Florida, U. of | 196.605 | 196.950 |
| 7 | Michigan, U. of | 196.540 | 197.800 |
| 8 | Georgia, U. of | 196.355 | 197.275 |
| 9 | Oklahoma, U. of | 196.070 | 196.700 |
| 10 | Iowa State | 195.840 | 196.925 |
| 11 | Oregon State | 195.480 | 195.975 |
| 12 | Central Michigan | 195.265 | 196.050 |
| 13 | Penn State | 195.115 | 196.650 |
| 14 | Denver, U. of | 195.085 | 196.000 |
| 15 | Arkansas, U. of | 195.075 | 195.725 |
| 16 | Brigham Young Univ. | 195.055 | 196.125 |
| 17 | Kentucky, U. of | 194.765 | 196.025 |
| 18 | Kent State Universit | 194.705 | 195.500 |
| 19 | Minnesota, U. of | 194.655 | 195.775 |
| 20 | Southern Utah Univ. | 194.570 | 196.175 |
| 21 | Arizona, U. of | 194.540 | 195.225 |
| 22 | Auburn Univ. | 194.510 | 195.325 |
| 23 | North Carolina State | 194.340 | 195.500 |
| 24 | Stanford Univ. | 194.290 | 196.025 |
| 25 | Utah State | 194.280 | 195.900 |