BATON ROUGE — For the second time this season LSU junior April Burkholder has been named the SEC’s Gymnast of the Week by the conference office. Burkholder previously received the honor during the week of Jan. 24.
Burkholder guided LSU to a school record 197.850 in its win over No. 9 Oklahoma last Friday, winning her fifth all-around title of the season with a 39.825. The mark, the second best in school history, ranks No. 1 in the SEC this season and ties her with two others for the top score in the nation this year.
The four-time All-American also notched a pair of 10.00s against the Sooners, earning the perfect marks on the vault and beam. Burkholder is the only athlete in LSU history to ever record two 10.00s in a single meet. She is also the only Tiger to ever receive more than one perfect score on the beam in her career, first posting a 10.00 on the event during her sophomore season.
Burkholder’s stellar performance catapulted her 20 spots in the all-around rankings to No. 5 in the country. She is also ranked third on the floor, sixth on the vault and 11th on the bars.
Burkholder and the top-ranked Tigers return to action this Friday when they host Centenary in the season’s home finale at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.