BATON ROUGE — Following an all-around win at the season-opening Super Six Challenge, senior All-American April Burkholder is the No. 1-ranked gymnast in the country according to the latest national rankings released Monday. The Tigers slipped one spot to No. 8 in the team standings.
Rankings are based on a team or individual’s high score until Jan. 23 when they will be determined by season average.
Burkholder bettered the competition last Friday, notching a nation’s-best 39.375 in taking home the all-around crown. The Houston native also tallied four scores of 9.825 or higher to earn individual events rankings of No. 3 on the beam (9.850), No. 9 on the bars (9.850), No. 13 on the vault (9.850) and No. 15 on the floor (9.825).
LSU has three other athletes in the individual rankings as junior Kelly Phelan is listed at No. 16 in the all-around (38.825) and No. 2 on the bars (9.875), junior Lisa Rennie is 18th on the bars (9.8250 and sophomore Emily Ellis is 19th on the vault (9.825)
In the team rankings, SEC competitors Florida and Georgia top the standings at No.1 and No. 2, respectively, after posting season-opening scores of 195.900 and 195.700. Stanford (194.950), Utah (194.875) and Alabama (194.250) complete the top five, while Nebraska (194.100), Iowa State (194.050), LSU (193.900), UCLA (193.850) and Denver (193.850) round out the top 10.
The Tigers are also ranked among the top 15 on each of the four individual events, coming in at No. 2 on the bars (49.075), No. 9 on both the vault (48.850) and beam (48.125) and 14th on the floor (47.850).
LSU returns to action Sunday when they travel to Denton, Texas for a quad meet featuring Texas Woman’s, Centenary and Utah State. Action from TWU’s Kitty Magee Arena will begin at 2 p.m.