ATHENS, Ga. — The 14th-ranked LSU gymnasts remain on the road as they travel to face the top-ranked and defending national champion Georgia gymnasts on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT for a Southeastern Conference clash at Stegeman Coliseum.
The meet will be televised by ESPN2 on a tape delay basis set to air Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m.
“The team practiced very hard this week for the Georgia meet,” head coach D-D Breaux said. “With the competition on Saturday instead of our normal Friday, we’ve taken full advantage of the extra day and should be ready come Saturday.”
The Tigers gymnasts are coming off a 194.725-point performance that earned them a win against the Gym’Backs in Arkansas. That performance brought their record to 7-3 overall and 1-0 in the SEC.
The Gym Dogs, who have been ranked No. 1 in the country for three straight weeks, enter the meet with a perfect 7-0 (1-0 SEC) mark.
Their last meet was a 197.025-point outing in a win over Florida, the second highest score in the nation this season.
Senior April Burkholder paces the Tigers squad, holding the No. 7 spot in the all-around rankings. She also lists at No. 6 on the vault and No. 9 on the floor.
Breaux said she hopes the Tigers will overcome some of the struggles with inconsistencies they have faced in the early season this weekend.
“We need to find our consistency,” she said. “We need to have people hit their routines and compete at the level they are capable of.”
Georgia is led by a pair of all-arounders in Kelsey Erickson and Courtney Kupets who rank second and third, respectively, in the country.
LSU faced the Gym Dogs twice last season, beating them in a dual meet in Baton Rouge and falling to them in the SEC Championships.
Don’t miss a minute of the action from Athens as LSU presents a live gymnastics audiocast on www.LSUsports.net. The broadcast will begin at 3 p.m. CT and is free to all Tigers fans.
Veteran sports announcer Lyn Rollins will be handling the Tigers’ play-by-play duties. He will be joined by analysts Megan Durning and Jewel Pollock.
The link to the free audiocast will be displayed on the “Live Video/Audio” page on LSUsports.net at 3 p.m. CT
Live stats for the meet also will be available online at www.georgiadogs.com.