BATON ROUGE — LSU head gymnastics coach D-D Breaux announced her team’s complete 2007 schedule on Saturday, a slate that includes five teams that competed at last year’s NCAA Championships and 10 teams that finished the season ranked among the nation’s top 25.
“This is a really tough schedule,” said Breaux who begins her 30th season at the helm of the Tigers program. “I feel it’s a great mix of competition that will challenge us from the beginning to the end of the season.”
The Tigers kickoff the season on Jan. 5 at the Super Six Challenge in Fayetteville, Ark. Perennially one of the nation’s premier collegiate events, it will feature 2006 Super Six qualifiers Florida and Nebraska as well as Arkansas, Penn State and Denver, who all finished among the nation’s top 20 a year ago.
The Tigers remain on the road for a dual meet against Iowa in Ames on Jan. 12 before returning to Baton Rouge to begin their home slate.
Action in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center begins with a non-conference dual meet against Illinois on Jan. 19.
SEC action then heats up as the Tigers take on NCAA Championships qualifier, Arkansas, in the Maravich Center on Jan. 26. They close out the three-meet home stand by welcoming Georgia, the two-time defending national champions, to the PMAC on Feb. 2.
LSU then travels to Kentucky and Auburn on Feb. 9 and Feb. 16, respectively, before taking on one of the most challenging weekends of the season.
On Feb. 23 the Tigers welcome conference foe and Super Six qualifier, Florida, to the PMAC and then turn around two days later and compete against Nebraska, Stanford and N.C. State in the Master’s Classic in Lincoln, Neb.
“That’s going to be a challenging turnaround,” said Breaux. “To host a team like Florida on a Friday and then travel the next day to take on the likes of Nebraska, Stanford and N.C. State on Sunday is really going to test this team.”
The schedule doesn’t lighten up from there as LSU will make a trip to SEC powerhouse Alabama the following week.
The Tigers then close out the home schedule with a pair of non-conference battles against Penn State on March 9 and Nebraska on March 16.
“We are not hosting a regional championship this year, so when we designed our schedule we tried to bring in some teams from outside the conference so we could get a better idea of what we are up against outside of our region,” said Breaux.
Before beginning the championship season, LSU closes out the regular season with a dual meet against Centenary in Shreveport on March 23.
The Tigers then travel to North Little Rock, Ark., for the 27th edition of the SEC Championships which will take place at Alltel Arena.
Following the conference meet, LSU’s destination for the NCAA Regional Championships will be determined by national ranking. Host schools include Alabama, Arizona, California, Denver, Michigan and West Virginia.
The 2007 gymnastics season will wrap up with the NCAA Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 26-28.
“Utah is a tremendous host site,” said Breaux. “The fans will be hanging from the rafters. It should be a great environment to compete in and a hard ticket to come by.”