BATON ROUGE — The LSU gymnastics team improved its regional qualifying score (RQS) to a 196.800, but it wasn’t enough to keep them at No. 4 in the national rankings as they slipped one spot to No. 5 on Monday.
Stanford jumped the Tigers in the standings, improving their RQS to a 196.855 to take over the No. 4 position.
The top three remained unchanged with Florida (197.435) leading the pack, followed by Georgia (197.420) and Alabama (197.170).
In the event rankings, LSU held on to its top-20 status on each of the four events. The Tigers held tight at No. 2 on the vault, while improving to No. 2 on the floor and dropping slightly to No. 10 on the bars and No. 16 on the beam.
Individually, the Tigers are once again headlined by junior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney. She is tied with Georgia’s Katie Heenan as the nation’s top-ranked all-arounder. Both led the NCAA with RQSs of 39.555.
Clare-Kearney also held on to her No. 1 ranking on the vault for the seventh straight week, while falling one spot to No. 7 on the floor and improving two places to No. 18 on the beam.
LSU seniors Kelly Phelan and Nicki Butler are also ranked among the NCAA’s top 25 in the all-around, slipping slightly to No. 23 and No. 25, respectively, this week.
Phelan is also listed at No. 14 on the vault and No. 23 on the floor, while Butler is No. 7 on the vault.
In addition, sophomore Lauren Klein is LSU’s top-ranked floor performer at No. 3.
Gymnastics Rankings ? April 2, 2007
Rank
Team
RQS
1
Florida
197.435
2
Georgia
197.420
3
Alabama
197.170
4
Stanford
196.855
5
LSU
196.800
6
Nebraska
196.685
7
Utah
196.670
8
UCLA
196.600
–
Oregon State
196.600
10
Oklahoma
196.335
11
Penn State
196.285
12
Michigan
196.255
13
Arkansas
196.135
14
Denver
196.080
15
Arizona
195.995
16
Iowa State
195.855
17
Auburn
195.700
18
Missouri
195.660
19
Michigan State
195.520
20
Illinois-Champaign
195.235
21
Ohio State
195.215
22
North Carolina State
195.160
23
BYU
194.890
24
West Virginia
194.860
25
Minnesota
194.775