BATON ROUGE — The No. 5 LSU Tigers gymnastics team will travel to Raleigh, N.C. for their final regular season meet on Friday, March 14 when they face No. 18 North Carolina State, North Carolina and George Washington for a 6 p.m. (CT) quad meet at the Reynolds Coliseum.
Live audio from the meet will be broadcast from the Geaux Zone at www.LSUsports.net/live. Jewel Fourrier will provide color commentary and Tina Suhr will provide analysis.
LSU enters the meet with an 11-3 record, after beating Washington, 196.550-195.175, last Friday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
No. 18 North Carolina State is 15-6 on the season. Last weekend, they placed first in a tri-meet against. Bowling Green, William and Mary and Central Michigan in which the Wolfpack scored a 195.075. Nationally, they are tied at No. 15 on the vault, No. 24 on the beam and No. 19 on both the bars and floor.
North Carolina is 12-3 on the season. Last weekend, the Tar Heels fell to Minnesota, 194.675-191.575. George Washington is 11-9 on the year. Last weekend, GWU placed second in a tri-meet against West Virginia and Maryland.
The Tar Heels and the Colonials are unranked in this week’s polls.
“The most important thing about this competition is that it is against three teams,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “This will be the kind of format we will see for the rest of the season. Since we are such a young team, it’s important that we are introduced to this format.”
Unfortunately, the Tigers will be without the services of freshmen Paige Cipolloni and Nicole Lyons. Cipolloni injured her foot during the meet at Centenary, and Lyons was injured last weekend against Washington.
The Tigers will be looking for strong performances from Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and Susan Jackson, among others. Clare-Kearney held her ground at No. 2 in the all-around this week with an RQS of 39.520. Against Washington, she scored a career-high 9.950 on the bars.
Susan Jackson came in at No. 14 in the all-around rankings this week with a 39.305. The sophomore from Spring, Texas posted her third-straight 9.975 on the floor, taking home the event title.
LSU leads the all-time series with North Carolina State, 6-0-0. Additionally, LSU leads the all-time series against North Carolina, 2-0-0, and George Washington, 3-0-0.
The Tigers will have a week off from competition next week. They will compete in the SEC Championships in Duluth, Ga. on March 29 at 3 p.m. (CT).