NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Winners of six straight meets, the fourth-ranked LSU gymnastics team will take its momentum into the postseason and the 29th annual Southeastern Conference Championship at 4 p.m. CDT Saturday in the Sommet Center in Nashville.
The competition draw was held Friday to see on which event each team will start. LSU drew floor, so the Tigers will begin on floor, followed by a bye rotation, vault, another bye, bars, beam and a bye in the final rotation of the meet.
Tiger fans can follow the meet live free of charge in the Geaux Zone on www.LSUsports.net as Mike Smith, Jewel Fourrier and Tina Suhr will call the action in an audio cast.
LSU (13-2, 4-2 SEC) enters the meet having scored a 196.150 or higher during the Tigers win streak, which marks the longest streak since the 2005 team captured 10 straight heading into the SEC Championship.
“The main goal in this meet is to continue to build on our score and develop our consistency that we have had since the middle of our season, which is crucial going into the qualifying process for NCAA regionals,” LSU head coach D-D Breaux said. “It is hard to get momentum built during this type of meet when there are seven teams competing at one time and there are byes, so keeping the team focused during the whole process will be important as well.”
During the regular season LSU defeated four of the six SEC competitors as the Tigers knocked off Kentucky in the first conference road meet of the season on Jan. 23, 196.575-195.225.
LSU also knocked off Florida at home, 196.800-195.825, on Feb. 6, and the Tigers defeated Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 1976 and for the first time under Breaux as the Tigers won, 196.625-195.750 on Feb. 13. LSU also beat Arkansas at home on Feb. 27, 196.150-195.800.
The only two losses of the season for LSU came against conference competition as the Tigers fell to Georgia on Jan. 16, 196.850-195.950, and LSU lost at Auburn on Jan. 30, 196.575-195.300. Since the defeat in Auburn, LSU has been lights out as the Tigers scored the 10th-highest team total in school history with a 197.400 at home against North Carolina and Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 20.
LSU will look to capture its second ever SEC title and first since 1981, and the Tigers will need strong performances from all of the gymnasts in the event lineups to do it. LSU will once again rely on the 1-2 punch of junior Susan Jackson and senior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney at the end of the lineup for each event. Jackson has captured two-straight all-around titles while Clare-Kearney is tied for the most career individual titles in school history with 109, equaling the total tallied by April Burkholder from 2003-06.
Junior Summer Hubbard has been incredible the last three weeks competing on bars, beam and floor as she has recorded four scores of 9.90 during that stretch. Hubbard has also posted four-straight 9.875 scores on floor, tying a career high.
Junior Sabrina Franceschelli is coming off one of the best meets of her career as a Tiger when she finished with a career-high 39.325 all-around total at Centenary March 13. Franceschelli posted three 9.825 scores and a 9.85 on floor to pace the Tigers.
Junior Kayla Rogers enters the SEC Championship with momentum as she was also phenomenal against Centenary, scoring a career-high tying 9.90 on vault while posting a 9.85 on floor.
Sophomore Staci Schwitkis has been outstanding during the Tigers’ six-meet win streak, and she has turned it on by recording six 9.85 scores over the last two meets. Last week at Centenary Schwitkis competed on vault, bars and beam, and she displayed impressive consistency by hitting a 9.85 on all three events.
After the meet LSU will be off one week before heading to regional competition which will begin April 4 in a site to be determined.