BATON ROUGE — The fifth-ranked LSU gymnastics team will look to capture back-to-back Central Regional titles Saturday when the No. 1-seeded Tigers compete at 5 p.m. CDT in Ohio State’s St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Live audio will be available for free in the Geaux Zone at www.LSUsports.net once the meet starts, and fans can find a link to live stats on LSUsports.net as well.
LSU (16-5) will be joined by No. 2 seed and eighth-ranked Oregon State, No. 3 seed and 17th-ranked Ohio State, No. 4 seed and 22nd-ranked Kent State, No. 5 seed and 24th-ranked Kentucky and No. 6 seed Michigan State.
“We are looking forward to competing against some teams we have not seen yet this year like Michigan State and Oregon State,” LSU head coach D-D Breaux said. “Ohio State beat Auburn in Auburn’s last home meet, so they are a much better team than their ranking indicates. We are pretty excited about going back to the regionals, and hopefully we will be able to defend our regional title away from home.”
LSU will be facing some familiar foes as the Tigers have competed against Kentucky twice this season ? both LSU victories ? in Lexington, Ky., and at the SEC Championships. Last season, LSU hosted the Central Regional, and Ohio State, Kent State and Kentucky took part in the competition.
The Tigers not only will try to defend their regional title, but they will also try to bounce back from the SEC Championships where LSU finished in fourth place. The Tigers will begin the meet in the same rotation in which they competed at the SEC Championships. LSU will start with a bye in the first rotation followed by floor, vault, another bye, bars, and the Tigers will end on beam.
If LSU is going to repeat as regional champions, the Tigers will have to rely on a consistent, steady lineup throughout the meet. Senior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and junior Susan Jackson are both ranked in the top five of the all-around standings, and the two have been the anchors at the end of the lineups for each event.
Clare-Kearney and Jackson each earned First-Team All-Southeastern Conference status by claiming event titles at the SEC Championships as Clare-Kearney was the Floor Champion and Jackson was the Beam Champion.
Junior Kayla Rogers has been outstanding in leading off for the Tigers on vault and floor as she has not scored lower than a 9.775 since Feb. 20, and Rogers has tallied two 9.90’s on vault and a 9.925 on floor during that time.
Junior Summer Hubbard has also continued to shine on bars, beam and floor where she has recorded impressive scores in the last five meets. Hubbard has scored two 9.90’s on bars, two 9.90’s on beam and four 9.875 marks on floor during that stretch.
Sophomore Staci Schwitkis has posted eight 9.85 scores in the past three meets, including a 9.85 on vault and bars at the SEC Championships.
Freshman Gloria Johnson will look to provide solid scores on vault, beam and floor, sophomore Samantha Engle will compete on bars and beam and junior Sabrina Franceschelli will continue to give LSU consistency in all four events as an all-arounder at the meet.
If the Tigers can repeat as regional champions or finish second in the meet, they will continue their quest for back-to-back Super Six appearances by advancing to the NCAA Championships April 16-18 in Lincoln, Neb.