BATON ROUGE – For the ninth-straight season LSU gymnastics ranked among the top 10 in average home attendance, GymInfo released Thursday.
LSU ranked seventh nationally in 2012 with an average of 3,697 fans at each home meet, an improvement from 2011 in which an average of 2,990 fans attended home meets.
The attendance is the highest for LSU since the 2009 season when an average of 3,732 spectators saw the Tigers in action inside the Maravich Center.
LSU has earned a top 10 attendance ranking every year since 2004. The last time the Tigers were outside the top 10 was 2003 when LSU was 13th with an average of 1,785 fans per meet.
Three meets this season rank in the top 20 in home attendance in a single meet. The Fifth Annual Etta James Memorial Meet on March 2 ranks fourth in LSU history with 5,159 fans. The meet against Alabama on Feb. 24 is the 13th-largest crowd in school history with 4,013 in attendance. The Kentucky meet on Feb. 3 is 16th with 3,976 in attendance.
Utah ranked No. 1 with an average home attendance of 13,515 each meet, followed by Alabama at 12,826 fans.
All seven Southeastern Conference teams ranked in the top 15 in average home attendance with Georgia at No. 3 (8,768 fans), Florida at 4 (6,200), Auburn at 5 (4,519), Arkansas at 8 (3,080) and Kentucky at 13 (1,988). Missouri, which joins the SEC next season, ranked 22nd at 1,322 fans per home meet.
LSU also finished ninth in the final GymInfo team rankings after scoring a 196.550 in Semifinal I at the NCAA Championships. The Tigers finished ahead of Ohio State (196.525), Georgia (196.500) and Oregon State (196.475) who all competed in Semifinal II at nationals.
It marked the 22nd time in school history that LSU ended the season with a top 10 ranking after finishing in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships.
Alabama earned the top spot after winning the national title, while Florida finished second, UCLA was third, Stanford fourth, Utah fifth and Arkansas sixth.
The 2013 schedule is already set, and LSU will host five home meets as the Tigers take on defending national champion Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas and North Carolina State.
Season tickets will be available for renewal and will also go on sale in the fall at www.LSUtix.net.
Connect with LSU gymnastics by following the team at www.Facebook.com/lsugym and @LSUgym on Twitter.
GymInfo Attendance Rankings
Rank, Team, Average Home Attendance
1. Utah 13,515
2. Alabama 12,826
3. Georgia 8,768
4. Florida 6,200
5. Auburn 4,519
6. Oregon State 4,097
7. LSU 3,697
8. Arkansas 3,080
9. Southern Utah 3,069
10. Penn State 2,249