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Gnat Named SEC Freshman of the Week

by Jake Terry (@LSUjake)
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Gnat Named SEC Freshman of the Week

BATON ROUGE – LSU gymnast Ashleigh Gnat was named Southeastern Conference Co-Freshman of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday.

This marks the second freshman of the week award for Gnat this season.

A native of Lake Mary, Fla., Gnat turned in an outstanding beam performance to help LSU achieve a 197.800-195.000 victory over Kentucky on March 14.

Gnat tallied a season-high 9.95 on beam for the second consecutive meet to win the event title and help LSU post a 49.450 team score, the highest beam score for the Tigers since March 13, 2005.

Gnat is the only freshman in the SEC with two scores of 9.95 on beam this season, and she is only the second LSU freshman in school history to score at least a 9.95 on beam in back-to-back meets. April Burkholder earned a 9.95 and a 9.975 on beam in two straight meets as a freshman in 2003.

Gnat has four individual titles this season, including three on beam.

Her award is the eighth SEC weekly honor for LSU this season. Gnat was named freshman of the week after her performances during the double-meet weekend at Arkansas and at Oklahoma in February.

No. 2 LSU (10-3, 5-2 SEC) is gearing up for postseason competition as the Tigers travel to Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday for the SEC Championship.

LSU will compete in Session Two against No. 1 Florida, No. 4 Alabama and No. 6 Georgia. The meet is set to begin at 6 p.m. CT in BJCC Arena.

Tickets are available for purchase by logging on to www.gymnasticschamps.com. Prices begin at $12 per ticket.

SEC Gymnasts of the Week – March 18, 2014
Gymnast of the Week: Bridget Sloan, Florida
Specialist of the Week: Kaitlyn Clark, Alabama
Co-Freshman of the Week: Ashleigh Gnat, LSU
Co-Freshman of the Week: Katie Bailey, Alabama