BATON ROUGE, La. – After finishing the month with a 6-1 record, which included toppling previously No. 1 ranked Oklahoma in the first meet of the season, the LSU gymnastics team has earned the BASF Team Chemistry MVP Award for the month of January.
Beginning the season ranked in the top five, the Tigers have lived up to the expectations of another banner season now heading into their second month of competition. Led by 2015 SEC Coach of the Year D-D Breaux, now in her 39th season at the helm of the program, LSU returned nine letterwinners to the squad in 2016, including six All-Americans and the top recruiting class in the nation heading into the year.
For the first time in the history of the program, LSU opened the season in a top-five matchup at home and in front of the largest opening night crowd ever the Tigers fought back to defeat the Sooners, 196.950-196.725, before ascending to the No. 1 spot the very next week. LSU would go on to defeat ranked NC State and Kentucky teams the next two weeks, while going 3-1 this past weekend at the Metroplex Challenge, ending January ranked sixth overall.
Leading the way individually has been junior Ashleigh Gnat, as in back-to-back weeks the Lake Mary, Florida, product has earned a perfect 10.0 on the vault, the only gymnast in the nation with a perfect score in the event, while becoming the fifth LSU gymnast to score multiple perfect 10s on vault in a career and third LSU gymnast to do so in consecutive weeks. She currently leads all LSU gymnasts with six individual titles this season.
Right behind Gnat is Myia Hambrick, who leads the team with two all-around titles, earning SEC Gymnast of the Week honors earlier this season. Shae Zamardi was named the SEC’s Specialist of the Week after posting a score of 9.925 in her floor routine and 9.85 in the anchor spot on bars, while Sarah Finnegan was named the SEC’s Freshman of the Week after earning a 9.925 on beam and 9.85 on bars. All three awards came after LSU’s win against Oklahoma.
This week, No. 6 LSU puts its 18-straight home wins and 9-0 SEC winning streak on the line as the Tigers host the No. 8 Arkansas Razorbacks at 7:30 p.m. at the Maravich Center. The meet will be televised live on the SEC Network.
About BASF
As the world’s largest chemical company, BASF’s manufacturing presence in Louisiana includes operations in Geismar, Zachary and Vidalia, with nearly 2,000 employees and contractors in the state. For more information about careers at BASF, visit www.basf.us/la.