BATON ROUGE, La. – After opening the season with a perfect 4-0 start, including wins over three ranked opponents, the LSU gymnastics team has earned the BASF Team Chemistry MVP Award for the month of January.
The Tigers, last year’s national runners-up at the NCAA Super Six competition, began head coach D-D Breaux‘s 40th year at the helm of the program as the No. 2 team in the nation, before vaulting up to the No. 1 spot after a season-opening score of 197.825 in a win over then-No. 9 Georgia in the Maravich Center.
In January alone the Tigers earned victories over a fourth-ranked Alabama squad and a sixth-ranked Kentucky team both on the road to open SEC play 3-0. The team’s other decisive victory came at home against Texas Woman’s by a 197.475-192.625 score.
The honors began to pour in for the Tigers almost immediately, as junior Myia Hambrick was named the SEC’s Gymnast of the Week for week one, then repeated for week two. Sarah Finnegan was named the SEC Specialist of the Week, while freshman Kennedi Edney was the SEC Freshman of the Week to open, and then earned SEC Gymnast of the Week after her all-around win at Kentucky.
LSU currently has five gymnasts rank in the top 10 nationally in individual events, led by senior Ashleigh Gnat who is first in the vault, fourth in the all-around and fifth in the floor exercise. Hambrick is ninth on the balance beam, Finnegan ninth in the all-around, Edney fourth on the all-around and Lexie Priessman round out the group at No. 10 on the uneven bars.
The second-ranked Tigers are on the road this week, traveling to face the Arkansas Razorbacks at 7:30 p.m. inside Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville. 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.