BATON ROUGE – After posting a season-high score of 197.975 on Sunday against George Washington and Iowa and a team score of 197.700 at the Gym Quarters Mardi Gras invitational on Friday, the LSU gymnastics squad checked in at No. 2 in the first edition of the Regional Qualify Score (RQS) ranking released Monday by RoadToNationals.com.
This marked the sixth-straight week LSU has been ranked second in that nation. The Tigers still hold the second spot in team average with a 197.644. The Oklahoma Sooners own the top spot in RQS (197.890) and average (197.889).
The RQS is ascertained by taking a team’s top six scores – three of which must be from road/neutral meets – dropping the high score and averaging the remaining five scores.
LSU’s scores factored into the 197.655 RQS are the 197.700 at Arkansas and GymQuarters, 197.575 at Alabama, 197.975 vs. George Washington and Iowa, 197.825 vs. Alabama and 197.450 vs. Texas Woman’s
The Tigers’ 197.975 on Sunday is dropped, and the remaining five scores averaged for the 197.655.
LSU is 10-1 overall and 5-0 against SEC opponents. The squad will return to action on the road against Auburn at 7:30 p.m. CT Friday. The meet will be televised live on the SEC Network with Bart Conner, Kathy Johnson Clarke and Laura Rutledge on the call.
The team ranks No.2 nationally on vault, bars, beam and floor in the RQS. Overall, Ashleigh Gnat owns the No. 2 spot on vault and floor. Freshman Kennedi Edney checks in at No. 6 on vault and No. 8 on bars. Lexie Priessman ranks No. 21 on vault and No. 6 on bars.
Road To Nationals Top 25 – Week 7
Rank Team RQS
1 Oklahoma, 197.89
2 LSU, 197.655
3 Florida , 197.435
4 Alabama, 197.085
5 Utah, 196.965
6 UCLA, 196.9
7 Georgia, 196.735
8 Denver , 196.55
9 Michigan, 196.5
10 Oregon State, 196.37
11 Kentucky, 196.36
12 Boise State, 196.33
13 Missouri, 196.02
14 Auburn, 196.015
15 Nebraska, 195.985
16 George Washington, 195.97
17 Iowa, 195.95
18 Washington, 195.875
19 California, 195.785
20 Ohio State, 195.595
21 Arkansas, 195.535
22 Illinois-Champaign, 195.495
23 New Hampshire, 195.29
24(t) Utah State, 195.27
24(t) Iowa State, 195.27
LSU in the Individual National Rankings
Ashleigh Gnat: 2nd VT, 2nd FX, 6th BB
Kennedi Edney: 6th VT, 6th UB
Sydney Ewing: 14th FX, 20th VT
Lexie Priessman 6th UB, 21st VT
Myia Hambrick: 10th BB, 18th UB
Sarah Finnegan: 21st BB
Erin Macadaeg: 15th BB
Shae Zamardi: 14th FX
McKenna Kelley: 14th FX