BATON ROUGE – Following a season-best score of 197.450 on Friday night in front of a sold out Pete Maravich Assembly Center, the LSU gymnastics team is ranked No. 2 with an average score of 197.283, RoadtoNationals.com released Monday.
The Tigers are 3-0 overall and in Southeastern Conference meets following wins over No. 17 Arkansas, No. 7 Florida and most recently No. 9 Alabama. LSU sits in second place behind Oklahoma, which owns an average score of 197.538 after two meets.
National rankings are based on a team’s overall season average for the first few weeks of the season before switching to the regional qualifying score (RQS).
On Friday night, LSU posted a 49.625 for the second-highest bars score in school history. All six gymnasts in the lineup scored a 9.90 or better with junior Sarah Finnegan winning the title with a score of 9.975. Sophomore Kennedi Edney ranks fourth in the nation with an average of 9.925. Finnegan owns the No. 7 spot and fellow junior Lexie Priessman ranks 12th.
LSU’s beam and floor teams rank second in the nation with average scores of 49.327 and 49.383. Both lineups have posted the second-highest scores in the nation during the first three weeks of the season. Senior Myia Hambrick is the nation’s leader on floor with an average score of 9.95. Both Edney and Finnegan also rank eight with an average of 9.90. Hambrick is 14th and Finnegan is 24th on beam.
The vault group, which has featured three different lineups and eight gymnasts is third in the nation with an average score of 49.225. Priessman is 12th in the nation with an average of 9.875.
The Tigers return to the road for their first neutral site meet of the season at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. The squad will face off on podium against No. 4 UCLA, No. 14 Washington and No. 28 North Carolina State.
RoadToNationals Gymnastics Top 25
Jan. 22, 2018
Rank, Team, Season Average
1. Oklahoma 197.538
2. LSU 197.283
3. Utah 197.142
4. UCLA 196.917
5. Florida 196.45
6. Kentucky 196.325
7. Alabama 196.308
8. Michigan 196.242
9. Boise State 196.038
10. Arkansas 196.008
11. Georgia 195.95
12. Nebraska 195.925
13. Denver 195.875
14. Washington 195.8
14. Arizona State 195.8
16. Auburn 195.65
17. Missouri 195.6
18. Oregon State 195.575
19. Central Michigan 95.5
20. Kent State 195.488
21. Arizona 195.383
22. BYU 195.35
23. Stanford 195.308
24. West Virginia 195.233
25. Iowa State 195.2
LSU in the Individual National Rankings (Top-25)
Myia Hambrick: 1st FX, 11th AA, 14th BB, 19th UB
Sarah Finnegan: 5th AA, 7th UB, 8th FX, 24th BB
Kennedi Edney: 4th UB, 8th FX, 12th AA
Lexie Priessman: 12th VT, 12th UB
Ruby Harrold: 15th UB
Julianna Cannamela: 22nd FX