BATON ROUGE – LSU gymnastics junior Sarah Finnegan was named the Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Week and newcomer Sami Durante was named the SEC Freshman of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday.
In the Tigers’ win over No. 9 Alabama on Friday night inside the Maravich Center, Finnegan took home three titles. The Lee’s Summit, Missouri native set new career highs on vault with a 9.90 and as the uneven bars anchor with a 9.975. Finnegan also won the all-around title with a 39.550.
The reigning NCAA bars champion won her ninth career title on the event and second this season. Finnegan started off the night by capturing the first vault title of her career. The now two-time SEC Gymnast of the Week in 2018 capped off the night with an outstanding 9.925 on floor for the second-highest score of her career.
Durante, the Tigers’ outstanding leadoff performer on bars, posted a career-high 9.90 to start the event strong. The Athens, Georgia native owns the highest bars average by any freshman in the conference. Durante’s score of 9.90 is also tied for the highest bars score by a freshman in the league.
Durante and Finnegan bookended LSU’s bars lineup, which totaled a 49.625 for the second-highest score in school history. All six of the Tigers in the lineup posted a score of 9.90 or better.
LSU gymnasts have combined to earn four SEC weekly honors in 2018. Finnegan was named the gymnast of the week after the season opener and senior Myia Hambrick also earned the honor following the Tigers’ win at Florida.
The second-ranked Tigers will travel to Fort Worth, Texas to take on No. 4 UCLA, No. 14 Washington and No. 28 NC State at 6:45 p.m. CT Saturday. The Metroplex Challenge will be streamed live at Flogymnastics.com ($). Tickets for the meet will be available for purchase at the box office the day of the meet.
Fans can follow the Tigers on the team’s social media channels: @LSUgym on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, www.Facebook.com/lsugym and at YouTube.com/lsugymnastics.