LOS ANGELES — LSU’s quest for its first-ever appearance in the Super Six team finals begins Thursday as competition from the NCAA Gymnastics Championships gets under way at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.
The Tigers, who will be competing in the preliminary round of the team competition, drew the second of two sessions that will begin at 9 p.m. (CST).
LSU will challenged by the nation’s elite as defending national champion UCLA, perennial national powers Utah and Alabama as well as Michigan and Arizona State also drew the evening session.
“This is a group of very good teams that we will have to beat,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “They are seasoned and they have been here before, but our team has been consistent all season long. I think that if we can maintain that though this meet and not make mistakes that will be enough to get us in.”
Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Stanford will start off the competition in the morning session.
The top three teams from each of the two prelim sessions will advance to the Super Six finals to be held Friday at 9 p.m.
LSU will begin the meet on the beam before sitting out the second rotation will a bye. The Tigers will then continue on the floor and vault before wrapping up the meet with a bye before the uneven bars.
“Everyone has got to go to the beam, we just have to go there first,” said Breaux. “The first person we put up is going to very important in setting the tone for the rotation and the competition.”
With senior Lindsay Beddow, the Tigers’ regular lead-off performer on the beam out with a sprained ankle, LSU will likely look to either All-American Lauren Companioni or sophomore Megan Durning to fill that spot.
The Tigers, who are making the program’s 16th appearance at the NCAA Championships, have qualified to the national meet seven of the last eight years.
LSU has finished among the top-10 in each of its last five NCAA meets, finishing 10th in 2003, eighth in 2002 and ninth in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
The Tigers recorded their best-ever finish at the NCAA Championships during the 1988 season when they placed fourth overall.