AUBURN, Ala. — The LSU gymnastics team’s quest for its first ever Super Six appearance begins Thursday as competition at the NCAA Championships gets underway at Auburn’s Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
Action begins with the preliminary rounds of the team competition. The Tigers will compete in the first of two sessions that begins at 1 p.m.
Joining LSU in the early session will be top-ranked Utah, Big 12 champion Nebraska, Big Ten champion Michigan and Oklahoma and Penn State.
“We’ve got to come into this meet and do exactly what we’ve been doing all year, be consistent,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “We’ve really competed well the last half of the season and now we just need to do it one more time.”
Alabama, BYU, Florida, Georgia, Iowa State and UCLA will take part in the meet’s evening session.
The top three teams from the each prelim session will advance to Friday’s Super Six team finals.
LSU will begin Thursday’s competition on the floor, an event in which the Tigers enter the meet ranked No. 1 in the country.
“I think starting on floor is a positive thing,” said Breaux. “It’s a high energy event that doesn’t demand the control that some of the other events do. It allows you to let go and let loose and I think that’s a plus.”
The Tigers will have three nationally-ranked floor workers anchoring the squad in the opening rotation, in sophomore Kelly Phelan, freshman Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and the reigning SEC and NCAA Central Region Gymnast of the Year, April Burkholder.
All will be counted on not only on the floor but also in the Tigers’ remaining three events. Phelan, who is ranked No. 9 in the country on the beam, will be looked to on that event as well as the vault.
Clare-Kearney, one the country’s top-10 performers on both the vault and floor, is also slated to compete on the bars.
Burkholder will be one of two LSU athletes seeing all-around action this week. Last year’s NCAA runner-up in the all-around, the four-time All-American is ranked No. 4 in the country this season and is coming off a win at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.
The Tigers, who are making the program’s 17th appearance at the national championships, have qualified to the NCAA meet eight of the last nine years.
LSU has finished among the nation’s top 10 in each of its last six appearances at the national meet, most recently placing seventh in 2004.
The Tigers recorded their best finish at the NCAA Championships during the 1988 season when they placed fourth overall.