BATON ROUGE — LSU gymnastics senior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and assistant coach Bob Moore earned gymnast of the year and assistant coach of the year honors, respectively, it was announced at the Central Regional Saturday.
Clare-Kearney, a native of Manchester, Conn., has been outstanding this season as she ranks as the nation’s No. 3 all-around competitor with a 39.515 regional qualifying score. She is also LSU’s all-time leader in career individual titles as she has racked up 111, including the vault title at the regional with a 9.95.
Moore has helped guide the Tigers to the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Championships, and he is directly responsible for coaching LSU’s fifth-ranked vaulting team, including Clare-Kearney who is ranked fourth and junior Susan Jackson who is 12th nationally.
It marks the third time in his career at LSU that Moore has been honored as the Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year as he won the award in 2007 and 2005.
“I am happy and honored to receive the assistant of the year award for the Central Region, but I cannot take full credit,” Moore said. “As a staff, D-D Breaux, Philip Ogletree and I have done a tremendous job of coaching these girls, so this is a team award for all of our hard work.”
In addition to being top five in the all-around rankings, Clare-Kearney is also top five in three events ? No. 1 on floor with a 9.945 RQS, No. 4 on vault with a 9.930 score and No. 5 on bars with a 9.910 mark.
Clare-Kearney also earned First-Team All-Southeastern Conference honors for the third straight season by winning the floor title at the SEC Championships.
“It is definitely an honor and it is always nice to be recognized for everything you have done during the season,” Clare-Kearney said. “I was not expecting it at all, but I am excited about it. Going into nationals we are excited about our seeding, session and rotation, so we are ready for practice. We have a lot of momentum going in to nationals.”
The Tigers will continue their pursuit of a second straight Super Six berth in the first session of the NCAA Championships preliminary round at 1 p.m. CDT April 16 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Neb.