BATON ROUGE – LSU Gymnast Haleigh Bryant was named the 2023 Central Region Gymnast of the Year, announced by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA).
The honor marks the second in Bryant’s career, as she was also named Gymnast of the Year in 2021.
A native of Cornelius, N.C., Bryant is one of the top gymnasts in the country and has led the Tigers all season. Following the injury of teammate Kiya Johnson, Bryant has stepped up for the squad on and off the floor.
The junior has appeared in the all-around in all of the Tigers competitions this year and has earned scores of 9.900+ on all four events in five meets this season.
She has recorded five perfect scores on the year with three on vault, one on bars and one on floor. Three of those perfect scores came in the squad’s regular season finale against West Virginia, where she made history and became the only LSU gymnast to record three 10’s in a single meet and only the fifth gymnast in the NCAA to record such an accomplishment.
Bryant now owns 10 career perfect scores to place her at the top for most career 10’s in program history. In that same meet, Bryant recorded a career high score of 39.875 in the all-around to tie for the highest all-around score in LSU history.
This year, Bryant has recorded season highs of 9.950 on beam and 10.00 on vault, bars and floor. She finished the regular season as the No. 4 gymnast in the nation with her NQS of 39.725 and placed amongst the top performers on vault, bars and floor. Her front handspring-front pike half is considered to be one of the best vaults in all NCAA gymnastics as she finished ranked at the top in the event with her NQS of 9.980.
Bryant was named a 2023 WCGA Regular Season All-American on vault, bars, floor and the all-around. The honors marked her third career All-America honors on vault and second on bars, floor and in the all-around.
She owns scores of 9.900 or higher on vault in every meet this season and recorded three 10’s in 2023 against Missouri, Alabama and West Virginia. She owns eight perfect scores on the event in her career.
Bryant also finished the regular season ranked No. 6 in the nation on floor and No. 14 on bars. She had eight combined meets with scores over 9.900 and recorded her first career 10’s on the events in the same night against West Virginia to move her career total to 10 and place her at the top for most career perfect scores in program history.
In the squad’s NCAA regional competition, Bryant was named the Denver Regional All-Around Champion after finishing as the top all-around performer with a score of 39.700. She earned scores of 9.900+ on three events in both regional competitions in Denver to lead the Tigers to victory and advance to the NCAA Championships.
In the Denver regional final, Bryant also won the bars and floor titles with her scores of 9.975 on bars and 9.950 on floor, respectively.
She has won the all-around 10 times this season and owns 29 titles on the year (3 FX, 3 BB, 4 UB, 9 VT, 10 AA). Her 59 career titles place her tenth in program history for most individual titles.
The junior currently owns an NQS of 9.980 on vault, 9.940 on bars, 9.925 on beam and 9.960 on floor.
Within the conference, she was named SEC Gymnast of the Week four times in 2023, including three consecutive weeks. The junior was awarded the honor after her performances against Missouri, Alabama, West Virginia and at the Podium Challenge with California, Washington and George Washington. She now owns five weekly conference honors in her career and leads the conference in Gymnast of the Week honors this year.