Gymnastics Hosts Arkansas For Top-10 Showdown

BATON ROUGE — The No. 5 nationally ranked LSU Gymnastics team is set to host No. 7 Arkansas in a top-10 showdown on Friday, February 2 at 7:30 p.m. CT inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. 

“Our focus is to adhere to our standard and be the team that we know we can be. We need to reset a little bit and make sure that we stay true to how we approach every meet, not just when we’re at home,” said head coach Jay Clark. “Certainly when you’re coming out of a disappointment, getting back in front of your home crowd can be a tremendous boost. We have a great opponent with Arkansas coming in here this Friday and we want this place to be sold out. We’ve gotten close, and we want our fans to continue to come out in force and pack the PMAC.”

The competition between the Tigers and the Razorbacks will be streamed on SEC Network+ with Lyn Rollins and Kaleigh Abboud Dickson as the announcers. Introductions of the team will begin at 7:19 p.m. in the PMAC with the first vault starting at 7:32 p.m. CT. 

Live stats and streaming for the meet are available on lsusports.net.

Promotions

Friday’s competition is the team’s Mardi Gras theme meet. The first 2,000 fans to arrive at the arena will receive a custom Mardi Gras cup. Additionally, there will be a Walk-On’s food giveaway to the first 250 students. 

All meet promotions and giveaways items for the 2024 season can be found here.

Scouting The Razorbacks

The Tigers are 44-6-1 against the Razorbacks and own a 9-1-0 record inside the PMAC. The last time the two teams met was in 2023, when LSU fell to Arkansas on the road by a score of 197.250-197.475.

No. 4 Arkansas took down the Auburn Tigers in their last meet by a score of 197.225-196.675 in Barnhill Arena. The win was Arkansas’ first home victory over Auburn since 2018.

Arkansas has recorded three consecutive scores of 197+ through the first four weeks of competition. The Razorbacks own a current average team score of 197.300, which is their first time ever over 197 in Week 4 and highest since 2021. They also have seven gymnasts individually ranked in the top 50 on events.

Last Time On The Floor

The Tigers fell on the road to No. 9 Missouri by a score of 197.325-197.225 last Friday night in the Hearnes Center.

LSU had a solid start on bars in the first rotation as Alexis Jeffrey led off with a 9.875 followed by Ashley Cowan, who matched her career high and posted a 9.90. Kiya Johnson kept it rolling with her 9.85 in the third spot. Savannah Schoenherr and Haleigh Bryant finished the rotation strong with their scores of 9.85 and 9.925, respectively. 

Bryant’s performance earned her the victory on bars and moved her total to 10 on the event and 66 in her career. The win tied her at seventh all-time in the school records with Jeanie Beadle for most individual titles. 

LSU took their first lead of the night in the third rotation as the battle of the Tigers continued into the final rotation of the night. It was a 147.875-147.725 LSU lead heading into beam.

Ballard set the tone for the Tigers in the final rotation with her 9.85 in the leadoff spot. Kiya Johnson and Bryant added scores of 9.90 and 9.85 for the Tigers. After falling in her first routine of the night on bars, McClain went unphased and recorded a perfect 10 on beam for the first of her career and helped LSU to a 49.350 finish on beam.

McClain’s 10 on beam earned her the victory on the night. She now owns two titles through four meets of her freshman campaign. Her other title came after she recorded a perfect score on bars two weeks ago.

The Tigers fell short on the night and Missouri came out on top of the dual meet in Columbia. Johnson finished as the top all-around performer on the night with a score of 39.500. The title moves her career total to 43 in the Purple & Gold.

Week Four Rankings

The Tigers head into Friday as the No. 5 team in the country and are one of only two teams to hit the 198 score mark through the first month of competition.

LSU ranks in the top-20 on all four events in this week’s rankings, including top-5 placements on vault (4), bars (4) and floor (3). The squad enters week five with averages of 49.363 on vault, 49.469 on bars, 49.481 on floor and improved their beam average to 49.056.

Seniors Haleigh Bryant and Kiya Johnson continue to lead the way for the Tigers as they both rank amongst the top-25 gymnasts in the country and earned spots in the individual rankings for the third week in a row.

Bryant owns the top-spot in the all-around and remains one of the top gymnasts in the country after week four. The senior competed on three events for the Tigers on Friday and posted scores of 9.900 on vault, 9.925 on bars and 9.850 on beam. She enters week five with averages of 9.900+ on three events and top-20 placements on all four events. Individually, she ranks third on vault, second on bars, seventh on floor and 16th on beam.

Johnson continues to build momentum each week as she ranks No. 24 in the all-around. She was the only Tiger to compete on all four events against Missouri to move her average to 39.375. Johnson sits in the top-25 in bars and floor rankings with her averages of 9.894 and 9.925 on the two events, respectively.

Program History 

Head Coach Jay Clark enters his fourth season leading the Tigers and 13th season overall as he continues to grow the LSU Gymnastics program. He is joined by Assistant Coaches Garrett Griffeth, Ashleigh Gnat and Courtney McCool Griffeth. Gnat is in her fourth season with the Tigers while the Griffeth duo enters their third season on staff. 

The Tigers climbed their way to the NCAA Championship Final in Fort Worth for the ninth time in program history in 2023. The Final Four appearance marked the second time that LSU has advanced to the finals since the format began in 2019 and the first time under Clark’s tenure.

Last season marked the program’s 38th straight appearance in the NCAA postseason and 40th overall appearance for the Tigers. With the team advancing out of regionals, LSU marked their 32nd program appearance in the NCAA Championships.

LSU has a total of 16 individual national titles across 10 gymnasts in program history, including current senior Haleigh Bryant who was named the NCAA vault champion in 2021.

The Tigers own four SEC Championship titles in program history, winning three consecutive titles from 2017 to 2019. The last time LSU took home the conference title was in 2019 in the Smoothie King Center, the site of this year’s conference championship.

The 2024 Squad

This year’s roster is composed of 22 gymnasts with 11 seniors, four juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen. The Tigers welcomed two transfers this year in Savannah Schoenherr and Jillian Hoffman and four new freshmen as Konnor McClain, Amari Drayton, Kylie Coen and Leah Miller begin their first year in the Purple & Gold.

Cammy Hall is a sixth-year who is returning this year from injury, while fifth-year seniors Kiya Johnson, Alyona Shchennikova and Kai Rivers all returned for their final year of competition with the Tigers. 

Haleigh Bryant, Sierra Ballard, Chase Brock, Elena Arenas and Olivia Dunne all enter their senior year while Aleah Finnegan, Alexis Jeffrey, Tori Tatum, KJ Johnson begin their junior season. 

Ashley Cowan, Bryce Wilson and Annie Beard enter their second year as Tigers.

Tickets

All single-meet tickets are available at the general admission level. Ticket prices vary by meet with a range of $10-$14 for adults and $5-$7 for youth (ages 3-12).

Discounted group tickets for 15 or more are available by calling the ticket sales and services staff at 225-578-2184.

For all ticket information, please visit lsutix.net.

Follow the Tigers

Stay up to date with all things LSU Gymnastics by following the team’s social media channels @LSUgym on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook.