Gymnastics Hosts No. 12 Auburn In Friday Night Heights Competition
BATON ROUGE — The No. 3 LSU Gymnastics team (6-2, 3-1 SEC) is set to host No. 12 Auburn (5-5, 1-3 SEC) on Friday, February 16 for another Friday Night Heights showdown at 8 p.m. CT inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“The mindset going into this week is the same as it is every week, and that’s to continue to improve and advance forward,” said head coach Jay Clark. “We need to get sharper and more dialed in our execution. Last week was good for us as we put together 24 routines on the road and now we get to come home and get comfortable again.”
“Our fans have been close to selling out the PMAC already this year. Auburn is a very good team and they’re in a much better place than they’re ranking indicates. We know that they are an opponent that is going to give us a good test and we hope our fans will come out in force and sell this place out.”
The competition between the Tigers will air on SEC Network with Bart Conner and Kathy Johnson Clarke on the call. Team introductions begin at 7:52 p.m. CT inside the PMAC with the first vault starting at 8:05 p.m. CT.
Live stats for the meet are available on lsusports.net.
Promotions
It’s alumni night on Friday night in the PMAC as the program will recognize Tigers from the past prior to the start of competition. The giveaway for this week is an LSU Gymnastics scrunchie giveaway to the first 1,500 fans as well as free t-shirts for the first 200 students. Doors to the arena open at 6:30 p.m. CT.
All meet promotions and giveaways items for the 2024 season can be found here.
Scouting The Auburn Tigers
LSU has a 85-18-0 overall series record against Auburn and are 28-4-0 at home in the PMAC. The Purple & Gold Tigers are on a eight-meet win streak over the visiting Tigers in the PMAC, as LSU has not lost to Auburn at home since 2006.
The last time Auburn came to Baton Rouge, 13,569 Tiger fans showed out to watch LSU defeat Auburn and recorded the program’s second-largest crowd inside the PMAC.
Auburn improved their average to 197.079 after scoring a season-high 197.725 last Friday in their win over then-No. 7 Alabama. The Orange & Blue Tigers are fifth in the conference entering this weekend.
Auburn’s beam squad is ranked fifth nationally with a 49.250 average after scoring a season-high 49.4750 last Friday. Their floor team is 12th with a 49.408. The vault team moved up to 12th after tying a program record last week with a 49.500 and bars remain in the top 20 with a 49.183 average.
Individually, fifth-year Cassie Stevens is 19th in the all-around with a 39.500 average and is 18th nationally on vault while senior Gabby McLaughlin is 19th nationally on beam and leads the team on floor with a 9.892 average.
Last Time On The Floor
No. 3 LSU defeated No. 19 Georgia by a score of 197.625-196.300 last Friday night in Stegeman Coliseum. The Tiger’s win on the night marked their 21st consecutive win over the Bulldogs and their sixth over a top-20 opponent so far this year..
The night was highlighted by senior Haleigh Bryant as she etched her name into the school record books. The senior earned her first career perfect 10 on beam against the Bulldogs, making her the first LSU gymnast to achieve perfection on every event and only the 14th in the NCAA. The 10 was the 13th perfect score of her career.
Kiya Johnson, Alexis Jeffrey and Konnor McClain also had a good night for the Tigers. Jeffrey took home a share of the bars victory with her score of 9.875 for her first title this year and McClain recorded a 9.925 on beam to finish second on the event, only behind Bryant’s perfect score.
Johnson posted a solid performance for the Tigers in the all-around as she finished the meet with a 39.525.
Bryant finished as the top performer in the meet with a 39.750 in the meet to earn her fourth all-around title this year. The senior also took home the titles on vault (9.95), beam (10) and floor (9.95)
The Tigers hit all 24 routines in Athens to secure the win over the Bulldogs with a final score of 197.625-197.075 in a season-high road performance to improve their average.
Week Six Rankings
The Tigers are holding steady at No. 3 in the national polls in this week’s rankings after defeating No. 19 Georgia in Athens last Friday night. The squad owns the top score in the country through six weeks of competition and are one of only six teams who have surpassed the 198 mark this year.
LSU’s victory over Georgia boosted their team average to 197.596 to hold their spot in the top-five nationally. The Tigers also rank in the top-10 on all four events for the first time this year with their averages of 49.392 (3) on vault, 49.454 (3) on bars, 49.213 (9) on beam and 49.538 (2) on floor.
Bryant remains the top gymnast in the country for the fourth consecutive week after her record-setting performance on Friday night. The senior ranks No. 1 in the all-around with her average of 39.740 and owns top-10 placements on every event: third on vault, 10th on bars, fifth on beam and second on floor.
Fifth-year senior Kiya Johnson placed amongst the top-25 gymnasts in the country as she sits at No. 21 in the rankings. The senior had another solid all-around performance for the Tigers last weekend as she posted scores of 9.90 on vault, 9.850 on bars, 9.85 on beam and 9.925 against the Bulldogs.
The Dallas native also earned a spot in the individual floor rankings at No. 7 with her average of 9.935 on the event.
Freshman Konnor McClain enters this week as one of the top-10 floor performers with her average of 9.925 on the event.
Bryant Earns Fourth SEC Gymnast of the Week Honor This Year
Senior Haleigh Bryant was named the SEC Gymnast of the Week for the second straight week after finishing as the top performer in the Tiger’s last meet against No. 19 Georgia. The week six award marks her fourth gymnast of the week honor this year and ninth in her career.
Bryant’s four SEC awards is the most by any gymnast or team so far this year. LSU has had three athletes combine for seven SEC awards in 2024.
A native of Cornelius, North Carolina, Bryant remains the top gymnast in the country for the fourth consecutive week after her record-setting performance on Friday night. The senior ranks No. 1 in the all-around with her average of 39.740 and owns top-10 placements on every event: third on vault, 10th on bars, fifth on beam and second on floor.
The senior became the first gymnast in LSU history to complete a gym slam, a perfect score on every event, after notching a 10 on beam against the Bulldogs. The perfect score was her first on the event and 13th overall to extend her lead as the gymnast with the most career 10’s in program history.
In addition to her all-around title, Bryant also took home the titles on vault (9.95), beam (10) and floor (9.95) for her performance in Athens last Friday night. She moved her title totals to 27 on vault, six on beam, seven on floor and 23 in the all-around to tie Sarah Finnegan for the third-most all-around titles in program history.
Bryant now owns 73 titles in her career, which is just one shy of tying Susan Jackson at sixth for most career individual titles.
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.