BATON ROUGE — The No. 3 nationally ranked LSU Gymnastics team will head down the road to the Raising Cane’s River Center for a quad meet featuring No. 14 Auburn, George Washington and Texas Woman’s on Friday, March 8 at 6 p.m. CT.
“Going downtown is a great opportunity for us. It’s going to be a great four-way competition on the podium with Auburn, George Washington and Texas Woman’s coming in and it gives a different perspective for both our athletes and our fans. We need to go down there and have a great meet and part of that will hopefully be having our fans come out and giving us some of that energy that they always do.”
“The mindset is really just staying focused on our performance and doing everything we can to put ourselves in the best position possible. This meet is our last opportunity to get an away score before we go to SEC’s, so this meet is important for us as we try to secure our postseason position.”
Fans can follow along using live stats, which will be linked on lsusports.net with more details to come soon.
Scouting The Opponents
LSU owns the 86-18-0 overall record against Auburn and are 13-8-0 when facing away from the PMAC. The two Tigers met in a conference dual-meet last month, when LSU came out victorious over then No. 12 ranked Auburn.
Auburn fell in their last competition to No. 20 Georgia and sit at No. 14 in this week’s rankings. Auburn’s beam squad is ranked ninth nationally with a 49.345 NQS. The floor squad is 16th at 49.395, while vault is 17th at 49.215. The bars team is 19th with an NQS of 49.225.
George Washington finished second in their last meet at the Maryland Quad Meet with their score of 195.675. LSU owns the series record 10-0-0 heading into Friday’s road competition. This will be the second straight year that GWU travels to Baton Rouge for the Podium Challenge.
Two GWU gymnasts picked up EAGL awards this week. Senior Kendall Whitman earned the title of EAGL Gymnast of the Week for the third time this season while first-year Maya Peters earned her first EAGL Rookie of the Week honors.
Texas Woman’s is coming off a third place finish in a quad meet with No. 1 Oklahoma, Clemson and Penn. The Pioneers scored a 196.275 in front of a record crowd last Sunday, marking their second highest team score in program history.
TWU Senior Steelie King was named the Midwest Independent Conference Gymnast of the Week after competing in the vault, beam and floor lineups for the Pioneers.
LSU is 16-0-0 against Texas Woman’s and 6-0-0 on the road. The last time the two faced off was in 2020 at the TWU quad meet, where LSU finished on top with their score of 197.000.
Last Time On The Floor
The Tigers matched the program’s third highest score to defeat No. 9 Alabama by a final score of 198.325-197.325 last Friday night in the PMAC.
The squads score of 198.325 was the highest score recorded in a dual-meet against the Crimson Tide to mark the team’s eighth ranked victory on the year.
LSU finished the first rotation with a 49.450 on vault and took the early lead over Alabama, 49.450-49.200. The LSU bars squad matched their season-high score on the year and their third highest program score with a 49.650 in the second rotation to extend their lead to 99.100-98.425 at the halfway point in the PMAC.
The Tigers scored a 49.450 on beam as the team transitioned into the final event with the 148.550-147.825 lead.
Bryant found perfection in the final rotation with her third perfect score on floor and 14th in her career. Bryant now owns 14 perfect scores in her career, which ties for the eleventh-most in NCAA history.
The Tigers matched their floor record score for the third time this season as they closed out the final rotation with 49.775 on the floor to secure the win.
12,580 fans showed out to watch the Tigers defeat the Tide to record back-to-back sellouts in the PMAC, marking the third time in program history that LSU has seen two-sellouts in one season.
Bryant finished as the top performer on the night with a season-high 39.850, which is the second highest all-around score in school history. The senior also took home the titles on vault, bars and floor for her performance on the night.
Week Nine Road To Nationals Rankings
The Tigers are the No. 3 team in the country after earning their eighth ranked victory last Friday and enter the tenth week of competition with a National Qualifying Score (NQS) of 197.885. LSU’s five counting scores for NQS are 198.325, 198.300, 197.950, 197.625 and 197.225.
This week’s ranking marks the teams ninth-straight week in the top-5 nationally. LSU recorded their second-best score of the season last Friday night with their 198.325 performance to defeat No. 9 Alabama.
The Tigers score on the night was their fourth score of 198+ this year and matched the program’s third highest score.
LSU held onto their spot in the top-five on every event for the third consecutive week as well as recording their sixth consecutive week in the top-20.
The Tigers own an NQS of 49.445 (2) on vault, 49.475 (4) on bars, 49.440 (5) on beam and 49.665 (1) on floor. The top floor ranking marks the fifth time this season that LSU has taken the No. 1 spot on the event as the squad owns the highest floor score in the country so far this year.
The LSU floor squad posted their third score of 49.775 this year against Alabama on Friday, matching the program best score for the third time this year. The squad’s performance on the night improved LSU to their highest floor NQS in program history.
Five Tigers earned a spot in the rankings as Haleigh Bryant, Kiya Johnson, Aleah Finnegan, KJ Johnson and Konnor McClain all sit amongst the top-25 performers in the individual event rankings.
Bryant continues to be the top performer in the country as she ranks as the No. 1 gymnast in the country for the seventh consecutive week. The senior improved her NQS to 39.755 after finishing as the top performer in the Tigers last meet against Alabama and owns top-10 placements on every event.
Kiya Johnson remains one of the top-25 gymnasts in the country as she sits at No. 24 in the all-around with her NQS with 39.440. The fifth-year senior also held on to her spot in the individual rankings at No. 25 on vault and No. 20 on floor.
Finnegan and KJ Johnson placed amongst the top-20 floor performers in the week nine standings. The ranking marks Finnegan’s second week in the individual event rankings as she is third in the country on floor with her NQS of 9.955.
KJ Johnson posted a career high 9.975 on floor in the Tigers last meet to earn a spot in the rankings at No. 18.
McClain also earned a spot in the beam standings with her NQS of 9.940 to place her in eighth.
Bryant Earns Tenth Career SEC Honor
Haleigh Bryant was named the SEC Gymnast of the Week for the fifth time this season and 10th time in her career, announced by the league on Tuesday afternoon.
Bryant owns the most weekly awards in 2024 as she remains the No. 1 gymnast in the SEC and in the nation. The all-arounder has led the conference through all nine weeks of competition so far this year.
The senior was the top performer in the Tigers last meet and had a season best 39.850 performance to help lead LSU to victory over No. 9 Alabama. Her all-around score on the night was the second best in school history.
Bryant posted scores of 9.900 or higher on every event last Friday for the sixth time this year, including her third perfect score on floor and 14th in her career. In addition to her perfect score on floor, Bryant also recorded scores of 9.950 on vault, 9.975 on bars and 9.925 on beam against the Crimson Tide. She took home four titles on the night on vault, bars, floor and the all-around to move her career total to 78, which is sixth-most in program history.
Bryant’s titles on the night moved her individual event totals to 28 on vault, 12 on bars, eight on floor and 25 in the all-around. Her career titles in the all-around and on vault currently place her in second and third in LSU history, respectively.
A native of Cornelius, North Carolina, Bryant continues to be the top performer in the country as she ranks as the No. 1 gymnast in the country for the seventh consecutive week.
Bryant owns an NQS of 9.900 or higher on every event to place her amongst the top-25 performers on every event for the seventh consecutive week. She ranks second on vault, ninth on bars, ninth on beam and sixth on floor entering the tenth week of competition.
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 last year as they look to secure their spot in the championship again in 2024. 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 returned from injury last year, 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
Tiger fans can purchase tickets to the podium challenge on Ticketmaster using this link or without fees at the River Center Box Office.
Follow the Tigers
Stay up to date with all things LSU Gymnastics by following the team’s social media channels @LSUgym on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.