LSU gymnastics team is No. 2 in NCAA Regionals
BATON ROUGE — The LSU gymnastics team, the Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament champions, heads into the NCAA Regional with a regional qualifying score of 197.865 and the No. 2 ranking.
The Tigers’ RQS jumped almost a full tenth of a point after posting a team score of 198.075 for the third-best score in the history of the SEC meet. It was also tied for the fourth-highest score in school history.
Oklahoma owns the top spot in the RQS with a 198.010. The RQS is ascertained by taking a team’s top six scores — three of which must be from road/neutral meets — dropping the high score and averaging the remaining five scores.
LSU’s scores factored into the 197.865 RQS are the 198.075 at SEC Championships, 197.700 at Arkansas and GymQuarters, 197.975 vs. George Washington and Iowa, 198.150 vs. Florida and 197.875 vs. New Hampshire.
The Tigers’ 198.150 against Florida is dropped, and the remaining five scores averaged to a 197.865.
The vault squad, under assistant coach Bob Moore, continued its streak at No. 1 with an RQS of 49.540. The Tigers have set the top three vault scores in the country over the last two seasons with scores of 49.625, 49.600 and 49.575.
Senior Ashleigh Gnat is No. 1 in the nation on vault with an RQS of 9.970. Gnat owns three perfect 10.0 scores this season, and she is the only gymnast in the country to score a 9.90 or better on vault in every meet this season.
The Tigers also rank No. 2 on beam and floor with an RQS of 49.505 and 49.545, respectively. The bars squad owns the No. 3 spot nationally at 49.415. Individually, Gnat ranks No. 4 on floor and No. 8 on beam. Sophomore Sarah Finnegan also owns a top-five spot on beam at No. 4 with an RQS of 9.945.
At SEC Championships, five Tigers captured SEC Champions to tie the school record for a single meet.
Gnat won vault with a perfect 10, beam with a career-high 9.95 and floor with a 9.95. Sophomore Lexie Priessman won the program’s first SEC Championship on bars in more than 20 years with a 9.95. Fellow sophomore McKenna Kelley clinched LSU’s championship and the individual honor with a 9.95.
Road To Nationals
Top 25 — Week 11
Rank Team RQS
1. Oklahoma, 198.01
2. LSU, 197.865
3. Florida, 197.635
4. Utah , 97.55
5. UCLA, 197.5
6. Alabama, 197.355
7. Michigan, 197.135
8. Oregon State, 197.115
9. Denver, 197.04
10. Georgia, 197.005
11. Boise State, 196.91
12. Kentucky, 196.845
13. Washington, 196.735
14. Nebraska, 196.725
15. Missouri, 196.54
16. California, 196.515
17. Iowa, 196.51
18. Southern Utah, 196.38
19. Illinois-Champaign, 196.365
20. George Washington, 196.34
21. Auburn, 196.265
22. Eastern Michigan, 195.97
23. West Virginia, 195.92
24. Utah State, 195.915
25. Arizona, 195.88
LSU in the Individual
Top — 25 National Rankings
Myia Hambrick: 8th AA, 23rd BB, 10th FX
Gnat: 1st VT, 8th BB, 4th FX
Kennedi Edney: 12th VT, 18th UB
Sydney Ewing: 16th VT
Priessman: 7th UB
Finnegan: 4th BB
Erin Macadaeg: 23rd BB
Kelley: 15th FX