Susan Jackson Cruises, Look Back At Meet Three: Auburn

After scoring a season-high 195.650 on Friday night against Auburn, the LSU Gymnastics team starts this new week three spots higher in the national rankings. After spending consecutive weeks at #16, the Tigers check in at #13 this week. At this point in the season, national rankings are a rolling average of the team’s overall scores.

Senior All-American Susan Jackson continues to lead the nation in the individual all-around with a 39.475 average. That’s nearly a tenth better than Stanford’s Carly Janiga. Jackson ranks 7th nationally on the vault, 6th on bars, 22nd on balance beam and 10th on the floor exercise. She is a perfect 3 for 3 in the all-around so far.

In short, Susan Jackson is carrying LSU at this early point in the season. With only 9 healthy gymnasts in Friday’s march out, Head Coach D-D Breaux has taken the conservative approach towards many individual routines as the Tigers can ill-afford another injury. This is the correct strategy when considering the length of the season.

Many LSU gymnastics observers have noted the patient tone that Breaux has taken with her team so far this season. By her own admission, patience is not her greatest virtue. But her 33 years of experience is demonstrating itself – helping her to balance senior leadership, 4 key injuries causing thin line-ups and developing freshman talent all at the same time.

A Look Back At Lady Luck and Auburn

For those of you who have emailed after the Lady Luck Invitational in Las Vegas here’s the answer. Yes, the Tigers should’ve won the meet. With no disrespect to the other three teams, LSU had superior talent across the board. However, as happens in gymnastics, teams must be consistent across each apparatus to be successful.

On vault and bars in Las Vegas LSU looked unstoppable. The Tigers rolled to a 1.6 lead (that’s 16 tenths for you decimal lovers) at the half-way point of the meet. But LSU took its collective foot off the gas and lost concentration on the balance beam, counting a fall and two other shaky routines. The net result: lead cut in half heading into Rotation 4, floor exercise.

The first two performers on the floor were hit for major technical deductions (2 tenths each) effectively evaporating the Tigers’ lead in the meet. Meanwhile, credit Missouri and Kentucky for smelling blood in the water and not throwing in the towel earlier in the meet while LSU was well ahead.

Sunday was a travel day from the Pacific Time Zone and the new week brought the start of the spring semester. Auburn came into the Maravich Center on Friday night just a shade off two enormous upsets against archrival Alabama to open the season and then #1 Oklahoma.

The LSU Tigers showed tremendous character to bounce back from Las Vegas with a season high 195.650. Auburn, meanwhile, looked more like a team that needed a night off as those Tigers limped to a disappointing 193.900.

Shining in the Auburn meet were Susan Jackson (won/tied all 5 titles), Summer Hubbard (career high all around score of 39.100), Kayla Rogers (9.90 on floor to tie for the title), Gloria Johnson (tied for 3rd on balance beam after falling at Las Vegas), and Sabrina Franceschelli (solid 39.100 all around score).

Injury Report

Kaleigh Dickson (knee cap surgery) – will redshirt the 2010 season

Lainie Fleming (hand/wrist surgery) – out indefinitely

Ericka Garcia (eligibility issue) – debuts February 12 against Texas Woman’s in the Maravich Center

Janelle Garcia (sprained ankle) – day-to-day

Nikki Lyons (sprained ankle) – out three to four weeks

Look Ahead

Later this week we will have a complete look ahead at the Tigers first SEC road meet at Florida.