The LSU Tigers awoke this morning in the historic City of Athens, Georgia – the self-proclaimed epicenter of collegiate gymnastics. After an easy flight from Baton Rouge to Atlanta, the Tigers suffered through Atlanta rush hour traffic before arriving at the team’s Athens hotel around 8:00 p.m. Eastern last night.
The Tigers’ morning meeting, called “Power Circle” by Head Coach D-D Breaux, has just ended. Breaux’s motivational words of the day: confidence, attitude, swagger, and focus. And after two solid weeks of practice back home, LSU looks primed and ready to take on the Georgia GymDogs, winners of 5 consecutive national titles, tonight in Stegeman Coliseum.
A Word Of Thanks
Last week I was sidelined with the worst case of flu I have had in my life. Of course, the year I don’t get the flu shot and this happens. Many thanks to LSU SID Jake Terry and Ashleigh Clare-Kearney for stepping in to last week’s broadcast at Arkansas and doing a terrific job. This week’s blog will be a little longer than usual to make up for last week’s hiatus.
2010 Season Half Done
It’s truly hard to believe that the second half of the 2010 gymnastics season has begun. Two weeks ago, the LSU Tigers hosted Texas Woman’s in the Maravich Center and tied a season-best team score of 196.475. This matched the team’s score against Alabama a week prior. In the Texas Woman’s meet, LSU senior Susan Jackson took the all-around title – her sixth in a row to start 2010. This effort broke a 30 year-old school record.
Other big news out of the Texas Woman’s meet was the emergence of the LSU uneven bars team. The impressive 49.325 team score is second best in the SEC this season. The Tigers were led by junior Sam Engle who was nearly perfect with a 9.95 score.
Last week, the Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks battled to the last routine and ended in a 196.200 tie. The tie was the first in 10 years for LSU. The GymBack’s Casey Jo Magee edged out LSU’s Susan Jackson for the all-around title, ending Jackson’s run of titles at six. Jackson suffered a sub-par beam routine (9.75 score) but was able to notch a remarkable 39.425 all around score nonetheless.
Sabrina Franceschelli turned in a very nice performance for the Tigers in Fyetteville after suffering a leg injury the week of the Texas Woman’s meet. She turned in scores of 9.800, 9.775, and 9.850 on vault, bars and floor, respectively.
So, Where Are We?
As we enter the second half of the season, where are the Tigers as a team? In short, they are a team on the rise. The past three meets the Tigers have really begun to put it together. Back-to-back season high team scores of 196.475 coupled with a season-high road score of 196.200 have put the Tigers into the Top 10 nationally.
Also during the last three weeks, the Tigers have hit season high scores on bars (49.325) and beam (49.225), demonstrating the strong capabilities of this team on the two most technical events.
Freshman Ericka Garcia has made her long-awaited debut. But her entrance into the vault, bars, and beam line-ups has, so far, meant more to the team in practice than in the one meet she has appeared. Garcia’s presence as a potential scorer in each event has driven up the level of competition for those spots in practice. This, in turn, has helped the entire team raise its level of performance as demonstrated by the scores just described.
The rest of the regular season sets up very nicely for the Tigers to grow that all-important Regional Qualifying Score (RQS). After tonight’s meet, the Tigers have but one remaining regular season road meet at Centenary College, a place where LSU has traditionally racked up scores. The Tigers figure to score well at the two remaining home meets against Top 5 Oregon State and Iowa.
Moving On Up
The NCAA gymnastics rankings have completed the mid-season switch from team average to the RQS calculation. A quick reminder that the RQS is a compilation of six scores (three road scores and three home scores) with the highest of the six scores dropped. The remaining 5 are averaged to compute the RQS. The Tigers’ RQS of 195.745 is good enough to place LSU tenth nationally this week. Utah is 9th at 195.995.
In the team event rankings, LSU remained No. 11 on vault with a 49.065 average, jumped three spots to 9th on bars with a 48.960 average, remained ranked 13th on beam (48.685) but dropped six spots on floor to No. 16 (48.900).
Susan Jackson continues to lead the nation in the all-around. The senior from Spring, Texas continues to pace the field with a 49.525 RQS. She has been the model of consistency so far this season, scoring between 39.775 and 39.275 in the all-around. In the events, she is ranked second on vault (9.920) and bars (9.895). She is No. 11 on balance beam (9.845) and ninth on the floor (9.880).
Sam Engle is the other Tiger in the national rankings this week. The Plano, Texas native is ranked No. 19 on the uneven bars with a 9.840 RQS.
ESPN2 Broadcasting Tonight’s Meet
The World Wide Leader is in Athens to cover tonight’s meet. The air date for the meet is March 7 at 2:00 p.m. Central.
Tonight’s Probable Line-Ups
Bars
Sabrina Franceschelli
Shelby Prunty
Kayla Rogers
Sam Engle
Summer Hubbard
Susan Jackson
Ericka Garcia – exhibition
Vault
Kayla Rogers
Sabrina Franceschelli
Ashley Lee
Ericka Garcia
Gloria Johnson
Susan Jackson
Shelby Prunty – alternate
Floor
Kayla Rogers
Ashley Lee
Sabrina Franceschelli
Summer Hubbard
Sam Engle
Susan Jackson
Shelby Prunty – alternate
Beam
Shelby Prunty
Sabrina Franceschelli
Ericka Garcia
Summer Hubbard
Sam Engle
Susan Jackson
Kayla Rogers – exhibition
All-Around
Sabrina Franceschelli
Susan Jackson
Mike’s Eye On The Tigers
Here’s what I will be watching for tonight when LSU takes on Georgia:
- LSU’s upperclassmen have competed inside Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum numerous times in their careers. Look for the rowdy crowd and noisy environment to have little effect on these Tigers.
- The routines are in solid and in place. So, sticking landings will be key tonight. The Tigers can ill-afford to give back needed tenths unnecessarily. Watch for this very closely.
- Like LSU, Georgia has been on a roll of late hitting 197.000+ plus team scores in two of the last three meets. UCLA comes into town next week, so is this LSU meet one the GymDogs overlook?
- Susan Jackson and Sabrina Franceschelli may be the only two all-arounders in tonight’s meet. Georgia has been throwing a series of event specialists in each lineup and forgoing all-arounders of late.
- The Tigers have not beaten Georgia in a dual meet in Athens in 27 years. The events of this trip to north Georgia remind me of the last major LSU upset on the road– last season’s win in Tuscaloosa against Alabama. LSU has had two great weeks of preparation. I’m just saying…
With a capacity crowd in attendance tonight, the atmosphere should be electric for LSU and Georgia – two of last season’s Super Six teams. Don’t forget that our meet time tonight is 6:30 p.m. Central time. So join Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and myself as we call all the action for you live in the Geaux Zone on LSUSports.net beginning at 6:25 p.m.
Until next week, GEAUX TIGERS!
Mike
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